Operational Plans

General Dwight D. Eisenhower once remarked, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” His observation is equally valid for civil emergencies. The point is that the provisions stated in written plans will always have to be adapted to the specific circumstances of a particular emergency, but the process of planning is important because it induces the planner to consider the elements and dynamics of emergencies and the choices among possible response strategies.

Planning to conduct and manage relief operations for civil contingencies, emergencies, and disasters is a complex process but one that could be characterized as “organized common sense.” Its main aim is to integrate emergency resources and ensure that they are used in the most practical and efficient way to solve the problems created by the emergency (for example, search and rescue, provision of medical care and shelter, damage limitation, and the maintenance of public safety).

Several elements are present in the emergency environment. One consists of the permanent emergency plans that different organizations and levels of government require. Another is the contingency planning that adapts the provisions of the permanent plan to the evolving reality of the emergency situation. In this context, one should distinguish between plans and procedures. Operational planning should not be designed to specify in detail the procedures to be used. For instance, the plan should not instruct police officers how to direct traffic or tell firefighters how to extinguish a blaze. It should instead explain how to use standard operating procedures in concert among many organizations during unusual and probably extreme circumstances. Hence, the plan is rather like the score of a symphony. Individual players have their own music (the procedures), but the overall effect must be one of harmony by synchronizing highly compatible contributions (the plan).

Planning is the opposite of improvisation. However, in reality the two concepts are not quite so antagonistic. Contingency planning conducted in the period before an emergency (when lead times and alerts are sufficient) is supplemented by short-term strategic and tactical planning during the emergency, which serves to adapt operations to the dynamic needs generated by the impact (Figure 1). This is a form of “bounded improvisation.” Nonetheless, although pure improvisation cannot be eliminated from the emergency response, largely because every crisis involves some unique elements, it should be reduced to a minimum. Failure to anticipate needs that can be foreseen in advance is tantamount to negligence. Hence, in large measure, improvisation can be equated with inefficiency, and inefficiency adds up to impacts that could be reduced or avoided. In synthesis, plans should regulate the use of procedures, including the standard operating procedures of particular organizations, and protocols, the “rules of engagement” to be adopted under particular circumstances.

Figure 1 Interaction between types of plans during the aftermath of a disaster

Emergency and operational planning are part of a hierarchy in the decision-making and organizational system known as civil protection or civil defense. At the top level, policies define the broad objectives of the system and are concerned [Page 690]with the prevention of casualties, the limitation of damage, and the avoidance or reduction of interruptions to normal activities. By identifying concrete actions to be taken, strategic planning aims to connect policies with the means of making them operational. Strategic planners concentrate on finding the resources to be used in foreseeable emergency situations. Tactical planners concentrate on how to distribute those resources to best effect. Operational planners try to look ahead of ongoing operations in order to ensure that the most efficient use is made of the available resources as these arrive at the scene. This is a supply-and-demand problem: when the crisis begins, there is a large, unfulfilled demand for resources (to save lives, evacuate people who are at risk, provide shelter and meals, and all the typical actions of emergency first responders), but the gradual accumulation of resources in the area redresses the balance in favor of supply. The speed, accuracy, and efficiency with which this occurs is a function of the quality of both prior and ongoing planning and management. In synthesis, one role of operational planning is to regulate the “convergence reaction” that usually occurs when emergency resources are sent to the scene of an incident or disaster.

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