In a chaotic situation, often the first few moments are filled with a dangerous desire to render assistance and a lack of knowledge of how to do it effectively. We've witnessed it often: government people don't all have the same radios, or even the same name for their equipment, and there is no clear line of command. That's why we have the National Incident Management System (NIMS). It's not simply a tome of regulation, it's an "operating system" for disaster response. This ensures that Whether it's a local multi-car accident or a monster hurricane, the government, NGOs and private businesses all speak the same language. The 2017 edition went even further to cut through the nerdy blather and concentrate on what works: lessons learned from the past two decades.
Is NIMS the Secret Code for Global Crisis Management? A Technical Guide to the National Response Architecture
A detailed examination of how NIMS ensures the "chaos of the first hour" is covered by a uniformed command and resource-typing system across the entire community.
The Three Principles of Incident Management
Incident management tries to balance being too structured or too unstructured. To address this, NIMS uses a "Sacred Trinity" of principles: Flexibility, Standardization, and Unity of Effort. Flexibility is the most important; it lets the system adapt to the variety of responses, from a local response to a federal national response. Standardization is the "nosebleed" part that makes it work by forcing everyone to use the same job descriptions and organizational structures, so that an officer from NYPD can step into a command center in CA and know that whoever is the Commander for Logistics is who has primary responsibility for Logistics. Finally, Unity of Effort ensures that while every government agency will maintain its own legal jurisdiction, they don't step or stumble over each other on the way to accomplish the same goal.
In the NIMS lexicon, all activities in the chaos of the moment must conform to these three paladin virtues, in this priority order:
Life Safety: Property and environment take a back seat to people.
Incident Stabilization: Won't be able to clean up until the fire's out.
Environmental/Property Protection: Saving the economy and environment from flooding
Mobilizing the Power of One: Resource Management and Mutual Aid
If you can't count it you can't manage it. NIMS remedies the "who has what" issue by Resource Typing. Rather than asking for "help", a code is used for resources (equipment, personnel, etc.) corresponding to its actual capabilities. If you need a "Type 1" heli, you know how much weight it can lift. This is demonstrated by Credentialing, which is in a sense, an ID system. It tells us that the "expert" just arrived really knows what he or she is supposed to know. Software such as IRIS (a free, FEMA-backed system) is essentially the IT infrastructure that enables local towns to "pool" their inventories with the National Mutual Aid System (NMAS). It converts individual, small fire departments into a gigantic ambulance.
The Command Architecture: Field to Policy
NIMS is brilliant for its ability to separate "doing" from "planning". On the first line, you've got the Incident Command System (ICS), which is the tactics part (putting out the fire, keeping traffic flowing). Above it there's the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), which does the "heavy lifting" - getting more plastic sheeting and crunching numbers so the people on the ground don't have to. In cases where "the stakes are high" (political backing or multiple events) the MAC Groups (Multiagency Coordination) act as the "referee" to decide which city gets the last of the generators. The Joint Information System (JIS) makes sure everyone talks the same way to the public so they don't get too scared and start spreading rumors that can pop up during a black-out or hurricane.
To have a good response, the communication equipment must "stress-test":
Interoperability: Phones and computers that connect with each other.
Resilience: Radios and networks that function without the cell towers.
Redundancy: Systems that always have a "Plan B" (and C).
Security: Managing confidential tactical information to stop it falling into the wrong hands.
Engineering Competence: Training and Compliance = Readiness
It takes competent folks to man the machine. To ensure there are no weak links, NIMS has a "Core Curriculum". First you have to learn the basics: IS-700 and IS-100, required for almost everybody in the system. For the top echelons of leadership, things get more challenging with the ICS-300 and ICS-400 for serious, multi-day events. Even the local and state politicians do some training; ICS-402 for mayors and governors to teach them how to assist the tactical response while not interfering. It's not just a good idea; it's finances. A state that fails to meet NIMS goals doesn't get federal funding for its preparedness. It's the carrot-and-stick approach that's making sure all states are singing from the same hymnbook.
NIMS is about setting aside the ego and "my side of the street" that often costs lives in an emergency. The changes in 2017 showed that it can't be frozen in time and that it's evolving from the lessons of every fire, every flood, and every exercise. For the New York State Division of Homeland Security and other agencies, NIMS is the only way to operationalize the "Whole Community" concept. It's a minor inconvenience, for the sake of clarity when time and lives hang in the balance. In disaster management, being "organized" can be a life and death decision factor.
