Found the Louisiana Emergency Operations Plan here (it’s a Word doc). It reads:

B. Assumptions

1. The State is primarily responsible for natural and technological emergency preparedness, but has a shared responsibility with the Federal government for national security preparedness.

… 5. The initial actions of prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery operations are conducted by local government. Local authorities will exhaust their resources, and then use mutual aid agreements with volunteer groups, the private sector and/or neighboring parishes.

6. State assistance will supplement local efforts and federal assistance will supplement State and local efforts when it is clearly demonstrated that it is beyond local and State capability to cope with the emergency/disaster.

later …

The Federal Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), has the responsibility for the coordination of federal emergency/disaster operations and resources in support of state and local government capabilities, and for directing and coordinating the delivery of federal disaster relief assistance programs.

The FEMA National Response Plan can be downloaded off this page. It reiterates the emergency preparedness and response starts at the local level.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 7th, 2005 at 1:22 pm by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Big Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.