Emergency Management

The Office of Emergency Management (OEM) provides a comprehensive all-hazard emergency management program in partnership with City departments, staff, administration, neighboring jurisdictions, and non-governmental organizations in order to save lives, protect property, and safeguard the environment.

This is accomplished through:

  • Planning - Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) and Annexes, Hazard Mitigation Plan, Incident Action Plans, and Event Action Plans
  • Training - Functional Responsibilities in the EOP and Annexes, National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Incident Command System (ICS)
  • Exercising - Discussion- and Operations- Based Exercises
  • Coordinating - Locally, county-wide, region-wide, and state-wide
  • Outreach - Disaster Preparation and Prevention

Emergency Management Responsibilities

The Emergency Management Coordinator (EMC) is responsible for coordinating all the components of the emergency management system in the city. These components consist of fire, police, civil defense effort, emergency medical service, public works, volunteers, and other groups contributing to the management of major emergencies or disasters. The EMC performs and exercises other such functions as are necessary to promote and secure public safety and protection within the territorial limits of the City of Galveston.

The OEM maintains the Basic Emergency Operations Plan and Annexes covering everything from public warning to terrorism incident response. Other plans like the Hazard Mitigation Plan also require regular updating and reviewing. OEM also participates in regional planning efforts with the 13-county council of governments, Houston-Galveston Area Council (HGAC), and in the Houston Urban Area through the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI).

Another piece of what we do during the "ready state" is preparing our residents for disasters. Our Twitter page, and Facebook page are two ways we prepare and notify the public with vital information.

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