Request For Water Natural Gas Service For Residential - Public Works: Fill & Download for Free

I am going to answer this question from the standpoint of a Medical Office that has sometimes dealt with Patient Requests to get Utility Bill Waivers.Rule # 1: Electricity is NOT Free. The Electric Company WILL be Paid or the Power WILL be cut off.Rule # 2: The Fact that you have a Medical Condition that requires electrical Power means that the Responsibility to maintain that Power supply lies with the Resident or their Family Members at the address to make sure that the Utility Bill is Paid.Rule # 3: The Fact that a Resident may have a Medical condition that requires Power to maintain Life IS NOT THE UTILITY COMPANY’S RESPONSIBILITY. In these cases, the Utility company may have a special form or hotline to notify and flag a resident as being dependent-risk because they utilize Life-Support Equipment. When a Resident acct is flagged, it can usually result maybe in an extra month or more of leniency against a Delinquent Acct as the Resident or their representatives arrange for Payment or Relocation.NOTE— Even if you Notify the Utility that you have a Medical Condition that requires Power…Notification does NOT remove the Requirement to Pay any Amounts Past Due. The Utility Company MUST be Paid.In the case of the woman in this article…as tragic as it sounds, there was a failure of responsibility on the part of herself and her Family Members, even though, I gather she lived alone. A chronically Ill person who lives alone must be able to maintain their Basic Utilities: Heat, Electricity & Water.If this person is NOT capable of maintaining these accounts, it is up to their relatives, family members or a Legally Assigned Guardian to step in and take control of the accounts and make payments.If there are NOT ENOUGH FUNDS to maintain a Chronically Ill person in their residence, then it is the Responsibility of the Relatives, the Family Members or a Legally Assigned Guardian to make arrangements to make sure the person’s funds take care of their Basic Bills and accts or to arrange for cheaper accommodations…including the possibility of moving the person in WITH A CONSENTING FAMILY MEMBER OR RELATIVE.Failing that…the remaining option usually means Institutionalization. And Yes…that option can get really ugly. That’s why ‘Family is Important’. It’s the last bulwark.A Letter from a Doctor WILL NOT ELIMINATE THE UTILITY BILL.In Fact, a Letter from a Doctor to the Utility will invoke the mailing of a SPECIAL FORM to that Doctor. If the Doctor Signs it, it re-assigns the Responsibility for Payment from the PATIENT to the DOCTOR or MEDICAL FACILITY.And NO DOCTOR will Sign that form.There is also a Form and a Process wherein a Family Member or Relative Can Assume Direct Responsibility for the Patient’s Electric Bill. The Bill would then be re-directed to the NEW ADDRESS Under the Relative’s or LEGAL GUARDIAN’s name.And the Past Due Amounts WILL STILL BE DUE.Judging from the Article— No-one in this woman’s Family was willing to take responsibility for her Bill. Nor were they willing to relocate her. No-one wanted, or were able, to take her in to their Homes.But Unfortunately, I am guessing that her personal funds were insufficient to cover her monthly costs on more than one level.In short— there is a widespread misconception that if a person is Elderly and Critically Ill, that Utility Bills can be ‘Waived’This is FALSE.Fail to Pay the Oil Company…and they WILL Cease Delivery even if it is the Middle of Winter.Fail to pay the Gas Company…and they WILL cut off your Gas supply to your Water Boiler, your Water Heater and your stove, even if it is the Middle of the Winter.Fail to pay the Electric Company…and they WILL cut off your power to EVERYTHING.There can be some Delay…but there are no Waivers.Utility Bills MUST be Paid.EDIT— a Commenter posted a Link to the NJ PSE&G ‘Bill of Rights’The BOLD is my Translation of what it Actually means…You shall not be asked to pay unreasonably high deposits as a condition of service, or to make unreasonable payments on past due bills. Focus on the word ‘Reasonable’. The Delinquent customer does not get to determine what ‘Reasonable’ is. The Utility Co Delinquent Accts Rep does. They do not say what financial formula they use.You may have the right to budget billing if you are an electric and/or natural gas customer. Note the word MAY. It’s there for a Reason. It’s a Legalism. Take the word MAY out and the sentence reads differently. Here in NY, we also have a Budget Billing option from Con Ed. It is not generally offered as an option because of Past Due Unpaid Amounts.You are entitled to at least one deferred payment in one year. This means you can go ONE month without the Power Company receiving Payment. Think of this you are away on Vacation when the Bill comes. This may also be the case with NY Con Ed, but I’m not sure (Con Ed’s Bill of Rights is suspiciously hard to get a hold of) But I DO know that if no Payment is received TWO consecutive months, a Termination order will be started.You have the right to have any complaint against your utility handled promptly by that utility. What’s not said here is whether the complaint should be done IN WRITING and then FAXed or MAILED. Or maybe there might be an Online Form. Sometimes, a Phone Call is NOT Sufficient. The Complaint must be DOCUMENTED.You have the right to call the Board of Public Utilities to investigate your utility complaints and inquiries. Your service may not be terminated for non-payment of disputed charges during a BPU investigation. Now we’re talking to a Governmental Agency. Again, Documentation is generally MANDATED. If it’s a Medical related complaint, then you need to have the Doctor’s Letter, the Form, everything stamped and dated. Again…just a Phone call is NOT sufficient. And while the case is being Review—The METER is STILL TICKING.If you suspect it is not working properly, you have the right to have your meter tested, free of charge, once a year by your utility. For a $5 fee the meter test will be conducted under the supervision of the staff of the BPU. This is straight forward. But the Meter is RARELY the problem.You have the right to a written notice of termination, ten days prior to the discontinuance of service. In NY, Con Ed will send that Notice after the third UNPAID month, like clockwork. To People who say: “I never got any such notice…” That game does not work today.Residential service may be shut-off, after proper notice, Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. A utility may not shut-off residential service on Friday, Saturday, Sunday or a holiday or the day before a holiday or if a valid medical emergency exists in your household. Note the Word VALID medical emergency. VALID means: The Utility has been Properly Notified of the Medical Life Support condition with the Requisite Forms signed and validated by a Licensed Physician and an Arrangement via your Doctor, a Hospital or some other Government Agency for PAYMENT to be MADE. It does NOT mean you tell the Power Company: “My aunt has a heart condition and you can never turn the power off.”And Again— If you’ve Waited until the DAY OF the Power Cut-off.It means you ALREADY had not paid ANY Past Due Bill for at least 2 months.It means you did not make any PARTIAL Payments for the past 2 months…or you made INSUFFICIENT Below Reasonable Amounts (Again— The COMPANY decides what is ‘Reasonable’… not you)It means your Past Due Amount and length of Delinquency disqualifies you for ‘Budget Billing’It means you failed to respond to Calls and Letters.By this point, crying Medical Emergency is like plugging a hole in the dike with your finger while the River is flooding its banks all around you.

COST. Wind and solar are costly to build and costly to use failing under severe winter weather.Building wind turbines and solar panels to generate electricity, as well as batteries to fuel electric vehicles, requires, on average, more than 10 times the quantity of materials, compared with building machines using hydrocarbons to deliver the same amount of energy to society.They are intermittent and not cost effective because when introduced into the electric grid they require back up power from fossil fuels. The evidence of excessive consumer costs when renewables are added is well documented and I submit this factor alone means renewable energy future is dim. Wind and coal are coupled to ensure reliable power as this next photo shows. How is that renewable power when it depends on coal?Wind turbines in Europe, coupled with a coal power plant in the distance.Ina Fassbender/ReutersThese Countries Have The Highest Energy Usage Per PersonTHE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING (RETAIL ELECTRICITY RATES) FOR CONSUMERSSouth Australia has the highest investment in renewables for its grid and the highest cost electricity as a result. It is a matter of math renewables demand two producers one unreliable (wind and solar) and one fully reliable (fossil fuels)These graphs tell the story as more renewables go into the grid the price of electricity goes up. Why? Intermittency of wind and solar require backup of fossil fuel reliability.It is a big mistake to look at wind and solar in isolation from their effect on installed power where the intermittency hits the consumer hard with dramatically increased costs.This site provides a detailed report of the European costs of renewables showing they are too expensive - The excess costs of Weather Dependent Renewable power generation in the EU(28): 2020ENVIRONMENTFEBRUARY 14, 20217:05 PMUPDATED 2 DAYS AGOIcy weather chills Texas wind energy as deep freeze grips much of U.S.By Steve Gorman3 MIN READ(Reuters) - Ice storms knocked out nearly half the wind-power generating capacity of Texas on Sunday as a rare deep freeze across the state locked up turbine towers while driving electricity demand to record levels, the state’s grid operator reported.FILE PHOTO: Wind turbines generate power at the Loraine Windpark Project in Loraine, Texas U.S. August 24, 2018. Picture taken August 24, 2018. REUTERS/Nick OxfordResponding to a request from Governor Greg Abbott, President Joe Biden granted a federal emergency declaration for all 254 counties in the state on Sunday, authorizing U.S. agencies to coordinate disaster relief from severe weather in Texas.The winter energy woes in Texas came as bone-chilling cold, combined with snow, sleet and freezing rain, gripped much of the United States from the Pacific Northwest through the Great Plains and into the mid-Atlantic states over the weekend.An Arctic air mass causing the chill extended southward well beyond areas accustomed to icy weather, with winter storm warnings posted for much of the Gulf Coast region, Oklahoma and Missouri, the National Weather Service said.The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state’s grid operator, issued an alert asking consumers and businesses to conserve power, citing record-breaking energy demands due to extreme cold gripping the state.“We are dealing with higher-than-normal generation outages due to frozen wind turbines and limited natural gas supplies available to generating units,” the agency said.Wind farms in West Texas, stricken by weekend ice storms, were particularly hard hit.Of the 25,000-plus megawatts of wind-power capacity normally available in Texas, some 12,000 megawatts was out of service as of Sunday morning “due to the winter weather event we’re experiencing in Texas,” ERCOT spokeswoman Leslie Sopko said.Wind generation ranks as the second-largest source of energy in Texas, accounting for 23% of state power supplies last year, behind natural gas, which represented 45%, according to ERCOT figures.Forecasts call for heavy snow and freezing rain to spread across a larger swath of central and eastern sections of the country through Monday, with a storm front in the West likely to dump 1 to 2 feet of snow in the Cascades and northern Rockies through Tuesday, according to the weather service.Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Erwin Seba in Houston and Heather Timmons in Washington; editing by Diane CraftResearch in the UK shows that thanks to expensive subsidies for renewables seniors must decide whether to heat or eat. This is horrible and in addition these subsidies for renewables do nothing for the climate.The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state power grid and the flow of power to more than 26 million Texas customers, is working with generators to “make sure they can supply power during the coldest periods,” said communications manager Leslie Sopko.“We’ve had a significant number of wind facilities that had to be taken out of service due to icing. That is certainly something that we are having to work around during this time,” she said.The wind turbines that have been coated in ice will need time and warmer temperatures before they can function again, says Ramanan Krishnamoorti, chief energy officer at the University of Houston.“When ice forms on a turbine, it weighs it down and can break it,” Krishnamoorti said. “There is significant load on the electricity and gas markets, and we could lose a big source of electricity generation from the wind turbines. That is the conundrum we are facing.”Wind generates about 20 percent of electricity in Texas. But the rest of the state’s power system isn’t immune to the extended cold period and precipitation.The sustained period of colder than normal temperatures will put pressure on demand as people try to keep their homes warm.Utilities hope to keep power on as bitter cold, precipitation sweep HoustonTHE TRUTH ABOUT THE GREAT WIND POWER FRAUDHeartless: Renewable Energy Advocates Hate the Poor & Want to Keep Them That WayJuly 30, 2020 by stopthesethings Leave a CommentSince World War II affordable power was regarded as a birthright: RE obsessed virtue signallers have destroyed that notion in a heartbeat.In California, compassion is a rare commodity among those promoting and profiting from subsidised wind and solar. Seminal Californian Punk outfit, the Dead Kennedys seem to have foreshadowed their State’s insane energy policy with their cheery ditty, ‘Kill the Poor’. Because it’s the poor and vulnerable that suffer most from rocketing power prices.As in South Australia, Ontario, Denmark and Germany, so it goes in California.After decades of throwing $billions of taxpayer’s money at intermittent wind and solar, Californians now pay 60% more for their electricity than the next most expensive state in the US: power prices have risen more than five times as fast than the other states over the last eight years.For the unemployed, underemployed and a large proportion of the working poor, electricity is now, and forever, out of reach.Where, once upon a time, policy-makers engineered ‘progressive’ taxation – designed to place the greatest burden on those who could most afford it – these days, the ultimate cost of subsidised renewables is not just regressive, it’s crushing.Steven Greenhut takes a look at the characters who evidently hate the poor and want to keep them that way, forever.State energy policies help rich over the poorOrange County RegisterSteven Greenhut3 July 2020A prominent new study from UCLA researchers about California’s energy policies is fascinating not so much for its Captain Obvious conclusions, but because it points to a growing rift on in the environmental world between those who favor the state’s far-reaching “green” policies — and those who want to hector us to use less energy.“Wealth is a prominent driver of demand for residential energy,” the authors wrote. “Worldwide, wealthier groups lead more materially and energetically intensive lives than the less affluent, consuming in excess of what they require to meet their essential needs.” That’s stunning for its inanity. Is anyone shocked that those with higher incomes live in bigger houses, and spend more to cool them, than those with lower incomes?“This level of consumption is clearly beyond what you need to provide for your survival, to allow you to be a functioning member of society,” the study’s lead author, Eric Fournier, told the Los Angeles Times. He and his fellow authors thought long and hard about their descriptions of “excessive” and even “profligate” energy consumption. Apparently, academics should decide how much electricity everyone else should use.I’ve found a constant theme from the environmental community when it comes to every resource-related policy debate, from electricity production to fossil fuels to water availability. Activists talk about improving efficiencies and battling climate change, but they mainly seem offended that people aren’t conserving enough. I’m going out on a limb here, but it’s an undeniably good thing that we can use more energy than we need for our basic survival.Nevertheless, the study has raised an interesting — albeit stunningly obvious — point, as California continues its headlong rush toward a green-energy future based on command-and-control edicts, subsidies and quasi-market mechanisms such as cap and trade. It found that incentive programs for electric cars and solar panels and some other costly energy policies “have been found to disproportionately benefit wealthier individuals.”Well, poor people generally aren’t installing solar panels or buying $50,000 cars. One need not peruse the study’s charts of Los Angeles County to know that electric vehicle adoption is higher in Beverly Hills than Watts. I’m all for the development of alternative energy industries, but using public funds, and hobbling old-line energy industries with excess regulations and taxes, is a wealth transfer from poor to rich. As usual, the state’s progressive policies have unintended consequences.If the state’s alternative energy policies are successful, they are “likely to greatly increase future electricity demand,” the study laments. So far, those policies mainly are boosting prices, but if they do eventually reduce them, people will indeed use more energy. That’s how supply and demand works. Cheaper energy allows everyone, rich and poor, to live more-enjoyable lives. It lowers the costs for businesses, which can then provide jobs and opportunities.That brings us back to that above-mentioned tension. Are environmentalists mainly interested in cleaning up the environment or changing the way we live? It often seems to be the latter. As Fournier added, “At some point, you have to get to a place where you’re using less energy.” Why is that so? If energy becomes more abundant and more environmentally friendly, who cares if I use more of it to keep the hot tub toasty? It’s no one’s business but my own if I leave the lights on all day — as long as I pay my utility bill.California is the world’s fifth-largest economy. It’s a land of unfathomable wealth, yet it also has the nation’s highest poverty rate. That rate is above 20 percent, according to the Census Bureau’s cost-of-living-adjusted model, even though California has the most-generous anti-poverty programs, also. One reason for those dismal numbers is our state’s environmental policies, which increase that cost of living.California has adopted slow-growth policies that limit housing construction by driving up the cost of developable land. The state imposes regulatory costs that, in some localities, comprise 40 percent of the cost of a new home. The result are median-home prices that are unattainable for low-income and even middle-class people. We all like open space, but every policy choice comes at a price, often a high one.Similarly, our energy prices are among the highest in the nation. Thanks to California-specific formulations, our gasoline costs more than other states, except for remote Hawaii. Our water and electricity policies boost the costs of those necessary products — and the state adds to our sky-high tax burdens by doling out subsidies. California imposes alternative-energy requirements that force it to import 29 percent of our electricity, raising prices on those who can least afford it.Then researchers are shocked to discover that California’s energy policies impose disproportionate costs on poor folks. The solution is to promote energy abundance, freer markets and less regulation — rather than to create even more programs or to hector suburbanites who “overconsume” air conditioning to cool their homes.Orange County RegisterAn ideology the poor can never afford.Extinction Rebellion’s pasty-faced and ghoulish-looking members aren’t renowned for their common sense on energy matters. But – in a road to Damascus moment – one of its leading lights, the aptly named Zion Lights has, indeed, seen the light. And it’s one powered by nuclear energy.Zion Lights proves that there might still be hope for this lot.https://stopthesethings.com/2020/07/30/heartless-renewable-energy-advocates-hate-the-poor-want-to-keep-them-that-way/Mexico Says “Hasta La Vista” To Inefficient Green Energies. Could Be “Death Knell” For Renewables”By P Gosselin on22. May 2020German public broadcasting Deutsche Welle (DW) here reports how Mexico has decided to end its transition the renewable energies, angering activists and investors.The move, DW reports, “is scaring off environmentalists and investors” and could be the “death knell for renewable energies.”Apparently President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had traveled to Oaxaca and saw how the local hills were blighted by wind turbines, commenting: “These windmills are spoiling the landscape” and “produce very little energy.”Wind energy is notorious for its inefficiency, unreliable supply, high costs, blight to the environment and health hazards. Moreover, the business has been taken over by crony capitalists out to make a killing on the massively subsidized projects. In fact, as Michael Moore’s latest film shows, green energies aren’t really green at all.The move by the Mexican government has angered green energy activists and investors. Another reason cited by the Mexican government is “grid instability”.The reform will have some impact on German investors, DW reports. For example: the Potsdam-based company Notus, who since 2014 has been planning five solar and wind power plants. Now their future remains uncertain.“The new directive could be the death knell for renewable energies,” DW reports. “Protest letters from the Canadian and European Union embassies refer to 44 ongoing projects worth USD 6.8 billion.” Another problem is Mexico’s power grid is not designed to handle the massively fluctuating power fed in by wind and sun.Though DW suggests that the return to fossil fuels is going to mean higher costs for Mexican consumers, most results from around the world suggest the opposite is the case. Germany, for example has committed a whopping 1 trillion dollars to green energies since 2000, yet today the country has among the world’s most expensive electricity prices for consumers. Annually tens of thousands of households see their power cut off because they can no longer afford to pay the power bills.Mexico is wise to move to a source of energy that is plentiful, affordable, stable and one that doesn’t destroy the environment on a massive scale.Mexico Says “Hasta La Vista” To Inefficient Green Energies. Could Be “Death Knell” For Renewables”Bill Gates Slams Unreliable Wind & Solar: ‘Let’s Quit Jerking Around With Renewables & Batteries’February 18, 2019 by stopthesethings 41 CommentsBill says it’s time to stop jerking around with wind & solar.When the world’s richest entrepreneur says wind and solar will never work, it’s probably time to listen.Bill Gates made a fortune applying common sense to the untapped market of home computing. The meme has it that IBM’s CEO believed there was only a market for five computers in the entire world. Gates thought otherwise. Building a better system than any of his rivals and shrewdly working the marketplace, resulted in hundreds of millions hooked on PCs, Windows and Office. This is a man that knows a thing or two about systems and a lot about what it takes to satisfy the market.For almost a century, electricity generation and distribution were treated as a tightly integrated system: it was designed and built as one, and is meant to operate as designed. However, the chaotic delivery of wind and solar have all but trashed the electricity generation and delivery system, as we know it. Germany and South Australia are only the most obvious examples.During an interview at Stanford University late last year, Bill Gates attacks the idiots who believe that we’re all just a heartbeat away from an all wind and sun powered future.Gates on renewables: How would Tokyo survive a 3 day typhoon with unreliable energy?Jo Nova BlogJo Nova14 February 2019Make no mistake, Bill Gates totally believes the climate change scare story but even he can see that renewables are not the answer, it’s not about the cost, it’s the reliability.He quotes Vaclav Smil:Here’s Toyko, 2p7 million people, you have three days of a cyclone every year. It’s 23GW of electricity for three days. Tell me what battery solution is going sit there and provide that power.As Gates says: Let’s not jerk around. You’re multiple orders of magnitude — … — That’s nothing, that doesn’t solve the reliability problem.During storms, clouds cut solar panel productivity (unless hail destroys it) and wind turbines have to shut down in high winds.The whole interview was part of a presentation at Stanford late last year:Cheap renewables won’t stop global warming, says Bill GatesThe interview by Arun Majumdar, co-director of Stanford Energy’s Precourt Institute for Energy, which organized the conference, can be watched here.When financial analysts proposed rating companies on their CO2 output to drive down emissions, Gates was appalled by the idea that the climate and energy problem would be easy to solve. He asked them: “Do you guys on Wall Street have something in your desks that makes steel? Where is fertilizer, cement, plastic going to come from? Do planes fly through the sky because of some number you put in a spreadsheet?”