The Community Safety- Emergency Planning, Response and Outreach (CS-EPRO) Grant is designed to create community training, preparing residents for over-the-road, rail and pipeline hazmat incidents, especially in rural areas.
Communities will collectively work together to be educated and informed about how to operate in the event of hazmat emergencies. The trusted voices of the fire department, local emergency planners and Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) will lead this message. The community safety grant will assist these groups with education, tools and resources to implement emergency planning, response and outreach within their communities.
The ability for all community stakeholders to have a role in emergency preparedness is foundational for community resilience and risk reduction. Creating an atmosphere where stakeholders have identified roles, resources and responsibilities before an emergency is critical.
Key CS-EPRO Focuses
- Help better educate first responders, local emergency planners and LEPCs on community hazards and provide them with knowledge and tools to interact with members of their community.
- Stress the personal responsibility of the people living in the community and incorporate them into the solution by teaching them the all-hazards approach to preparation, prevention and action to take based on direction from local authorities.
Emergency preparedness and effective response is eroded when community leaders and residents don’t have adequate knowledge on evacuation orders and route options, when to shelter in place, and situational/safety awareness practices.
The CS-EPRO program will address these concerns and provide:
- Appropriate education and evacuation resources
- Uniform and consistent evacuation terminology model practices
- Notification ability
- Procedures so residents can re-enter evacuated areas as early and safely as possible
Contact
John C. Woulfe III
Program Director, IAFC Hazmat Center
hazmatfc@iafc.org