Emergency Operations Planning: Dam Incident Planning Guide (FEMA P-508)
Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2019
This guide is intended to help community planners create a plan to respond to dam incidents that take place in, or affect, their communities. Some communities will choose to address dam incidents in an annex to their emergency operations plan (EOP) or comprehensive emergency management plan or as an appendix to other base planning products, or they will create a stand-alone dam incident plan. Emergency managers should choose the option that aligns to their planning architecture. During the planning process, community planners should identify government agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), private sector entities, and individuals who are directly responsible for emergency response and support services during a dam incident. These entities should then be considered for inclusion in the collaborative planning team and have clear roles and responsibilities in the plan. The planning process should also result in a clear management structure for coordinating and deploying essential resources.
The potential consequences from each dam incident vary by the dam type, downstream characteristics, affected populations, infrastructure, and economies. Dam incident plans must be scalable and include considerations for incident detection, evaluation, and emergency-level determination (i.e., severity of the incident), as well as notification and communication processes, emergency actions, and post-incident recovery efforts. The plan should guide protective action decision-making when there is actual, potential, or imminent threat to the health, safety, or welfare of persons or property.
Revision ID: 5245
Revision Date: 12/13/2022