“The idea that we have the current tools and it’s just because these utility people are evil people and if we could just beat on them and put (solar panels) on our rooftop—that is more of a block than climate denial,” Gates said. “The ‘climate is easy to solve’ group is our biggest problem.”If he only looked at the numbers in the climate science debate…Jo Nova BlogBill Gates Slams Unreliable Wind & Solar: ‘Let’s Quit Jerking Around With Renewables & Batteries’Global Investment in Renewable Energy Has StalledGuest Blogger / February 6, 2018By Steve GorehamEarlier this month, the Trump Administration announced a decision to apply a 30 percent tariff on imported solar cells and panels. The Solar Industries Association denounced the measure, projecting job losses and cancellation of solar investments. But the solar tariff discussion hides a larger renewable energy issue. Global investment in renewables has stalled in the US, in Europe, and in many markets across the world.Since the 1990s, sustainable advocates have called for investment in wind, solar, and biofuel energy as the solution to global warming, pollution, and feared resource depletion. National, state, and provincial governments responded, promoting green energy with feed-in tariffs, renewable portfolio standards laws, renewable grid priority, and other subsidies and mandates. Carbon trading markets and carbon taxes were enacted to impose costs on hydrocarbon fuels to favor renewable energy.These efforts resulted in a rapid rise in renewable deployments across the world. From 2004 to 2011, global renewable energy investment grew at a 26.7 percent compounded annual rate. By the end of 2012, more than 200,000 wind turbines were operating worldwide. Germany alone boasted more than one million solar rooftop installations.But since 2011, investment in renewables has stalled. From 2011 to 2017, global green energy investment grew at only 0.7 percent per year—essentially flat. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, 2017 investment in renewables grew only 1 percent in the US, but was down 16 percent in Japan, down 20 percent in India, down 26 percent in Germany, and down 56 percent in the United Kingdom. Investment in China was up 26 percent, supporting a meagre 3 percent global renewable investment growth in 2017.European nations have the highest per person renewable investment in the world and extensive experience with renewables. Europe invested over $100 billion each year in renewable energy in 2010 and 2011. But last year Europe’s renewable investment was only $57.4 billion, down 50 percent from the record years of 2010‒2011.So why is renewable investment faltering? One answer is that renewable projects are heavily dependent upon subsidies, and subsidies are being cut. The combination of rising electricity prices and budget-busting subsidy bills is forcing nations to cut back.Europe invested $850 billion dollars in renewables from 2000 to 2014 and continues to pay a huge ongoing price. Residential electricity prices climbed to three times the US price in Spain and four times the US price in Denmark and Germany. German consumers pay an EEG levy in their electric bills, amounting to €25 billion a year to subsidize renewable energy. Environment minister Peter Altmaier estimates that cumulative renewable subsidies paid by German consumers will total an astonishing one trillion euros by 2040.Over the last five years, subsidies or mandates have been cut in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Retroactive cuts to feed-in tariffs were made in Bulgaria, Greece, and Spain. Germany cut feed-in tariff subsidies by 75 percent and levied grid fees on residential solar owners. In 2015, the UK government suspended all new subsidies for onshore wind farms and reduced subsidies for residential solar installations, causing a steep fall in investment in both 2016 and 2017.US subsidy cuts are also in process. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 began a phased reduction of the wind Production Tax Credit (PTC) from 2016‒2019. If not extended again, the PTC subsidy will expire after 2019. The Act also reduced investment tax credits for wind and solar.Some claim that renewable energy can power modern society. A 2017 paper by Mark Jacobsen and others at Stanford University, calls for 100 percent renewables by 2050, with wind and solar providing 95 percent of the energy. But this wishful thinking is not supported by the trends.Since 1965, global energy consumption more than tripled to 13.3 billion tons of oil equivalent, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy. In 2016, wind and solar provided about two percent of the total. Each year the world consumes an additional United Kingdom worth of energy. Wind and solar sources are unable to supply even the annual growth in world demand, let alone replace our traditional energy sources.Renewable energy investment has stagnated, buried by rising energy prices and unaffordable subsidies. The world is being forced to return to sensible energy policies based on cost, performance, and real environmental benefit.COMMENTSmichael hart February 6, 2018 at 10:30 amAgreed. It is one of the greatest travesties of our time that the might of German engineering capabilities has been so recklessly squandered on such foolishness as large-scale wind power.I still find it hard to believe that an earthquake and tsunami in the Pacific near Japan somehow led to Germany deciding to close it’s nuclear fleet even faster than planned. The power of the green vote in Germany, of all places, never ceases to amaze and dismay me. The so often finest technical nation in the world, hamstrung by the technical illiteracy of environmentalism.Shrug.Gregory White February 6, 2018 at 10:33 amIndonesia may beat them to it. They start construction of a full scale test reactor next year. Thorcon PowerSparky February 6, 2018 at 11:16 am‘Michael Hart’ – penman of “Hubris”?Global Investment in Renewable Energy Has StalledThe Reason Renewables Can't Power Modern Civilization Is Because They Were Never Meant ToMichael Shellenberger ContributorEnergyI write about energy and the environment.“The Energiewende — the biggest political project since reunification — threatens to fail,” reports... [+]DER SPIEGELOver the last decade, journalists have held up Germany’s renewables energy transition, the Energiewende, as an environmental model for the world.“Many poor countries, once intent on building coal-fired power plants to bring electricity to their people, are discussing whether they might leapfrog the fossil age and build clean grids from the outset,” thanks to the Energiewende, wrote a New York Times reporter in 2014.Most Popular In: EnergyGuyana’s Election Controversy Threatens Its Energy FutureWith Germany as inspiration, the United Nations and World Bank poured billions into renewables like wind, solar, and hydro in developing nations like Kenya.But then, last year, Germany was forced to acknowledge that it had to delay its phase-out of coal, and would not meet its 2020 greenhouse gas reduction commitments. It announced plans to bulldoze an ancient church and forest in order to get at the coal underneath it.After renewables investors and advocates, including Al Gore and Greenpeace, criticized Germany, journalists came to the country’s defense. “Germany has fallen short of its emission targets in part because its targets were so ambitious,” one of them argued last summer.“If the rest of the world made just half Germany’s effort, the future for our planet would look less bleak,” she wrote. “So Germany, don’t give up. And also: Thank you.”But Germany didn’t just fall short of its climate targets. Its emissions have flat-lined since 2009.Now comes a major article in the country’s largest newsweekly magazine, Der Spiegel, titled, “A Botched Job in Germany” ("Murks in Germany"). The magazine’s cover shows broken wind turbines and incomplete electrical transmission towers against a dark silhouette of Berlin.“The Energiewende — the biggest political project since reunification — threatens to fail,” write Der Spiegel’s Frank Dohmen, Alexander Jung, Stefan Schultz, Gerald Traufetter in their a 5,700-word investigative story.Over the past five years alone, the Energiewende has cost Germany €32 billion ($36 billion) annually, and opposition to renewables is growing in the German countryside.“The politicians fear citizen resistance” Der Spiegel reports. “There is hardly a wind energy project that is not fought.”In response, politicians sometimes order “electrical lines be buried underground but that is many times more expensive and takes years longer.”As a result, the deployment of renewables and related transmission lines is slowing rapidly. Less than half as many wind turbines (743) were installed in 2018 as were installed in 2017, and just 30 kilometers of new transmission were added in 2017.Solar and wind advocates say cheaper solar panels and wind turbines will make the future growth in renewables cheaper than past growth but there are reasons to believe the opposite will be the case.It will cost Germany $3-$4 trillion to increase renewables as share of electricity from today's 35%... [+]AG ENERGIEBINLANZENDer Spiegel cites a recent estimate that it would cost Germany “€3.4 trillion ($3.8 trillion),” or seven times more than it spent from 2000 to 2025, to increase solar and wind three to five-fold by 2050.Between 2000 and 2019, Germany grew renewables from 7% to 35% of its electricity. And as much of Germany's renewable electricity comes from biomass, which scientists view as polluting and environmentally degrading, as from solar.Of the 7,700 new kilometers of transmission lines needed, only 8% have been built, while large-scale electricity storage remains inefficient and expensive. “A large part of the energy used is lost,” the reporters note of a much-hyped hydrogen gas project, “and the efficiency is below 40%... No viable business model can be developed from this.”Meanwhile, the 20-year subsidies granted to wind, solar, and biogas since 2000 will start coming to an end next year. “The wind power boom is over,” Der Spiegel concludes.All of which raises a question: if renewables can’t cheaply power Germany, one of the richest and most technologically advanced countries in the world, how could a developing nation like