SOWK 425 Week 7 Disaster Plan Example

Disaster Plan Response Paper: A Virginia County's Terrorism Incident Annex, Mass Care and Where Social Workers Fit

Introduction

Hollins County, a composite county of about one hundred thousand residents in central Virginia, posts its emergency operations plan on its emergency management website, as Virginia localities are required to maintain such plans and readopt them periodically. A quiet county may seem an unlikely target for terrorism, yet its university stadium seats more than forty thousand people on autumn Saturdays, and an interstate and a natural gas pipeline cross its borders. This paper outlines the plan's provisions for terrorism, explains how social work fits within them and identifies gaps a social worker would want addressed.

Structure of the Plan

The plan follows the format recommended in federal planning guidance (Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA], 2021). A basic plan sets out authority, the county's incident command structure and the emergency operations center. Emergency support functions, modeled on the National Response Framework (FEMA, 2019), assign lead and supporting agencies to tasks: the department of social services leads Emergency Support Function 6, mass care, emergency assistance, housing and human services, while the health district leads Emergency Support Function 8, public health and medical services. A terrorism incident annex adds provisions specific to deliberate attacks, including coordination with state police and the FBI, crime scene preservation, decontamination for chemical or biological agents and public information.

The Plan in Action

In a hypothetical scenario, an explosion at the stadium during a home game kills and injures dozens. Under the plan, fire and police establish unified command, emergency medical services triage the injured and the scene is treated as a crime scene from the first minutes. The emergency operations center activates, and the support functions begin their work. Thousands of uninjured fans need to leave safely, families begin searching for loved ones and rumors spread quickly on social media. The annex directs a joint information center to issue regular, accurate updates, and the mass care function opens a reception site and plans a family assistance center. The plan also calls for the hospital to activate its own surge plan and for the health district to coordinate with neighboring counties if casualties exceed local capacity, and it names the county administrator as the official who requests state and federal assistance through the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.

Where Social Work Fits

Social workers appear throughout the plan's human services provisions. As leads for mass care, county social workers would staff reception sites and shelters, register displaced people and identify those with medical, disability or language needs. At the family assistance center, they would help families waiting for news, support death notifications alongside law enforcement and the medical examiner and connect families to victim assistance funds. Psychological first aid, as described in the field operations guide by Brymer et al. (2006), gives social workers a structured approach for these first contacts: ensuring safety and comfort, gathering information about immediate needs, offering practical help and linking survivors to ongoing support.

The work continues long after the scene is cleared. North et al. (1999) studied survivors of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and found that about a third developed posttraumatic stress disorder and nearly half had a psychiatric disorder after the attack. Those findings suggest that a county's recovery plans should include outreach, screening and referral for months, and social workers in schools, hospitals and agencies would be central to that effort.

Gaps in the Plan

Three gaps stand out. First, the plan says little about people with access and functional needs, such as residents who use wheelchairs or rely on home oxygen, beyond a general statement of inclusion. Second, it assumes English-language communication, though the county has growing Spanish-speaking and Arabic-speaking communities. Third, it does not address the risk of retaliation against Muslim residents if early rumors blame an attack on them, a pattern seen after earlier attacks in the United States. A social worker would press for specific provisions in each area.

Conclusion

Hollins County's plan provides a sound structure for responding to terrorism, and it places the department of social services at the center of mass care. Its gaps point to roles social workers are well prepared to fill: advocating for residents with disabilities, ensuring language access and protecting communities at risk of blame. The Good Samaritan crossed the road to help a wounded stranger and paid for his recovery (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Luke 10:33-35), a model of care that continues past the first emergency. The department of social services should request a seat in the next plan revision so that these concerns are written into the plan before an attack rather than improvised after one.

References

Brymer, M., Jacobs, A., Layne, C., Pynoos, R., Ruzek, J., Steinberg, A., Vernberg, E., & Watson, P. (2006). Psychological first aid: Field operations guide (2nd ed.). National Child Traumatic Stress Network and National Center for PTSD.

English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)

Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2019). National response framework (4th ed.). U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2021). Developing and maintaining emergency operations plans: Comprehensive preparedness guide (CPG) 101 (Version 3.0). U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

North, C. S., Nixon, S. J., Shariat, S., Mallonee, S., McMillen, J. C., Spitznagel, E. L., & Smith, E. M. (1999). Psychiatric disorders among survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing. JAMA, 282(8), 755-762. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.282.8.755