abstract
| - The National Response Plan is the United States national plan to respond to emergencies such as terrorist attacks or natural disasters. Within the United States natural disaster response and planning is first and foremost a local government responsibility. When local government exhausts its resources, it then requests specific additional resources from the county level. The request process proceeds similarly from the county to the state to the federal government as additional resource needs are identified. The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) administers the plan. According to the department's website, "In the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large-scale emergency, the Department of Homeland Security will provide a coordinated, comprehensive federal response and mount a swift and effective recovery effort. The department assumes primary responsibility for ensuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation." The emphasis is that Homeland Security will assume "primary responsibility" which was created to prevent the uncoordinated response of various local, state, and federal agencies in attack scenarios. The National Response Plan was updated on May 25, 2006. The Notice of Change stated the update "emerged from organizational changes within DHS, as well as the experience of responding to Hurricanes Katrina, Wilma, and Rita in 2005." On September 10, 2007, DHS released a draft copy of the National Response Framework as a replacement for the National Response Plan. The National Response Plan was replaced by the National Response Framework on March 22, 2008.
- The National Response Plan (NRP) (Dec. 2004) was built on the NIMS template to establish a single, comprehensive framework for the management of domestic incidents (including threats) that require DHS coordination and effective response and engaged partnership by an appropriate combination of: Federal, State, local, and tribal governments; the private sector; and nongovernmental organizations. It was superseded by the National Response Framework (NRF) (Jan. 2008).
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