Oklahoma City Bombing
The Initial Incident Response
ithin minutes of the blast, a massive search-and-rescue effort commenced that included fire, emergency, medical, and law enforcement personnel, as well as a large number of citizens. Citizens and emergency personnel joined together and entered the bombed structure, forming human chains to locate and remove trapped survivors and victims. In fact, throughout this rescue effort, the large outpouring of citizens and agency volunteers astonished veteran rescue workers.
The strong State and Federal Government presence in Oklahoma City helped the response-and-rescue effort. For example, immediately following the explosion, the Oklahoma City Fire Department set up an Incident Command System (ICS) to manage the intensive search-and-rescue mission and massive influx of federal, state, local, and voluntary agency resources (Oklahoma Department of Civil Emergency Management, 1996). Also, working together, the local police department, the county sheriff, and state and federal agencies handled traffic and security. By 9:25 a.m., 23 minutes after the blast, the State Emergency Operations Center was operational and included representatives from the state departments of public safety, human services, military, health, and education. Soon joining these agencies were the National Weather Service, the Civil Air Patrol, and the American Red Cross (ARC).
Within an hour and a half of the bombing, President Clinton announced the signing of Emergency Declaration FEMA-3113-EM-OK under title V provisions of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act [PL 93-288]. This signing and declaration of emergency gave the Federal Government primary responsibility to respond to the disaster and authorized full reimbursement for all eligible response missions performed by state and local government.
President Clinton's declaration that Oklahoma City was a federal disaster area automatically triggered ARC to act as the lead agency in
ithin minutes of the blast, a massive search-and-rescue effort commenced that included fire, emergency, medical, and law enforcement personnel, as well as a large number of citizens. Citizens and emergency personnel joined together and entered the bombed structure, forming human chains to locate and remove trapped survivors and victims. In fact, throughout this rescue effort, the large outpouring of citizens and agency volunteers astonished veteran rescue workers.
The strong State and Federal Government presence in Oklahoma City helped the response-and-rescue effort. For example, immediately following the explosion, the Oklahoma City Fire Department set up an Incident Command System (ICS) to manage the intensive search-and-rescue mission and massive influx of federal, state, local, and voluntary agency resources (Oklahoma Department of Civil Emergency Management, 1996). Also, working together, the local police department, the county sheriff, and state and federal agencies handled traffic and security. By 9:25 a.m., 23 minutes after the blast, the State Emergency Operations Center was operational and included representatives from the state departments of public safety, human services, military, health, and education. Soon joining these agencies were the National Weather Service, the Civil Air Patrol, and the American Red Cross (ARC).
Within an hour and a half of the bombing, President Clinton announced the signing of Emergency Declaration FEMA-3113-EM-OK under title V provisions of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act [PL 93-288]. This signing and declaration of emergency gave the Federal Government primary responsibility to respond to the disaster and authorized full reimbursement for all eligible response missions performed by state and local government.
President Clinton's declaration that Oklahoma City was a federal disaster area automatically triggered ARC to act as the lead agency in