Emergency Operations Plan Research Paper

The United States has typically been a very resilient nation in times of disaster. In 2001, Al-Qaeda, an Islamic terrorist group, hijacked four commercial planes transporting passengers and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. The events of 9/11 killed about 3,000 people including hundreds of first responders at the World Trade Center in New York. In 2005, an estimated 2,000 people were killed when hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama. Even though one event was a natural disaster and one was a terrorist attack, the results were overwhelming and devastating. First responders and government officials thought they were prepared for these types of events but quickly learned they had a lot more planning to do in preparation for future disasters. The most important aspect of the United States emergency management system in preparing for, mitigating, and responding to man-made and natural disasters is having a
In order to achieve the goal, all local communities and states throughout the United States need to create an Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). The EOP will explain “who will do what, as well as when, with what resources, and by what authority--before, during, and immediately after an emergency” (FEMA, 1996). The Federal Emergency Management Agency created a six step guide to help communities and states create an EOP. The steps include forming a planning team, understanding the situation, determining goals or objectives, plan development, plan preparation and approval, and plan implementation (FEMA, 2010). The whole community (government officials, businesses, nonprofits, citizens, emergency responders, etc.) will need to be included when creating the