Kenya ever expect them to allow it to “leapfrog” fossil fuels?The Question of TechnologyThe earliest and most sophisticated 20th Century case for renewables came from a German who is widely considered the most influential philosopher of the 20th Century, Martin Heidegger.In his 1954 essay, “The Question Concerning of Technology,” Heidegger condemned the view of nature as a mere resource for human consumption.The use of “modern technology,” he wrote, “puts to nature the unreasonable demand that it supply energy which can be extracted and stored as such… Air is now set upon to yield nitrogen, the earth to yield ore, ore to yield uranium…to yield atomic energy.”The solution, Heidegger argued, was to yoke human society and its economy to unreliable energy flows. He even condemned hydro-electric dams, for dominating the natural environment, and praised windmills because they “do not unlock energy in order to store it.”These weren’t just aesthetic preferences. Windmills have traditionally been useful to farmers whereas large dams have allowed poor agrarian societies to industrialize.In the US, Heidegger’s views were picked up by renewable energy advocates. Barry Commoner in 1969 argued that a transition to renewables was needed to bring modern civilization "into harmony with the ecosphere."The goal of renewables was to turn modern industrial societies back into agrarian ones, argued Murray Bookchin in his 1962 book, Our Synthetic Environment.Bookchin admitted his proposal "conjures up an image of cultural isolation and social stagnation, of a journey backward in history to the agrarian societies of the medieval and ancient worlds."But then, starting around the year 2000, renewables started to gain a high-tech luster. Governments and private investors poured $2 trillion into solar and wind and related infrastructure, creating the impression that renewables were profitable aside from subsidies.Entrepreneurs like Elon Musk proclaimed that a rich, high-energy civilization could be powered by cheap solar panels and electric cars.Journalists reported breathlessly on the cost declines in batteries, imagining a tipping point at which conventional electricity utilities would be “disrupted.”But no amount of marketing could change the poor physics of resource-intensive and land-intensive renewables. Solar farms take 450 times more land than nuclear plants, and wind farms take 700 times more land than natural gas wells, to produce the same amount of energy.Efforts to export the Energiewende to developing nations may prove even more devastating.The new wind farm in Kenya, inspired and financed by Germany and other well-meaning Western nations, is located on a major flight path of migratory birds. Scientists say it will kill hundreds of endangered eagles.“It’s one of the three worst sites for a wind farm that I’ve seen in Africa in terms of its potential to kill threatened birds,” a biologist explained.In response, the wind farm’s developers have done what Europeans have long done in Africa, which is to hire the organizations, which ostensibly represent the doomed eagles and communities, to collaborate rather than fight the project.Kenya won't be able to “leapfrog” fossil fuels with its wind farm. On the contrary, all of that unreliable wind energy is likely to increase the price of electricity and make Kenya’s slow climb out of poverty even slower.Heidegger, like much of the conservation movement, would have hated what the Energiewende has become: an excuse for the destruction of natural landscapes and local communities.Opposition to renewables comes from the country peoples that Heidegger idolized as more authentic and “grounded” than urbane cosmopolitan elites who fetishize their solar roofs and Teslas as signs of virtue.Germans, who will have spent $580 billion on renewables and related infrastructure by 2025, express great pride in the Energiewende. “It’s our gift to the world,” a renewables advocate told The Times.Tragically, many Germans appear to have believed that the billions they spent on renewables would redeem them. “Germans would then at last feel that they have gone from being world-destroyers in the 20th century to world-saviors in the 21st,” noted a reporter.Many Germans will, like Der Spiegel, claim the renewables transition was merely “botched,” but it wasn't. The transition to renewables was doomed because modern industrial people, no matter how Romantic they are, do not want to return to pre-modern life.The reason renewables can’t power modern civilization is because they were never meant to. One interesting question is why anybody ever thought they could.The Reason Renewables Can't Power Modern Civilization Is Because They Were Never Meant ToDigging It: Mines, Minerals, and “Green” Energy: A Reality CheckAugust 16, 2020 by stopthesethings 6 CommentsIt takes audacity to suggest that the wholesale environmental destruction wreaked by the wind and solar industries is all for the good of planet.Michael Moore’s Planet of the Humans managed to lift the lid on green hypocrisy, focusing on the raft of inconvenient truths behind the greatest economic and environmental fraud of all time.Such as the fact that those ‘planet saving’ solar panels that give virtue signallers such a warm inner glow are really ‘coal’ panels, where the core ingredient is made from strip-mined quartz, which is converted to silica using coal-fired furnaces. Inconvenient for those claiming renewable energy piety, but true enough.Mark P Mills treads the same path with his investigation into hypocritical claims that renewable energy is all about saving the planet when, in reality, wind and solar are simply devouring it.Victims Vindicated: Farmers Victorious in Landmark Legal Battle Over Wind Turbine NoiseAugust 25, 2020 by stopthesethings 5 CommentsVictors vindicated: Don Fairbrother and his community’s tormentors.A farming community tormented by wind turbine noise for years is celebrating the Supreme Court’s decision that declared it an unlawful nuisance.The community surrounding the Bald Hills wind farm, built by a Japanese developer, Mitsui and Co, have been tortured by incessant turbine generated low-frequency noise and infrasound since March 2015, when its 52, 2 MW Senvion MM92 turbines spun into action.Neighbors started complaining to the developer about noise, straightaway.But, as is their wont, the developer and its goons simply rejected the mounting complaints and carried on regardless…That was in August 2017. 12 months later, an independent investigator deemed that the turbine noise generated constitutes a nuisance, rendering the Council liable to act under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008. We gave detailed coverage of the operation of that Act here.Based on the investigation and the opinion given by a Melbourne Queen’s Counsel, Paul Connor, the Council was forced to accept the inevitable conclusion. The noise generated is a nuisance and, accordingly, an unlawful interference with the use and enjoyment of residents’ homes. That led to a Council resolution to that effect, including the following findings:Council is satisfied that there exists a nuisance of the kind alleged by the complainants, for the following reasons:A. The credible and consistent character of the noise logs provided by the complainants and/or the complaints made by the complainants about sleep disturbance and the injury to their personal comfort;B. The conclusions of the Smith Report; andC. The weight of the other evidence presented to Councillors suggests the existence of a nuisance.The wind power outfit was furious. Not least because the Council’s findings threatened its entitlement to receive Large-Scale Generation Certificates (aka RECs) under the LRET legislation (as to which see our post here).With the prospect of losing hundreds of $millions in subsidies, it appealed the council’s decision to the Supreme Court. Here’s a couple of articles detailing the delightful result.Bald Hills Wind Farm neighbours win historic legal battle against turbines ‘too close to homes’ABC NewsJedda Costa20 August 2020The South Gippsland Shire Council and local residents have won a legal fight against the Bald Hills Wind Farm (BHWF) near Tarwin Lower, about 150 kilometres south-east of Melbourne.Key points:A council in Victoria’s south-east has won a historic legal battle against a wind farm near Tarwin LowerLast year, the operator of the Bald Hills Wind Farm sued the South Gippsland Shire Council after a report found turbine noise was affecting the wellbeing of nearby residentsThe Supreme Court yesterday ruled there were no legal errors made by the councilVictims Vindicated: Farmers Victorious in Landmark Legal Battle Over Wind Turbine NoiseMines, Minerals, and “Green” Energy: A Reality CheckManhattan InstituteMark P Mills9 July 2020Executive SummaryAs policymakers have shifted focus from pandemic challenges to economic recovery, infrastructure plans are once more being actively discussed, including those relating to energy. Green energy advocates are doubling down on pressure to continue, or even increase, the use of wind, solar power, and electric cars. Left out of the discussion is any serious consideration of the broad environmental and supply-chain implications of renewable energy.As I explored in a previous paper, “The New Energy Economy: An Exercise in Magical Thinking,”[1] many enthusiasts believe things that are not possible when it comes to the physics of fueling society, not least the magical belief that “clean-tech” energy can echo the velocity of the progress of digital technologies. It cannot.This paper turns to a different reality: all energy-producing machinery must be fabricated from materials extracted from the earth. No energy system, in short, is actually “renewable,” since all machines require the continual mining and processing of millions of tons of primary materials and the disposal of hardware that inevitably wears out. Compared with hydrocarbons, green machines entail, on average, a 10-fold increase in the quantities of materials extracted and processed to produce the same amount of energy.This means that any significant expansion of today’s modest level of green energy—currently less than 4% of the country’s total consumption (versus 56% from oil and gas)—will create an unprecedented increase in global mining for needed minerals, radically exacerbate existing environmental and labor challenges in emerging markets (where many mines are located), and dramatically increase U.S. imports and the vulnerability of America’s energy supply chain.As recently as 1990, the U.S. was the world’s number-one producer of minerals. Today, it is in seventh place. Even though the nation has vast mineral reserves worth trillions of dollars, America is now 100% dependent on imports for some 17 key minerals, and, for another 29, over half of domestic needs are imported.Among the material realities of green energy:Building wind turbines and solar panels to generate electricity, as well as batteries to fuel electric vehicles, requires, on average, more than 10 times the quantity of materials, compared with building machines using hydrocarbons to deliver the same amount of energy to society.A single electric car contains more cobalt than 1,000 smartphone batteries; the blades on a single wind turbine have more plastic than 5 million smartphones; and a solar array that can power one data center uses more glass than 50 million phones.Replacing hydrocarbons with green machines under current plans—never mind aspirations for far greater expansion—will vastly increase the mining of various critical minerals around the world. For example, a single electric car battery weighing 1,000 pounds requires extracting and processing some 500,000 pounds of materials. Averaged over a battery’s life, each mile of driving an electric car “consumes” five pounds of earth. Using an internal combustion engine consumes about 0.2 pounds of liquids per mile.Oil, natural gas, and coal are needed to produce the concrete, steel, plastics, and purified minerals used to build green machines. The energy equivalent of 100 barrels of oil is used in the processes to