State pushes emergency-response ordinances

PORTLAND – State officials are urging municipalities to develop local ordinances that detail who will be in charge at different stages during emergencies.

Without the ordinances, the towns and state may not qualify for federal grants for disaster preparedness, said Arthur Cleaves, director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency. Starting in 2007, homeland security funding will be available only to communities that have codified a chain of command and met training requirements in it.

“All our incidents happen at a local level. Somebody at the local level will be in charge of that incident,” Cleaves said. “Understanding that chain of command and who is in charge is essential in any emergency.”

State officials have been working with local communities for years on how police, firefighters and other first responders would respond to emergencies. But that training needs to reach others in city and town government, Cleaves said.

“We want to be sure to reach all of the public officials, beyond the first responders, who have not been trained at that level or in that detail,” Cleaves said.

Scarborough is one town that is cementing the lines of authority and responsibility when responding to a disaster. The new emergency management ordinance makes formal the practices the town has had in place for a long time, said Town Manager Ron Owens.

It is also forcing the town to examine its emergency response protocol and make sure all officials know their roles in an emergency.

The Department of Homeland Security has been promoting the federally accepted chain-of-command structure, called the National Incident Management System, since spring 2004. But it has taken on new urgency since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, and emergency responders were confused about who was in charge and who was responsible for what.

“Every community, I think, has questioned itself: ‘Would I do better than New Orleans did?'” Owens said. “One of the things which seemed to play such a major role there was everyone kind of went in their separate directions.”