BCEMP cheat sheet

National doctrine organizes preparedness into five mission areas: prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery.

The emergency management cycle has four phases - mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery - with mitigation and preparedness preceding an event and recovery overlapping with mitigation.

All-hazards planning builds a single set of common capabilities applicable across hazards instead of a separate plan for each hazard.

The Stafford Act authorizes presidential emergency and major disaster declarations and funds Public Assistance (categories A through G) and Individual Assistance programs.

The Posse Comitatus Act restricts federal military involvement in domestic law enforcement unless expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress.

The National Preparedness Goal defines 32 core capabilities distributed across the five mission areas and is the reference for capability targets.

The National Response Framework organizes federal support through Emergency Support Functions, each with a designated coordinating agency and primary agencies.

Authority is layered: local governments act first, states exercise police powers and coordinate statewide, and the federal government provides support upon request or declaration.

Resilience is the capacity to anticipate, absorb, adapt to, and recover from disruption while maintaining essential functions.

A common risk formulation is Risk = Threat (likelihood) × Vulnerability × Consequence; changing any factor changes the risk score proportionally.

THIRA follows four steps: identify threats and hazards, give them context, establish capability targets, and apply the results to planning.

A hazard profile documents frequency, magnitude, duration, seasonal pattern, warning time, and secondary hazards for each identified hazard.

A business impact analysis produces essential functions, recovery time objectives, maximum tolerable downtime, dependencies, and time-phased impact curves.

Decision rule: if the required recovery time objective exceeds the maximum tolerable downtime, additional mitigation or an alternate strategy is mandatory.

Annualized loss expectancy (ALE) = single loss expectancy × annualized rate of occurrence.

A 100-year return period corresponds to roughly a 1 percent annual exceedance probability; a 500-year event to 0.2 percent per year.

Risk treatment options are eliminate the hazard, reduce likelihood, reduce vulnerability, reduce consequence, transfer, or accept with documented authority.

ISO 31000 sequence: establish context, identify, analyze, evaluate, treat, then monitor/review with continual communication and consultation.

CPG 101 planning steps: form a collaborative team, understand the situation, determine goals and objectives, develop the plan, prepare/review/approve, then implement and maintain.

The plan hierarchy runs strategic (emergency operations plan) to operational (functional and hazard-specific annexes, standard operating procedures) to tactical (incident action plan).

HSEEP divides exercises into discussion-based (seminar, workshop, tabletop, game) and operations-based (drill, functional, full-scale).

Exercise design should progress from discussion-based to operations-based and validate objectives carried forward from prior after-action reports.

The after-action report and improvement plan must assign each corrective action an owner, a due date, and a validation method.

POETE - planning, organization, equipment, training, and exercises - defines the elements used to build and sustain a capability.

The Emergency Management Assistance Compact is the interstate mutual aid compact; intrastate mutual aid is governed by state statute and local agreements.

NIMS resource typing describes resources by capability and type (for example Type I through IV teams) so orders use a common language.

The preparedness cycle is plan, organize/train/equip, exercise, evaluate and improve, then revise the plan.

ICS has five functions: Command, Operations, Planning, Logistics, and Finance/Administration.

Command staff positions are the Public Information Officer, Safety Officer, and Liaison Officer; they serve the Incident Commander without an operational chain.

Span of control is 3 to 7 subordinates per supervisor, with 5 considered optimal.

Unified command is used when multiple agencies hold jurisdictional or functional authority; the result is one set of objectives and one incident action plan.

Operational periods are typically 12 or 24 hours; a written incident action plan is required for planned events and for multi-jurisdictional or multi-agency incidents.

The emergency operations center performs multi-agency coordination, priority setting, and resource allocation; it does not command on-scene tactical operations.

Transfer of command requires a briefing covering situation, objectives, organization, resources, and safety, plus notification to all affected parties.

All resources must check in and be accounted for before assignment; demobilization planning begins at incident start and a written demobilization plan is used on large incidents.

Key ICS forms include 201 (incident briefing), 202 (objectives), 203 (organization), 204 (assignment), 205 (communications), 206 (medical plan), and 214 (activity log).

The National Disaster Recovery Framework uses six Recovery Support Functions: community planning and capacity building, economic, health and social services, housing, infrastructure systems, and natural and cultural resources.

Recovery doctrine is locally led, state managed, and federally supported, with pre-disaster recovery planning as a core recommendation.

Continuity planning identifies essential functions through business impact analysis; recovery time objectives must fall inside the maximum tolerable downtime.

Core continuity plan elements include essential functions, orders of succession, delegations of authority, continuity facilities, continuity communications, essential records, human capital, tests/training/exercises, devolution, and reconstitution.

Devolution is triggered by loss of a facility, unavailability of key personnel, or loss of communications or systems supporting essential functions.

Reconstitution phases are planning, activating alternate operations, transition, validation of restored capabilities, and return to normal operations.

Recovery phases run short term (days to weeks), intermediate (weeks to months), and long term (months to years), with coordination shifting from response structures to recovery structures.

Individual Assistance addresses essential needs and does not restore survivors to pre-disaster condition; unmet needs are addressed through case management and voluntary organizations.

Insurance proceeds, public assistance, and mitigation grants are sequenced so that other funding does not duplicate insured losses.

The program lifecycle is assess, plan, implement, evaluate, and improve, with performance measures tracking both outputs and outcomes.

Federal grant administration follows 2 CFR 200 for allowable costs, procurement standards, and documentation; the single audit threshold is $1,000,000 in federal expenditures for fiscal years beginning on or after October 1, 2024.

Cost share rules: Public Assistance is typically a 75 percent federal share with a 25 percent non-federal share, and the non-federal share may be met with in-kind contributions when permitted.

EMAP accreditation is voluntary, standards-based, peer-reviewed, valid for five years, and requires annual reports plus a continuous improvement process.

NFPA 1600, consolidated into NFPA 1660, specifies program elements for continuity, emergency, and crisis management including risk assessment, planning, training, and exercises.

Ethical practice requires disclosing conflicts of interest and recusing from related decisions, refusing gifts that could influence judgment, and applying criteria consistently across applicants.

Procurement requires full and open competition, documented cost or price analysis, and prohibits cost-plus-a-percentage-of-cost contracts.

Corrective actions from after-action reports are tracked to closure and verified through subsequent exercises or real-world performance.