Other Emergency Mangement Programs
Record of Elderly and Handicapped
The City has minimal records or information on our elderly and handicapped citizens who will need emergency evacuation and sheltering assistance. An estimated 19,000 Newport News citizens potentially could require special assistance during time of major disaster situations.
Emergency Management has initiated an and maintains an “automated medical special needs” tracking system. However, this is a time-intensive program that requires support for activities such as a questionnaire development, mailing and data entry.
Public Information
The OEM Staff uses media, public presentations, and brochures to educate people in disaster planning and protective measures. The City Manager has approved an additional OEM office position that will allow a more aggressive and comprehensive outreach program. This manpower need was identified in our previous report.
OEM provides emergency preparedness information to the public and to the media during City declared major emergencies. The Emergency Information Center (EIC) is staffed during major emergencies to provide a central, coordinated point of contact for the public. Additional manpower is needed to provide adequate services for this strategic system.
Training and Exercises
OEM coordinates and conducts a training program utilizing local, State, Federal, and private training courses. The training program is published in the EOP addressing, and focuses on emergency training needs for City staff. The City participates in several major exercises each year, including national hurricane exercises and the annual Surry Nuclear Power Station exercise.
Emergency Management Programs
Emergency Management has developed several major programs designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of disaster operations. These programs include Special Needs, Debris Management, Emergency Notification, Emergency On-Scene Response, Regional Mutual Aid, Emergency Communications and Public/Private Partnerships.
As the City’s Office that is tasked to ensure compliance with the National Incident Management system the OEM staff not only serves as the central point of contact responsible to tracking and reporting on the Department of Homeland Security Grant program but ensures compliance with associated mandates. In coordination with the Commonwealth of Virginia we provide City agencies with the guidance for mandatory training requirements, provide training, training opportunities, coordinate, participate in necessary exercises to insure effective planning and training has been accomplished. All City agencies tasked with emergency response or support of emergency response operations are required to meet training requirements. This includes City Council all the way down to the worker in the field. Virtually all City Departments in the City will be required to meet the training and planning requirements for the NIMS program.
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