Operations Plan is a procedural document designed to organize, coordinate, and direct available resources towards managing an emergency. This plan includes a chain of command that establishes the authority and responsibility of several people. Its purpose is to provide clear guidelines that detail the appropriate response to disaster and crisis situations, with the goal of limiting the loss of life and property in the event of an emergency or crisis that affects the operations of the University of Southern Shreveport. These procedures apply to all University staff and properties owned or leased by Southern University Shreveport.
In the event of major storms or other crises, the City activates its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to direct the activities of municipal departments and coordinate them with parish, state, and federal agencies. The University Incident Commander will review the circumstances of the emergency with the Emergency Operations Group and determine the appropriate response. To ensure safety, the Shreveport Southern University Emergency Operational Plan has specific action plans for listed emergencies and other common emergencies. The primary responsibility for monitoring threats and emergency events lies with the University Police Department.
Federal officials could have improved the identification of environmental hazards and communication of appropriate warnings to first responders and the general public. The response guided by the PNR did not take into account the need to coordinate efforts to protect and restore critical infrastructure in all Emergency Support Functions (ESF). To this end, the SUSLA Police Department will ensure that all response personnel clearly understand their responsibilities assigned in a disaster situation and their roles in relation to other EOP entities. The UPD will also train and provide documentation on emergency notifications to individuals and departments that help carry out the Emergency Operations Plan.
Based on information obtained from relevant entities, the incident commander will initially declare the level of emergency and may activate parts of the emergency operations plan to control the situation. The Shreveport Southern University Police Department is responsible for coordinating preparation and ongoing updating of the Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) and its compatibility with those of federal, state, and local agencies. This emergency call system will be designed to notify only people who need to respond to a specific emergency. Emergency Support Function 6 (ESF), annex to the NRP, assigns responsibility for providing emergency human services to FEMA.
The Departments of Homeland Security and Defense should jointly plan Department of Defense's support to federal response activities, as well as extraordinary circumstances where it is appropriate for DOD to direct federal response. The University will cooperate with federal, state, and local emergency management agencies and other response teams in developing, implementing, and executing their emergency response plans. Soon after Katrina made landfall, state and local authorities understood that devastation was severe but lacked ability to communicate with each other due to destruction of infrastructure and response capacities. The federal response to Hurricane Katrina demonstrates that Department of Defense (DOD) has capacity to play a critical role in nation's response to catastrophic events.
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