You are the emergency manager for Plainsville, Colorado. (Draw details from the previously outlined scenario.) You have served as part of the mayor’s commission to consider the vulnerabilities of the rail line that runs through your community. The commission had just started considering the risks associated with poor track maintenance, plus the enormous potential consequences of a train derailment, when your state fusion center notified your office of the plans for terrorists to target rail lines where chemicals are routinely transported and where derailment could result in mass casualties (injury or death) and a sensational event designed to inspire fear. Because of the nature of the line in your city and what important manufacturing processes the chemicals in transit support, both state and national intelligence authorities have advised Plainsville’s leadership to create an annex to the community’s emergency operations plan (EOP) that specifically outlines a response to a train derailment involving a chemical spill.

Requirements

Your community is small, and the number of planners, their experience levels, and their expertise are all limited. Given this crucial task, you have decided to craft the annex yourself. 

• You are responsible for producing all components of the annex, which includes the following: 
  • Name the annex. 
  • Ensure that it is well organized and consistently formatted. 
  • It should be properly referenced where appropriate, and its content should be all-inclusive. 
  • Include a description of, and expectations for, the roles of all relevant partners (at least 10). 
  • Describe in writing the interagency collaboration process, network, relationships, and/or procedures that all responding partners should participate in during the prevent, respond, mitigate, and consequence management stages. 
  • Consult the National Incident Management System (NIMS), and reference it as appropriate when designing your annex. Your final product will likely be 7–10 pages. 

Templates

Because no single source for templates is prescribed, template and annex examples are available at the following links for guidance and assistance on creating your annex:

• Emergency Operations Plan Annex Template
• Emergency Support Function Annexes (examples, not templates)

Also, because this assignment involves a fictional city and EOP, you have several options for locating a sample EOP: 1) construct an annex drawing on NIMS guidance alone; 2) contact an emergency management office in a community near where you attend school or live and request their EOP or an annex excerpt to use as a sample; or 3) search online for a sample or an actual annex or EOP to serve as a template.

Please submit your assignment.

For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web resources, and all course materials.