fabricate a single battery that can store the equivalent of one barrel of oil.By 2050, with current plans, the quantity of worn-out solar panels—much of it nonrecyclable—will constitute double the tonnage of all today’s global plastic waste, along with over 3 million tons per year of unrecyclable plastics from worn-out wind turbine blades. By 2030, more than 10 million tons per year of batteries will become garbage.DOWNLOAD PDFManhattan Institutehttps://stopthesethings.com/2020/08/16/digging-it-mines-minerals-and-green-energy-a-reality-check/Oh Dear: Plug Pulled On French Electric Car Which Nobody Wants To BuyDate: 29/07/20Car AdviceOne of Australia’s cheapest electric cars – the Renault Zoe – has had its plug pulled after just 63 were sold over the past three years.Indeed, over the same period, Australians bought two-and-a-half times more Rolls-Royces (158), seven times as many Lamborghinis (457), and 12 times as many Ferraris (818) than Renault Zoe electric cars.In an online briefing with media, Renault Australia executives blamed absent government incentives for the lack of widespread interest in the Zoe, even though it was already one of the cheapest electric cars on sale, priced from $47,490 plus on-road costs.Critics of electric-car subsidies say the vehicles should sell on their merits rather than receiving taxpayer support – especially as drivers of such vehicles are perceived as getting a free ride on Australian roads by avoiding fuel excise.Oh Dear: Plug Pulled On French Electric Car Which Nobody Wants To Buy - The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)Author Steve Goreham discusses the costs of wind and solar being added to the grid and how consumers pay in two ways – for subsidies and through much higher electricity rates. In the US, electric power rates in 9 of 12 wind states went up 12 to 35% from 2008 to 2015, while in the same time overall US power prices rose only 4.8%. He explains that South Australia is now seeing wide area blackouts due to unreliability related to wind power on the grid and simultaneous coal phase-out. Steve’s full presentation can be seen at: Climate Science and the Myths of Renewable Energy: https://youtu.be/mtHreJbr2WMThe next article California’s Green Energy Corruption reveals why California has the nations most expensive and least reliable consumer electricity thanks to renewables.California’s Green-Energy Corruption And Those Rolling Blackoutsby ccdeditorThe last California Governor blamed for rolling energy blackouts was recalled by voters and replaced. In 2003, Governor Gray Davis was recalled over leadership issues, high taxation, and inaction over a struggling California economy and rolling energy blackouts.Gov. Gavin Newsom is already facing a recall, and now with rolling blackouts, he may have just guaranteed it.Most countries around the world think that it’s a good thing to have cheap energy. In California, we have plenty of cheap energy available, just not the political will to access it.California depends on natural gas-driven turbines and hydroelectric generators to provide just 38 percent of its energy needs.The state imports 12 percent of its oil from Alaska, and another 58 percent from foreign nations, relying heavily on Canada, which has 19 commercial nuclear reactors and is the world’s third-largest producer of hydroelectricity.So why are California’s utilities cutting power, and imposing rolling blackouts again?It’s political. And it’s corrupt.The state is awash in ultra-cheap natural gas, yet in California, our corrupt government finds ways to create an energy shortage, and charge ratepayers the highest rates in the country.This is one reason California electricity costs more than twice the national median—thanks to a government-created shortage.California’s natural gas shale formation is one of the largest in the world. And, California has been a pioneer in renewable energy, albeit still unreliable and unproven.While California sits on one of the largest known deposits of recoverable oil and gas, production has steadily fallen.The state ignores its vast onshore and offshore deposits, which are fully accessible through conventional and hydraulic fracturing technologies.Another reason is that the California Public Utilities Commission, the state’s energy “regulator,” has a historic, dubious relationship with Wall Street, making promises to keep the profits higher of the state’s publicly held utilities, than utility profits elsewhere.California politicians have gloated over being the first state to enact such aggressive green energy and greenhouse gas busting policy, but have yet to produce any proof that these oppressive and business-killing laws have had any “green” results.All while they ignore that natural gas is clean, less expensive to extract, natural and abundant. It wasn’t that long ago that natural gas used to be the left’s preferred alternative to all other “dirty fuels.”But as the oil and gas industry found better, more affordable ways to access natural gas, it fell out of favor with emotional, whimsical environmentalists.Many California residents have purchased expensive generators to keep refrigerators and freezers on, but generators rely mostly on natural gas.Democrats in the California Legislature want to ban natural gas to homes and require only electric appliances. So California residents won’t even be able to keep our power on in this “new normal.”With triple-digit heat in California – a typical August – rolling blackouts will not be popular among voters. Californians are now being charged very high-tiered energy rates, with the most expensive usage during the times it is most needed – 4 pm to 8 pm.Every which way that ratepayers turn, we are getting seriously bilked by the politicians in this state.

Yes. Nine years ago we wrote the Mt. Airy Emergency Operations Plan. It has been tested and updated and used in 3 events since then.Emergency Operations PlanMount Airy, MarylandTown Hall is located in downtown Mount Airy at 110 South Main Street, Mount Airy, MD 21771301 829 1424301 831 5768410 795 6012301 829 1259 faxAPPROVAL AND IMPLEMENTATIONTown of Mount Airy, MarylandEmergency Operations PlanThis emergency operations plan is hereby approved. This plan is effective immediately and supersedes all previous editions.Mayor DateTown Administrator DateRECORD OF CHANGESChange #Date of ChangeChange Entered ByDate EnteredTown Hall located at 110 South Main Street, Mount Airy, MD 21771EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBERSAMBULANCE/FIRE/POLICE 911FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) 1-202-646-4600Statewide Emergency NumberPoison Control Center 1-800-492-2414Chemical Spills 1-800-424-8802American Red CrossFrederick County 1- 301-662-5131Carroll County 1- 410-848-4334Fire/Rescue Services Frederick County 1- 301-600-1536Fire/Rescue Services Carroll CountyFrederick County Health Department 1-301-600-1029 (Urgent Calls) 1-301-600-1603Carroll County Health Department 1-410-857-5000Frederick Memorial HospitalGeneral Information 1-240-566-3300Emergency Room 1-240-566-3500Carroll Hospital CenterGeneral Information 1-410-876-3000Emergency Room 1-410-871-7186 TTYAllegheny Power 1-800-296-6460Baltimore Gas and Electric 1-410-685-0123Oil CompaniesTevis Oil 410-848-2200Voneiff Oil 301-829-0244Carroll Fuel 410-848-4477Southern States 410-848-9420Maryland Labor Department 1-866-487-9243Maryland Occupational Safety and Health 1-301-791-4600Maryland State Police - Westminster Barracks 1-410-386-3000Maryland Workers Compensation Commission 1-800-492-0479Frederick County Sheriffs Office 1-301-600-1046Non-Emergency 1-301-600-2071Carroll County Sheriffs Office 1-410-386-2900MAVFC, Non –Emergency 301-829-0100Carroll County Humane Society 410-848-4810Frederick County Humane Society 301-600-1546/1544TABLE OF CONTENTSAPPROVAL AND IMPLEMENTATION. iiRECORD OF CHANGES. iiiI. PURPOSE. 1II. EXPLANATION OF TERMS. 1A. Acronyms. 1B. Definitions. 2III. ASSUMPTIONS. 4IV. CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS. 5A. Objectives. 5B. General. 5C. Operational Guidance. 6D. Incident Command System (ICS) 7E. Incident Command System (ICS) — Town Command Center (TCC) Interface. 9F. State, Federal, and Other Assistance. 10G. Emergency Declarations. 10H. Activities by Phases of Emergency Management. 14V. ORGANIZATION AND ASSIGNMENTS OF RESPONSIBILITIES. 15A. Organization. 15B. Assignment of Responsibilities. 15C. Response Operations Functional Responsibilities. 18VI. DIRECTION AND CONTROL. 20A. General. 20B. Emergency Facilities. 20C. Continuity of Government. 21VII. EVACUATION. 22A. Evacuation. 22B. Evacuation Situation. 22C. Evacuation Assumptions. 23D. Concept of Operations. 24VIII. ADMINISTRATION AND SUPPORT.24A. Agreements and Contracts. 24B. Records. 24C. Consumer Protection. 25D. Post-Incident and Exercise Review.. 25IX. PLAN DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE. 25A. Plan Development. 25B. Distribution of Planning Documents. 26C. Review.. 26D. Update. 26X. APPENDICES. 26Distribution List. 27Town Contact List. 28Assignment of Town Responsibilities. 29Carroll County EOP Annex Assignments. 32BASIC PLANI. PURPOSEThe purpose of this Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) is to define the actions to be taken by Town Mount Airy, MD (hereafter referred to as Town) officials, in coordination with Carroll County, Frederick County, State of Maryland, federal agencies and other nongovernment organizations in the event of a significant disaster or emergency within the corporate limits of Mount Airy. This plan is intended to work in conjunction with the Carroll County (hereafter referred to as County) EOP and its more specific functional annexes. This plan establishes the overall roles and responsibilities for emergency operations, as well as the concept of operations for the Town. It is intended to be used in conjunction with established operational procedures, plans and protocols.II. EXPLANATION OF TERMSA. AcronymsBOCC Board of County Commissioners of Carroll CountyCCSO Carroll County Sheriff’s OfficeDOD Department of DefenseDOE Department of EnergyECC Emergency Communications CenterEMAC Emergency Management Assistance CompactEOC Emergency Operations CenterEOP Emergency Operations PlanEPA Environmental Protection AgencyEPI Emergency Public informationFEMA Federal Emergency Management AgencyHHS Health and Human ServicesIA Individual AssistanceIC Incident CommanderICP Incident Command PostICS Incident Command SystemJIC Joint Information CenterLWP Local Warning PointMEMA Maryland Emergency Management AgencyMEMAC Maryland Emergency Management Assistance CompactNCP National Contingency PlanNDMS National Disaster Medical SystemNIMS National Incident Management SystemNRF National Response FrameworkOPSSS Office of Public Safety Support ServicesOSC On-Scene CommanderPA Public AssistancePDA Preliminary Damage AssessmentSBA Small Business AdministrationSOG Standard Operating GuidelineSOP Standard Operating ProcedureTCC Town Command CenterB. Definitions1.Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC)A congressionally ratified organization that provides form and structure to interstate mutual aid.2.Emergency Operations Center (EOC)Specially equipped facilities from which government officials exercise direction and control and coordinate necessary resources in an emergency situation.3.Emergency Operations Plan (EOP)A plan put into effect whenever a crisis, man-made or natural, disrupts operations, threatens life, creates major damage, and occurs within or nearby the community.4.Emergency Public Information (EPI)Emergency information that is disseminated to the public before, during, or after an emergency or disaster.5.Emergency Situation (See the County EOP for further information).As used in this plan, this term is intended to describe a range of situations, from an incident to a major disaster. It includes the following:a.Event- any large-scale emergency, disaster or planned activity that results in the implementation of the Incident Command System (ICS) or Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to manage County resources and command/control activities. An event may include, but is not limited to, tornado, tropical storm, severe thunderstorm with flash flooding, influenza outbreak, large public gathering or public festival.b.Incident - situation that is limited in scope and potential effects.c.Emergency - a situation larger in scope and more severe in terms of actual or potential effects than an incident.d.Disaster - the occurrence or threat of significant casualties or widespread property damage that is beyond the capability of the local government to handle with its own resources.6.Hazardous MaterialA substance in a quantity or form posing an unreasonable risk to health, safety, or property when manufactured, stored, or transported. The substance, by its nature, containment, and reactivity, has the capability for inflicting harm during an accidental occurrence. It can be toxic, corrosive, flammable, reactive, irritative, or strongly sensitizing, and poses a threat to health and the environment when improperly managed. Hazardous materials include toxic substances, certain infectious agents, radiological materials, and other related materials such as oil, used oil, petroleum products and industrial solid waste substances.7.Join Information CenterCentral location where Public Information Officers (PIOs) representing agencies or jurisdictions during an emergency gather to coordinate the content of information to be conveyed to the public.8.Inter-local agreementsArrangements between governments or organizations, either public or private, for reciprocal aid and assistance during emergency situations where the resources of a single jurisdiction or organization are insufficient or inappropriate for the tasks that must be performed to control the situation. Commonly referred to as a mutual aid agreement.9.Local Warning Point (LWP)A facility in a city, County, town or community that receives warnings and activates the public warning system in its jurisdictional area of responsibility.10.Maryland Emergency Management Assistance Compact (MEMAC)An intrastate assistance compact among local political subdivisions within the State of Maryland.11.National Contingency PlanThe federal government's plan for responding to both oil spills and hazardous substance releases.12.National Disaster Medical System (NDMS)A federally coordinated system that augments the Nation's medical response capability.13.National Incident Management System (NIMS)A system mandated by Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) - 5 that provides a consistent nationwide approach for federal, state, local and tribal governments, the private-sector and nongovernmental organizations to work effectively and efficiently together to prepare for, respond to, and recover from domestic incidents, regardless of cause, size or complexity.14.National Response Framework (NRF)Part of the National Strategy for Homeland Security that presents the guiding principles enabling all levels of domestic response partners to prepare for and provide a unified national response to disasters and emergencies. Building on the existing National Incident Management System (NIMS) as well as the Incident Command System (ICS), the NRF coordinating structures are always in effect for implementation at any level and at any time for local, state, and national emergency or disaster response.15.On-Scene-Coordinator (OSC)The federal official responsible for providing access to federal resources and technical assistance and coordinating federal containment, removal, and disposal efforts and resources during an oil or hazardous material incident.16.Standard Operating Guide (SOG)A statement written to guide the performance or behavior of departmental staff, whether functioning alone or in groups.17.Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)Approved method for accomplishing a task or set of tasks. SOPs are typically prepared at the department or agency level.18.Town Command Center (TCC)The location where Town officials provide direction and control for local response to an emergency or disaster.19.Unified CommandIncident Commanders representing agencies or jurisdictions that share responsibility for the incident manage the response from a single Incident Command Post. This allows agencies with different legal, geographic, and functional authorities and responsibilities to work together effectively without affecting individual agency authority, responsibility or accountability.III. ASSUMPTIONSA.Since most of the Town is located within Carroll County, with only a small residential area lying within Frederick County, the Town will follow its’ normal process and seek assistance from Carroll County before seeking assistance from Frederick County.B.Most emergency situations will be handled routinely by the normal responding emergency service agencies.C.In the event of a significant disaster or emergency, the immediate response priority will be to protect public health and safety, preserve the environment and protect public and private property.D.Disasters and emergencies can periodically occur within the Town that may require the mobilization and reallocation of Town resources.E.Certain emergencies or disasters will occur with enough warning that appropriate emergency notifications will be made to ensure some level of preparedness. Other emergencies or disasters will occur with little or no warning.F.The Town’s main responsibility will be to commit available Town resources to save lives and minimize property damage in coordination with the County.G.For most emergencies or disasters, the Mount Airy Volunteer Fire Company, Resident State Trooper or Carroll County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) will be the first responders and will implement initial incident command.H.Assistance may be available through mutual aid from nearby jurisdictions, including Frederick County, , the Maryland Emergency Management Assistance Compact (MEMAC), the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS), and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).I.Town residents and businesses can expect to use their own resources and be self-sufficient for at least three days following a significant disaster event.J.The effects of a disaster or emergency will likely extend beyond the Town boundaries. Many other areas of the County may also experience casualties, property loss and disruption of normal support systems.K.Employees of the Town may become casualties and/or experience damage to their home or property.L.Widespread power and communication outages may require the use of alternate methods of providing public information and delivering essential services. Everyday methods of communication may be difficult to use or unavailable due to demand exceeding capacity (i.e. no cell phone service).M.Upon request, the County, state or federal government will provide outside assistance if local capabilities or resources are overwhelmed or exhausted.N.Emergency operations will be managed in accordance with the National Incident Management System (NIMS).IV. CONCEPT OF OPERATIONSA. ObjectivesThe objectives of the Town emergency operations are to protect public health and safety, preserve the environment and protect public and private property.B. General1. The Town is vulnerable to various natural and technological hazards as detailed in the County EOP. The scope and magnitude of these emergencies may vary from minor impact requiring a minimum response to major impact requiring a significant response.2. It is the responsibility of Town and County officials to protect public health and safety and preserve property from the effects of hazardous events. This involves identifying and mitigating hazards, preparing for and responding to emergencies, and managing the recovery from emergency situations that affect the Town.3. It is impossible for government to do everything that is required to protect the lives and property of the population. Citizens of the Town have the responsibility to prepare themselves and their families to cope with emergency situations and manage their affairs and property in ways that will aid the government in managing emergencies. The Town will assist citizens in carrying out these responsibilities by providing public information and instructions prior to and during emergency situations in coordination with the County.4. The Town has limited capability to respond to emergency situations and will rely on the County to respond to significant incidents within the Town. The County maintains a robust emergency management program that includes organizing, training, and equipping local emergency responders and emergency management personnel, providing appropriate emergency facilities, providing suitable communications systems, and contracting for emergency services.5. This plan is based on an all-hazard approach to emergency planning. It addresses general functions that may need to be performed during any emergency situation.6. Town organizations tasked in this plan are expected to develop and keep current SOPs and SOGs that describe how their assigned emergency tasks will be performed.7. This plan is based upon the concept that the emergency functions that must be performed by many Town departments generally parallel some of their normal day-to-day functions. To the extent possible, the same personnel and material resources used for day-to-day activities will be employed during emergency situations. Because personnel and equipment resources are limited, some routine functions that do not contribute directly to the emergency may be suspended for the duration of an emergency. The personnel, equipment, and supplies that would normally be required for those functions will be redirected to accomplish emergency tasks.C. Operational Guidance1.Initial Responsea.The Mount Airy Volunteer Fire Company and local law enforcement are likely to be the first agencies on the scene of an emergency situation. They will normally take charge and remain in charge of the incident until it is resolved or others, who have legal authority to do so, assume responsibility. They will seek guidance and direction from local officials and seek technical assistance from state and federal agencies and industry, where appropriate.2.Implementation of the Incident Command System (ICS)a.The first local emergency responder to arrive at the scene of an emergency situation will implement the ICS and serve as the Incident Commander (IC) until relieved by a more senior or more qualified individual. The IC will establish an incident command post (ICP) and provide an assessment of the situation to Town and County officials, identify response resources required, and direct the on-scene response from the ICP.b.For some types of emergency situations, a specific incident scene may not exist in the initial response phase and the Town Command Center (TCC) or County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) may be activated to accomplish initial response actions, such as mobilizing personnel and equipment and issuing precautionary warning to the public. As the potential threat becomes clearer and a specific impact site or sites identified, an ICP may be established, and direction and control of the response transitioned to the IC.3.Source and Use of Resourcesa.The Town will use their own resources to respond to emergency situations, purchase supplies and equipment, if necessary, and request assistance if the resources are insufficient or inappropriate. The County should be the first channel through which the Town requests assistance when its resources are exceeded.b.The Town Administrator, or designee, will direct all requests for assistance that cannot be addressed through mutual aid to the County OPSSS or the County EOC.c.The following are sources for resources that may be available to the Town in responding to disasters and emergencies:1)Personnel, equipment, and facilities belonging to the Town.2)Resources available from the County and through mutual aid.3)Resources available from the private sector through acquisition/ purchasing.4)Resources of the state of Maryland, including the National Guard.5)Mutual aid available through