The emergency management structure, as it applies to ESS, can be broken down into two primary functions – planning and response. The ESS Director who is appointed by the local Emergency Program Coordinator (EPC), plays an important role in planning and managing ESS in each community. As a critical component of the local authority’s emergency management program, ESS plays an important role in:
- Assisting people to remain independent and self-sufficient
- Assisting people to meet their basic survival needs during a disaster
- Reuniting families separated by disaster
- Providing people with accurate and up-to-date information about the situation at hand
- Assisting people to re-establish themselves as quickly as possible after a disaster