NIMS: By any other name

Just when you thought it was safe to respond to an emergency, DHS has announced NIMS refit and updates in a recent press release. So, now that you've competed all those on-line annoying classes and taken all those ICS classes, you're ready to respond and manage disaster events! Maybe not. We'll have to wait and see, but I'll bet we'll all be sitting and/or tabbing through a series of "new and improved" NIMS classes. As if we don't have anything else to do.

Anyway, according to the press release...

"...NIMS expands on the original version released in March 2004 by clarifying existing NIMS concepts, better incorporating preparedness and planning and improving the overall readability of the document. The revised document also differentiates between the purposes of NIMS and the National Response Framework (NRF) by identifying how NIMS provides the action template for the management of incidents, while the NRF provides the policy structure and mechanisms for national-level policy for incident management."

and...

"...The basic tenets of NIMS remain the same. There have been several improvements to the revised NIMS document which will aid in readability and usefulness of preparing, preventing, and responding to incidents. For example, the revised document places greater emphasis on the role of preparedness and has reorganized its components to mirror the progression of an incident. Recognizing the importance of private sector partners and NGOs in incident response, FEMA has ensured that those entities have been more fully integrated throughout NIMS. The new document is consistent with the NRF, and together they provide a single, comprehensive approach to incident management."

Get the new NIMS document here and make sure you tune into Mitigation Journal: The All Hazards Podcast. We'll be reviewing this in detail on shows in the very near future.