MEMAC.6)Mutual aid resources from other states through the EMAC.7)Resources available from the federal government under the National Response Framework (NRF).8)Donations, whether monetary, goods or volunteer workers.D. Incident Command System (ICS)1.The Town and County will employ ICS in managing emergencies. ICS is both a strategy and a set of organizational arrangements for directing and controlling field operations. It is designed to effectively integrate resources from different agencies into a temporary emergency organization at an incident site that can expand and contract with the magnitude of the incident and resources on hand.a.The IC is responsible for carrying out the ICS function of command—managing the incident. The four other major management activities that form the basis of ICS are operations, planning, logistics, and finance/administration. For small-scale incidents, the IC and one or two individuals may perform all of these functions. For larger incidents, a number of individuals from different departments or agencies may be assigned to separate staff sections charged with those functions. The chart below depicts the standard ICS organization.2.An IC using response resources from one or two departments or agencies can handle the majority of emergency situations. Departments or agencies participating in this type of incident response will normally obtain support through their own department or agency.3.In emergency situations where other jurisdictions or the state or federal government are providing significant response resources or technical assistance, it is generally desirable to transition from the normal ICS structure to a Unified Command structure. This arrangement helps to ensure that all participating agencies are involved in developing objectives and strategies to deal with the emergency.4.Within the Town, the departments identified in the table below will serve as the primary agency for specific incidents and will assume initial IC role. Depending on the incident type and magnitude, incident command may default to an official of the Mt. Airy Volunteer Fire Company, County Division of Health Services (hereafter referred to as Health Department), Resident State Trooper or the CCSO with support, as needed, from the Town.Designated Departments for Establishing Incident CommandIncident TypeDepartment/AgencyBiological incident (e.g. influenza pandemic)Carroll County Health DepartmentBuilding collapse, construction accidentMount Airy Volunteer Fire CompanyFireMount Airy Volunteer Fire CompanyFloodMount Airy Department of Public WorksHazardous materialMount Airy Volunteer Fire DepartmentHurricane/tropical stormCoordination: Carroll County OPSSSRemediation: Town of Mount AiryMass fatalityDepending on the circumstances, the IC could be from Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, MD State Police or Carroll County Health Department.Nuclear/radiological incidentMount Airy Volunteer Fire CompanyPipeline spill/fire or explosionMount Airy Volunteer Fire CompanyRiots, civil disturbancesCarroll County Sheriff’s Office/MD State PoliceSevere thunderstorms/tornadoesCoordination: Carroll County OPSSSRemediation: Town of Mount AiryTerrorist incidentCarroll County Sheriff’s Office/ MD State PoliceTrain derailmentMount Airy Volunteer Fire CompanyWater distribution/water qualityMount Airy Department of Water and SewerWinter stormCoordination: Carroll County OPSSSRemediation: Town of Mount AiryE. Incident Command System (ICS) — Town Command Center (TCC) Interface1.For major emergencies and disasters, the Town will activate its Command Center, located at Town Hall, 110 S. Main Street, Mount Airy (alternate location is the Mount Airy Maintenance Building). When the TCC is activated, it is essential to establish a division of responsibilities between the ICP and the TCC. A general division of responsibilities is outlined below.2.The IC is generally responsible for field operations, including:a.Isolating the scene.b.Directing and controlling the on-scene response to the emergency situation and managing the emergency resources committed there.c.Warning the population in the area of the incident and providing emergency instructions to them.d.Determining and implementing protective measures (evacuation or in-place sheltering) for the population in the immediate area of the incident and for emergency responders at the scene.e.Implementing traffic control arrangements in and around the incident scene.f.Requesting additional resources from the TCC or County EOC, whichever is appropriate.3.The TCC is generally responsible for:a.Providing Town resource support for the incident command operations.b.Issuing public warnings in coordination with the IC.c.Issuing instructions and providing information to the general public.d.Organizing large-scale evacuations.e.Coordinating with the County, as necessary, to provide shelter and mass care arrangements for evacuees.f.Coordinating traffic control for large-scale evacuations.g.Requesting assistance from the County, state and other external sources through the County EOC.F. State, Federal, and Other Assistance1.State and Federal Assistancea.If Town and County resources are inadequate to deal with an emergency situation, assistance from the state will be requested through the County. State assistance furnished to local governments is intended to supplement local resources and not substitute for such resources, including mutual aid resources, equipment purchases or leases, or resources covered by emergency service contracts.b.Requests for state assistance will be made in accordance with the County EOP.2.Other Assistancea.If resources required to control an emergency situation are not available within the state, the Govenor may request assistance from other states pursuant to a number of interstate compacts or from the federal government through FEMA.b.For major emergencies and disasters for which a presidential declaration has been issued, federal agencies may be mobilized to provide assistance to states and local governments. The NRF describes the policies, planning assumptions, concept of operations, and responsibilities of designated federal agencies for various response and recovery functions.c.FEMA has the primary responsibility for coordinating federal disaster assistance. No direct federal assistance is authorized prior to a presidential emergency or disaster declaration, but FEMA has limited authority to stage initial response resources near the disaster site and activate command and control structures prior to a declaration and the Department of Defense (DOD) has the authority to commit its resources to save lives prior to an emergency or disaster declaration. The Recovery Annex to the County EOP provides additional information on the assistance that may be available during disaster recovery.G. Emergency Declarations1.Non-Declared DisastersThe mayor or Town Administrator may direct Town personnel to respond to emergencies or disasters without a formal declaration of an emergency when the expectation is that Town resources will be used. The Town Administrator, or designee, may redirect and deploy Town resources and assets, as necessary, to prepare for, adequately respond to, and quickly recover from an emergency incident.2.Emergency DeclarationsThere are three types of emergency declarations that may apply to a disaster or emergency within the Town, depending upon the scope and magnitude of the event:a.Local Declaration: A local emergency declaration activates the EOP and provides for the expeditious mobilization of Town resources in responding to a major incident. The County may also declare a local state of emergency that includes the Town for incidents that impact other areas of the County.b.State Declaration: A declaration of an emergency by the Govenor of Maryland provides the Town access to the resources and assistance of the departments and agencies of the state, including the National Guard, in the event local resources are insufficient to meet the needs.c.Federal Declaration: The Govenor may request a federal emergency or major disaster declaration. In the event that the Town is declared a federal disaster area, the resources of federal departments and agencies are available to provide resources and assistance to augment those of the Town, County and the state.3.Local Emergency DeclarationA local emergency is declared when, in the judgment of the mayor, the threat or actual occurrence of an emergency or disaster is of sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant a coordinated response by the various Town departments and for assistance from outside the Town.a.The declaration of a local emergency by the mayor activates the Town Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). A local emergency is declared when, in the judgment of the mayor, the threat or occurrence of an incident is of sufficient severity to warrant a multi-department response by the Town and the need for outside assistance.b.The president of the Board of Commissioners (BOCC) of Carroll County has the authority to declare a local emergency that may include the Town.c.For instances where a resource shortage (e.g. gasoline, heating oil) is substantially or wholly the cause of a local emergency, a local emergency can only be declared by the Govenor based upon the request of the mayor though the County OPSSS.d.When, in their judgment, all emergency activities have been completed, the mayor or town council will take action to terminate the declared emergency.e.A local emergency declaration may be enacted by the mayor for up to seven days. A local emergency may only be extended beyond seven days with approval of the town council.4.State of Emergencya.The Maryland Emergency Management Act, found in the Annotated Code of Maryland, Public Safety Article, § 14-101, et. seq., prescribes the authority and implications of a declaration of a state of emergency by the Govenor.b.The Governor may declare a state of emergency to exist whenever the Governor finds an emergency has developed or is impeding due to any cause. The state of emergency is declared by executive order or proclamation.c.The Governor’s Declaration of a State of Emergency provides for the expeditious provision of assistance to local jurisdictions, including use of the Maryland National Guard.5.Federal Emergency and Major Disaster Declarationsa.Under the provisions of the Robert T. Stafford Act, the Govenor may request the president to declare a major disaster or emergency declaration for incidents that are (or threaten to be) beyond the scope of the state and local jurisdictions to effectively respond.b.A presidential Major Disaster Declaration puts into motion long-term federal recovery programs designed to help disaster victims, businesses, and public entities.c.An emergency declaration is more limited in scope and without the long-term federal recovery programs of a major disaster declaration. Generally, federal assistance and funding are provided to meet a specific emergency needs or to help prevent a major disaster from occurring.d.The major disaster or emergency declaration designates the political subdivisions within the state that are eligible for assistance. There are three major categories of disaster aid available under a major disaster declaration1)Individual Assistance (IA): Aid to individuals and households.a)Disaster Housing - provides up to 18 months temporary housing assistance for displaced persons whose residences were heavily damaged or destroyed. Funding also can be provided for housing repairs and replacement.b)Disaster Grants - may be available to help meet other serious disaster related needs and necessary expenses not covered by insurance and other aid programs. These may include replacement of personal property, transportation, medical, dental, and funeral expenses.c)Low-Interest Disaster Loans - may be available after a disaster for homeowners and renters from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to cover uninsured property losses. Loans may be for repair or replacement of homes, automobiles, clothing, or other damaged personal property. Loans