Decision Support Services for a Diverse FEMA National Response Team: A "West" Experience

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has three National-Incident Management Assistance Teams (N-IMATs), N-IMATs East, West, and Crisis. The N-IMATs are "on-call" teams that deploy on short notice to help coordinate command of large scale disasters that exceed a state's or region's response capabilities. These teams are comprised of an extremely diverse staff divided among operations, planning, and logistics sections, including liaison officers (LNOs) from the American Red Cross, United States Coast Guard, United States Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Defense, Health and Human Services, and the National Weather Service (NWS). When deployed, the initial N-IMAT goal is to be on-site and fully functional within 12 hours of an incident while establishing a Unified Command of the incident response. These teams are also designed to be self sustaining for up to 72 hours.

As an embedded member of N-IMAT West based out of Sacramento, California, the NWS LNO had the opportunity to deploy and provide tailored support to the West team for Hurricane Matthew (October ‘16), Georgia tornadoes (January ‘17), and Hurricane Harvey (August ‘17). This presentation will discuss the responsibilities of the N-IMAT West NWS LNO within this diverse partnership, emphasizing critical benefits both during steady state and while deployed. This includes participating in or leading team training during steady-state operations as well as how the NWS LNO fits into the deployment picture by integrating and sharing team responsibilities to save lives and enhance the national economy.