Brevard County Emergency Management Awarded Full Accreditation Status For Hurricane Matthew Efforts
By Space Coast Daily // November 15, 2016
Recognized for their efforts during Hurricane Matthew
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – The highest honor for emergency management, full accreditation status, has been awarded to Brevard County Emergency Management by the national Emergency Management Accreditation Program, in recognition of the department’s ability to bring together personnel, resources and communications from a variety of agencies and organizations in preparation and response to disasters.
The accreditation was granted in October, and announced earlier this month to the Brevard County Board of County Commissioners by Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Bryan Koon, who is also a commissioner of the Emergency Management Accreditation Program.
“The Emergency Management Accreditation Program is the official standard for emergency management programs across the country,” Koon said.
“It’s an extremely rigorous accreditation program and requires thousands of hours of work on the part of your Emergency Management team and other county agencies with whom they engage. It demonstrates proficiency in all facets of emergency management in preparedness, response, recovery and the mitigation phase. It demonstrated without a doubt you have the finest Emergency Management program you can have here in Brevard County.”
EMAP is a nationally recognized voluntary review process that demonstrates through self-assessment, documentation and peer review, that a program meets national standards for emergency management programs.
Six assessors evaluated 64 areas to find Brevard County in compliance. Brevard County officials attribute this prestigious accomplishment to the hard work and professionalism of the Emergency Management staff.
Koon also recognized that the Brevard County Emergency Operations Center activates more frequently than any other emergency operations center in the state, primarily due to the number of rocket launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The accreditation grant was awarded before prior to the last most recent EOC activation, which occurred for in response to Hurricane Matthew.
To achieve accreditation, applicants must demonstrate through self-assessment, documentation and peer assessment verification that a program meets the Emergency Management Standard.
The emergency management program uses the accreditation to prove the capabilities of their disaster preparedness and response systems.
Accreditation is valid for five years and the program must maintain compliance with the Emergency Management Standard and is reassessed to maintain accredited status.
Providing emergency management programs the opportunity to be evaluated and recognized for compliance with standards certified by the American National Standard Institute (ANSI) and recognized by the industry complies with the EMAP’s mission to build safer communities through credible standards of excellence.
These programs demonstrate accountability and focus attention on areas and issues where resources are needed to heighten their preparedness efforts to any technical or natural disaster that may affect their communities.
The Emergency Management Standard is flexible in design so that programs of differing sizes, populations, risks and resources can use it as a blueprint for improvement and can attain compliance with those standards in an accreditation process.
The accreditation process evaluates emergency management programs on compliance with requirements in sixteen areas, including: planning; resource management; training; exercises, evaluations, and corrective actions; communications and warning; and administration. This forms the foundation of the nation’s emergency preparedness system. EMAP is the only accreditation process for emergency management programs.
