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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued the NIMS (National Incident Management System) in response to Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5 (HSPD-5). The NIMS provides a consistent nationwide approach for Federal, state, tribal, and local governments to work effectively and efficiently together to prepare for, prevent, respond to, and recover from domestic incidents, regardless of cause, size, or complexity. This nationwide unity of effort hinges on a shared understanding of what NIMS implementation entails.
What Does NIMS Mean to You?
If you are part of any government, i.e., village, city, town, county, state, or first responder agency you are required to complete certain actions and training to be NIMS compliant. Recipients/subrecipients of FEMA preparedness grants must achieve, or be actively working to achieve, all of the NIMS Implementation Objectives.
Training is a major component of NIMS compliance. Municipal leaders, government employees and first responders have to complete courses to become NIMS compliant. Of particular importance is Incident Command System (ICS) training. There are many Independent Study (IS) courses that you can take on-line through FEMA's website. Click here to go to the NIMS Training page at FEMA to find more information on what courses are required and where you can take them.
Additionally, WI Emergency Management offers training throughout the state for higher level ICS (300 and 400) and related trainings. Go to WEM's training portal for more information,
Why is NIMS Important?
In a nutshell, when disaster strikes it puts everybody on the same page. When NIMS is fully implemented, states and local jurisdictions will be able to:- Ensure common and proven incident management doctrine, practices and principles are used to plan for, protect against, respond to and recover from emergency incidents and preplanned events.
- Maintain a response operation capable of expanding and contracting to meet incident needs.
- Order and track response assets using common resource typing and definitions, and draw on mutual aid agreements for additional assistance.
- Establish staging and allocation plans for the re-distribution of equipment, supplies and aid coming into the area from other localities, states or the federal government through mutual aid agreements.
- Conduct situational assessments and establish the appropriate ICS organizational structure to effectively manage the incident.
- Establish communication processes, procedures and protocols that will ensure effective interoperable communications among emergency responders, 9-1-1 centers and multi-agency coordination systems such as Emergency Operations Centers (EOC).
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