Introduction to Disaster Planning for the Building Department (Online Live)

Rarely are communities fully prepared when responding to disaster events. A condition that results from communities being left on their own to struggle with developing disaster response plans. In the case of building departments, an inadequate or outdated disaster response plan can result in a community’s inability to obtain local, state or federal assistance. Namely, when Preliminary Damage Assessments (PDAs) are not conducted quickly and Emergency Managers are not able to obtain reliable PDA data, a community’s ability to request and obtain local, state and/or federal assistance is greatly impacted. Further, when Post-disaster Building Safety Evaluations are not conducted, the community’s residents will reoccupy potentially unsafe structures.

This training session introduces and focuses on the various phases of a disaster, the role of emergency management and the post-disaster roles and responsibilities typically assigned to building departments. Key among these responsibilities are Preliminary Damage Assessments and Post-Disaster Building Safety Evaluations. This training session then introduces and focuses on disaster planning basics for the building department. This training session also discusses identifying and requesting resources needed after a disaster and provides practice examples. The goals of this training are to review the roles and responsibilities of the building department after a disaster and to provide guidance on developing a disaster plan.