Emergency Plan

Part 1: Introduction to the Emergency Operations Plan

Per Executive Order 1013,  [dated 9/7/07] the Chancellor of the California State University (CSU) delegates responsibility to each CSU president to establish an emergency program on their campus and to carry out appropriate activities in support of emergency preparedness. The university President establishes the basic policies that govern the emergency management response, declares a campus emergency when required, and acts as the highest level of authority during an emergency. The university President delegates responsibility to the Vice President for Business and Financial Affairs, who is designated as the Emergency Operations Executive/Incident Commander (EOE/IC) or his/her designee. The Emergency Operations Plan (the Plan), and the command of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) are under the executive management of the Vice President for Business and Financial Affairs, who delegates functional responsibility to the operations, planning, logistics and finance coordinators to carry out their responsibilities in the EOC.

The Plan is established as a supplement to the administrative policies, procedures and practices followed during normal university operations. When implemented, it serves as the San Diego State University emergency operations plan, setting forth the authorities and policies for activation, personnel emergency assignments and operational procedures.

A. Plan Goals and Objectives

The major goals of the Plan are the preservation of life, the protection of property and continuity of academic and business operations.

The overall objective is to ensure the effective management of emergency efforts involved in preparing for and responding to situations associated with emergencies. Specifically this will include:

• Overall managing and coordinating of emergency operations includes on-scene incident management;
• Coordinating or maintaining liaison with appropriate federal, state, and other local governmental agencies and appropriate private sector organizations;
• Requesting and allocating resources and other related support,
• Establishing priorities, and adjudicating conflicting demands for support;
• Coordinating inter-jurisdictional mutual aid;
• Activating and using communication systems,
• Preparing and disseminating emergency public information;
• Disseminating community warnings and alerts;
• Managing the movement and reception of persons in the event an evacuation is ordered;
• Collecting, evaluating and disseminating damage information and other essential data;
• Responding to requests for resources and other support,
• Restoring essential services.

B. Plan Format

The format is intended to require minimal time to find guidelines, procedures and supplemental information, once the reader is familiar with the document. This allows for immediate use when required during an emergency.

The format is also intended to be "response ready." Users are to utilize the checklists contained in this document when participating in drills, exercises, or in actual events. The completed forms are then kept on file, as official records of the emergency response.

Users are encouraged to supplement the Plan with additional materials in order to have complete information for an emergency.

C. Plan Maintenance and Update

The SDSU Emergency Plan is designed for efficient update and additions. It is assigned to the Emergency Planning Team (EPT) for ongoing updates and maintenance. The EPT reviews the plan monthly and suggests revisions when necessary. Revisions are implemented by the Captain, Public Safety on an as-needed basis. In addition, the Emergency Planning Coordinator will conduct a thorough annual review of the following items:

• SDSU Emergency Response Assignments
• Personnel Directory

These sections are to be updated and distributed every year, or more often when there are significant changes.

This plan is a management plan and it supports and is integrated with site operations. The sections of the plan addressing site procedures can be easily updated with minor modifications when there are changes to the SDSU organization, systems and/or new functional positions are added. It does not need to be updated each time site procedures change.

Individuals with emergency assignments are to review their procedures and related information after every activation of the plan, whether simulated drill or actual response. Individual checklists are then to be revised as needed. If additional pages are added, they will only affect the "Part" they are in. The Parts are separate sections and can easily be updated and reprinted as changes occur. Additionally, individual users are encouraged to add supplemental materials to their checklists to create complete "response ready" documents.

The checklists are designed to be used as worksheets. New and revised checklists can be reprinted after each activation.

D. Level of Emergency Determines Response

The university's partial or total response to an emergency situation will be dictated by the type and magnitude of the emergency. Generally, response to a major emergency will progress from local, to regional, to state, to federal involvement.

For planning purposes, the university has established three levels of response to emergencies, which are based on the severity of the situation and the availability of campus resources:

• Level 1
  A minor to moderate incident wherein campus resources are adequate and available.
  
  
• Level 2
  A moderate to severe emergency wherein campus resources may not be adequate and mutual aid may be required on a larger basis. An EMERGENCY will be proclaimed and a STATE OF EMERGENCY might be proclaimed.
  
  
• Level 3
  A major disaster wherein resources in or near the impacted area are overwhelmed and extensive city, county, state and/or federal resources are required. The university president will proclaim a STATE OF EMERGENCY.

The Plan provides for a full emergency response by the university for an incident. However, only those sections of the response organization that are required to address the situation at the time are activated. For example, a Level One disaster occurring on campus would require minimal activation of the plan, where more serious situations would require increased activation.