Emergency Operation Plan: Declaration of Emergency or Disaster

Declaration of Emergency

In the event of any emergency, the UPD supervisor/senior officer in charge shall follow UPD standard operating procedures. If the emergency warrants, the supervisor/senior officer shall communicate immediately with the Chief of Police or designee, and depending on the magnitude of the incident, the Chief or designee should communicate with the Emergency Management Coordinator (EMC) or designee. After reviewing the emergency situation, a decision will be made by the Chief of Police or his/her designee in conjunction with the EMC or designee as to the classification of the incident and also which members of the Emergency Operation Team should be contacted.

Full plan activation begins at the discretion of the President, Vice President for Finance and Administration, Emergency Management Coordinator, Chief of Police, or the appropriate designee of each, upon the receipt of information of an emergency event or credible threat. In the case of any type of campus or declared local, state or federal emergency, a collective decision will be made by the Chief of Police, President, Vice President for Finance and Administration and Emergency Management Coordinator as to the course of action. The Incident Commander is established at this time.

  • The Incident Commander is the individual responsible for the command and control of all aspects of the emergency response. The Incident Commander must be able to quickly assess an emergency situation, determine the level of impact, assess the effect, contain the incident and assign the proper resources. The role of Incident Commander may be delegated through the Chief of Police, Emergency Management Coordinator, or Local Responding Agencies, depending on the emergency.
  • A Declaration of Emergency can be authorized verbally or by documented instructions.

It is important to note a Declaration of Emergency constitutes the following:

  • The response will follow the operating and organization guidelines of the National Incident Management System.
  • All ETAMU response teams activated will operate under the National Incident Management System guidelines.
  • If the incident spans multiple days or is complex in nature, an Incident Action Plan will be developed. Implementation of the Incident Action Plan will be directed by the Incident Commander.
    • For declared emergencies that do not have an Incident Action Plan initiated, an executive summary will be created for situational response and documentation.
  • An After-Action Report/Debrief will be conducted.

Declaration of Disaster

The President of the university may declare a campus state of disaster. The effect of the declaration is to activate the recovery and reconstitution aspects of the plan and to authorize furnishing aid and assistance. When the scope of the emergency exceeds local capability to respond, outside assistance is required from neighboring jurisdictions and the state government. The following guidelines apply if outside assistance is needed:

  • East Texas A&M University has the responsibility for emergency disaster operations within its jurisdiction. Other local government agencies responding to a request for assistance will normally be under the direction and control of the University.
  • Whenever a large-scale emergency occurs within any of the emergency management cooperating jurisdictions and it is determined necessary that all resources in the county area are required, a joint university/cities/counties operation is initiated.
  • The services of the Hunt County and City of Commerce Emergency Management Coordinator will normally be available to each political subdivision, whether the disaster is localized or countywide. He/she may serve as advisor to either: city mayor, county judge, Texas A&MUniversity-Commerce EOT, or other local government agency upon request and will function in an advisory or other role, on staff in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) or Emergency Control Center (ECC), if requested.
  • If local resources are inadequate to deal with an emergency situation, we will request assistance from the State. State assistance furnished to ETAMU is intended to supplement local resources and not substitute for such resources, including mutual aid resources, equipment purchases or leases, or resources covered by emergency service contracts. State assistance is requested only after local, city, and county resources have been exhausted. This request is made by the Texas A&M Universities Emergency Management Director.
  • Requests for state assistance should be made to the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM), beginning with the TDEM District Coordinator. A request for state assistance must be made by the Emergency Management Director of ETAMU. TDEM has the authority to utilize all state resources within the district to respond to a request for assistance, with the exception of the National Guard. Use of National Guard resources requires approval of the Governor.
  • The Disaster District staff will forward requests for assistance that cannot be satisfied by state resources within the District to the State Operations Center (SOC) in Austin for action.

The university assumes no liability for injury or death of volunteers in the performance of their duties as volunteers except that, which is imposed by State Law. University employees assigned to duty as part of the guidelines for emergency operations shall retain all the rights, privileges, and immunities of university employees.

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