Emergency planning

Abstract

Emergency or contingency planning is the activity aimed at preparing all concerned organizations to face a given crisis when an accident or a natural extreme occurs in a given area, provoking victims, damage, and various degrees of disruption of everyday life. Emergency planning is fundamentally a multidisciplinary activity, requiring the active participation and contribution of several experts and particularly of those stakeholders who will have the responsibility to implement the plan. Emergency plans should constitute a valid reference for action and intervention in case of a natural disaster for all agencies and forces implied in emergency management and in search and rescue activities. It must respond to apparently two contradictory requirements: be the basis of standardization on the one hand (for all those tasks and procedures that have to be carried out more frequently and repeated in almost all contingencies) and create the condition for good improvisation and collaboration on the other. Such a balance is needed as emergency plans have to be used not only to tackle “usual” contingencies but also “exceptional” threats and conditions, typically associated with crisis management. Therefore emergency planning should not focus only on the expected product (the contingency plan) but rather be viewed as a process aimed at finding solutions and creating the conditions for negotiating and renegotiating tasks and use of available resources in case of need, whenever surprises challenge the most standardized procedures.