Lending FEMA a Hand as FEMA and the U.S. Reach Out to Haiti

Return to March 1 issue of On Scene

IAFC On Scene: March 1, 2010

In the early afternoon hours of Friday, January 15, the IAFC received a phone call from U.S. Fire Administrator Chief Kelvin Cochran requesting assistance from the IAFC’s newly created go-teams program. Help was needed in support of operations at FEMA’s National Response Coordination Center (NRCC).

The go-team concept and mission is to create teams of highly skilled and equipped chief officers who will work with peers, allied agencies and elected officials at any level of government to help in the organizational response and recovery after significant emergencies, disasters or catastrophes. The plan over the next couple of years is to create two-person go-teams in each of the 10 national FEMA regions so they can be quickly mobilized when requested. To learn more, see Go Teams: When Things Are at Their Worst, the IAFC Sends Its Best in the November 15, 2009, issue.

In response to the Haitian earthquake, the NRCC was fully activated and staffed with personnel of multiple federal government departments and agencies. Within the first 48 hours of operations, senior leaders within FEMA realized an international response posed unique challenges and the NRCC couldn’t operate effectively if it continued to follow plans and procedures developed for responding to a domestic event.

In response to a significant domestic event, the NRCC supports the needs of the responders in the field. In this capacity the NRCC and its personnel aren’t typically responsible for managing the response. Operational objectives, strategies and tactics are almost always left to the Incident Commander or Unified Command.

The NRCC is an operational component of the National Operations Center. The NRCC provides overall emergency management coordination, conducts operational planning, deploys national-level entities and collects and disseminates incident information as it builds and maintains a common operating picture.

During the response to the catastrophic Haitian earthquake, the NRCC was put into a position where they needed to make some operational decisions and develop a plan. The IAFC was asked to help the NRCC leadership with implementing the incident command system within the coordination center and the creation of incident action plans (IAP).

The IAFC’s go-team project was still in the recruitment phase and no team members had been selected at the time of Chief Cochran’s call. However, the IAFC has experienced staff and members who could support operations at the NRCC.

To ensure a coordinated response between FEMA, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the State Department and the White House, incident action planning was mandatory. The IAP would guide all response activities and provide concise, coherent means of capturing and communicating the overall incident priorities, objectives, strategies and tactics in the context of both operational and support activities. 

The IAFC, with assistance from the National Capital Region Incident Management Team, provided 24-hour-a-day subject-matter expertise to the NRCC from January 16 through January 25. The IAFC and its member’s appreciated the opportunity to lend FEMA and the Haitian people a helping hand during this terrible and challenging time.

Todd Clist is the program manager for the IAFC’s Fire Service Intrastate Mutual Aid System Program.

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