Continuity of Operations (COOP) Planning Guidelines for Dukes County

BACKGROUND County operations can be interrupted by a range of naturally occurring and human-caused emergencies

Can this happen? severe weather, (a hurricane destroys your building) fires, (your building burns down) power outages, telecommunication failures, (Your hard drive crashes and you lose all your files)

Or this? An irreplaceable member of the organization suddenly passes away terrorist attack (Airport, Courthouse, or Jail) and Influenza Pandemics (40% of your department becomes sick or is too afraid to come to work)(or a key leader gets sick and dies)

PURPOSE OF COOP PLANS COOP planning has five main goals:

ONE Ensuring continuous performance of essential agency functions and operations during any situation or emergency that may disrupt normal operations;

TWO Protecting essential facilities, equipment, records, and other assets;

THREE Reducing or mitigating disruptions to operations;

FOUR Minimizing loss of life, injury, and property damage;

FIVE Achieving a timely and orderly recovery and resumption of full service to customers.

Why do COOP Planning? Under certain disruptive emergency conditions, where many County departments would be disrupted from performing their normal business activities, scarce resources would have to be applied only to the most essential departments on a minimum activity basis for a limited time

Therefore COOP plans address only those minimum activities that will be performed by the County—no matter what the emergency or how it affects the various department’s service area.

Essential Functions These minimum activities are called essential functions because they are the most important activities necessary to restore the internal capabilities of the various County departments; or

Essential Functions Are essential to the functioning of the Island Infrastructure

How does a COOP Plan work? This plan is only activated under specific circumstances that disrupt the internal operation of the County departments through loss of facilities, system, equipment, vehicles, or personnel.

This plan activation will create an organization and capability that can be expected to begin performing essential functions within 12 hours of the emergency. Is temporary in nature

AND may continue to provide essential functions for up to 30 days after the emergency or until normal operations resume.

Who builds the plan The plan is a cooperative effort with input on the entire plan by all Department heads It is necessary for all department heads to contribute to the make-up of the plan because all the different pieces of the plan have to fit together.

-After the plan is built- If a disaster strikes and the COOP organization is “Activated”, This temporary COOP organization will perform only those Essential Functions identified and prioritized during COOP planning.

Which Departments? Which County departments have functions that fit the criteria: 1) Are necessary to restore the internal capabilities of the various County departments; and 2) Are essential to the functioning of the Island Infrastructure

Make a List Discussion: Which County departments are necessary to restore the internal capabilities of the various County departments?

Make a List Discussion: Which County departments are essential to the functioning of the Island Infrastructure?

How to ensure Essential Functions can be performed Planners must consider the use of alternate facilities (if access is denied to primary facilities or systems). Planners must consider the use of alternate working procedures (temporary “get it done” procedures) Planners must consider “Order of Succession” alternatives (who takes over when you’re not there)

Establishing a COOP Planning Team Discussion: Why is it necessary to do this as a team effort?

How long is this going to take? 6 months to a year

Why? Coop planning encompasses 10 separate Topic Areas for each department Even if we were to meet twice a month, it would still take at least 10 months to write a plan. After that, each department still has to train personnel and test their part of the plan.

What’s Next? Set the next meeting date. Read the handout.