are also available to businesses for property loss and economic injury.d)Other disaster aid programs include crisis counseling, disaster-related unemployment assistance, legal aid and assistance with income tax, Social Security, and Veteran’s benefits. Other State or local help may also be available.2)Public Assistance (PA): Aid to state or local governments to pay part of the costs of rebuilding a community’s damaged infrastructure. PA may include debris removal, emergency protective measures and public services, repair of damaged public property, loans needed by communities for essential government functions, and grants for repair of damaged public and private nonprofit schools and educational facilities.3)Hazard Mitigation: Funding for measures designed to reduce future losses to public and private property.6.Other Declarationsa.Several federal agencies have independent authorities to declare disasters or emergencies. These authorities may be exercised concurrently or become part of a major disaster or emergency declared under the Stafford Act. These other authorities include:1)The administrator of the SBA may make a disaster declaration based upon physical damage to buildings, machinery, equipment, homes, and other property as well as economic injury.2)The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) may declare, after consultation with public health officials, a public health emergency in the event of a significant outbreak of infectious diseases or bioterrorist attack.3)The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers may issue a disaster declaration in response to flooding or coastal storms.4)The Secretary of Agriculture may declare a disaster in certain situations in which a County sustained a production loss of 30 percent or greater in a single major enterprise.5)A federal On-Scene-Coordinator (OSC), designated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. States Coast Guard, or the Department of Energy (DOE) under the National Contingency Plan (NCP), has the authority to direct response efforts at the scene of a discharge of oil, hazardous substance, pollutants, or contaminants, depending upon the location and source of the release.7.The Declaration Processa.A local emergency may be declared by the mayor. The mayor will consult with the County OPSSS, when possible, to assist with the declaration. The local emergency declaration may be based upon reports of an actual event or on the forecast or prediction of emergency conditions.b.Whenever a local emergency has been declared, the Town Administrator will immediately notify the County OPSSS. The County will notify the Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA).c.For an incident that affects the Town and other areas of the County, the County, concurrently with the Town declaration or upon the request of the Town, may issue the local emergency declaration.d.A local emergency must be declared before state and federal assistance can be requested unless a state or federal state of emergency has already been declared.e.Based upon the request of the County or other information available, the Governor may declare a state of emergency. The Governor’s declaration of a state of emergency provides for expedited assistance from state departments, agencies and the Maryland National Guard.f.Once a determination is made by MEMA that the event is, or may be, beyond the capabilities of the Town, County and state, the Governor may request assistance from FEMA. Generally this request will result in joint federal/state Preliminary Damage Assessment (PDA).1)A PDA is an on-site survey of the affected area(s) by federal and state officials to determine the scope and magnitude of damages and to determine if federal assistance is warranted. Generally, a PDA is conducted prior to an official request by the Governor for a declaration of an emergency or major disaster by the president. The County OPSSS will provide assistance in facilitating the PDA process within the Town.a)Depending upon the extent and scope of damages provided in the initial reports, PDA teams may be organized to assess damage to private property (Individual Assistance) and/or public property (Public Assistance).b)For events of unusual severity and magnitude, state and federal officials may delay the PDA pending more immediate needs assessment activities.c)The PDA process verifies the general magnitude of damage and whether federal assistance will be requested.d)Based upon the results of the PDA and consultations with FEMA, MEMA will prepare for the Governor’s signature an official request for an emergency or major disaster declaration.g.The presidential declaration will stipulate the types of federal assistance authorized for the Town.H.Activities by Phases of Emergency Management1.MitigationThe Town will conduct mitigation activities to lessen or eliminate hazards, reduce the probability of hazards causing an emergency situation, or lesson the consequences of unavoidable hazards and participate in the review and updates of the County Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan.2.PreparednessPreparedness activities will be conducted in coordination with the County OPSSS to develop the response capabilities needed in the event of an emergency.3.ResponseThe Town will respond to emergency situations using the resources available and will request assistance, as needed, through the County for response operations. Response activities include emergency medical services, firefighting, law enforcement operations, evacuation, sheltering and mass care, search and rescue and other associated functions.4.RecoveryIf a disaster occurs, the Town will carry out a recovery program that involves both short-term and long-term efforts. Short-term operations seek to restore vital services to the community and provide for the basic needs of the public. Long-term recovery focuses on restoring the community to its natural state.V. ORGANIZATION AND ASSIGNMENTS OF RESPONSIBILITIESA. Organization1.In the event of a significant emergency or disaster impacting the Town, the mayor, assisted by the Town Administrator, will coordinate emergency operations within the Town and request outside resources, as needed. The TCC will be activated, as necessary, to coordinate the Town’s response operations. The Town may request a representative from the County OPSSS to assist the Town.2.In the event the County EOC is activated to coordinate operations, the mayor may designate a representative to the County EOC to coordinate activities within the Town.B.Assignment of Responsibilities1.The Mayor will:a.Establish objectives and priorities for the emergency management program and provide general policy guidance.b.Serve as, or appoint, a chief spokesperson for the Town during emergency events.c.Confer with the Town Administrator and other town officials, as appropriate, on policy issues related to the response and recovery operations.d.Coordinate with other elected officials at the County, regional and state level, including the congressional delegation.e.Order evacuations and implement this plan.f.Keep the public informed during emergency situations.g.In coordination with the County OPSSS, declare a local state of emergency, request the Governor declare a state of emergency, or invoke the emergency powers of government, when necessary.h.Request assistance from other local governments, when necessary.i.Exercise overall responsibility for plans and operations for emergency and disaster assistance within the Town.2.The town council will:a.Monitor the emergency response during disaster situations and provide direction where appropriate.b.Ensure funds are available to support emergency operations as outlined in this plan.c.Communicate with the public and provide guidance on responding to an emergency or disaster.d.As necessary, vote to extend a local emergency declaration beyond seven days.e.Host community meetings to ensure needs are being addressed and information is provided to residents.f.Promulgate the codes, regulations, and ordinances of the Town, and provides the funds required to implement and enforce an effective mitigation program.g.Enact emergency ordinances, as appropriate.3.Town Attorney will:a.Advise Town officials concerning legal responsibilities, powers and liabilities regarding emergency operations and post-disaster assistance.b.Prepare, as appropriate, emergency ordinances (i.e., gouging and curfews) and local declarations.c.Assist with the preparation of applications, legal interpretations or opinions.d.Assist in obtaining waivers and legal clearances needed to dispose of debris and materials resulting from an emergency or disaster.e.Assist with the implementation of isolation and quarantine orders and other court orders as needed.f.Advise Town officials on other legal matters arising from an emergency or disaster.4.The Town Administrator will:a.Activate the Town EOP.b.Provide direction and control of Town departments and organizations during emergency operations. In the event the TCC is activated, the Town Administrator will serve as the TCC manager.c.Direct and reallocate Town assets and resources during an emergency.d.Serve as the lead for the Town in managing recovery operations.e.Implement the policies and decisions of the governing body related to emergency management.5.The Town engineer will:a.Develop and maintain the Public Works and Engineering Annex to this plan.b.Manage the public works and engineering operations during emergency situations.c.Oversee the repair and restoration of key Town facilities and systems.d.Manage debris removal operations.6.The director, Streets and Road Department will:a.Provide personnel, equipment, and supplies to support emergency operations, upon request.b.Develop and maintain SOPs/SOGs for emergency tasks.c.Monitor the status of the Town’s transportation infrastructure and repair roads and traffic control systems, as necessary.d.Provide support for traffic control, as necessary.e.Manage snow and debris removal on Town streets.f.Provide support for evacuations.7.The director, Water and Sewer will:a.Develop and maintain SOPs/SOGS.b.Conduct damage assessments of water supply, distribution and control facilities, sanitary sewer systems and related facilities.c.Manage the repair and restoration, as necessary, of Town water and sanitary sewer systems.d.Provide for emergency water supply and assist with distribution.e.Ensure the continued supply of potable water.f.Ensure continuous wastewater collection services.g.In conjunction with the County Health Department, provide warnings and advice for contaminated or low water levels and “boil water” alerts.8.Law enforcement will:a.Provide available staff, resources, and facilities to support emergency operations.b.As appropriate, establish on-scene incident command.c.Assist in evacuation operations.d.Provide security of emergency site(s), evacuated areas, shelter areas, vital facilities, supplies, and other assigned locations.e.Provide assistance in search operations.f.Provide law enforcement services.g.Initiate on-scene warning and alerting in cooperation with the Mount Airy Volunteer Fire Company.h.Provide traffic control and management.i.Conduct investigations in accordance with Federal, State, and local laws.9.The Mount Airy Volunteer Fire Company will:a.Provide fire prevention, suppression and rescue services.b.Provide support for emergency notifications.c.As appropriate, establish initial on-scene incident command.d.Provide emergency triage, medical care and transportation of patients.e.Assist in evacuation operations.f.Assist in search operations.10.Parks and Recreation will:a.Provide available staff and resources to support emergency operations.b.Provide facilities, as required, for use as staging areas and/or points of distribution.C.Response Operations Functional Responsibilities1.The Town EOP is based upon common functions that may be needed following a significant emergency or disaster. These functions are based upon those identified in the County EOP.a.Warning – the Town will use all means available to provide the Town population with appropriate warning information. This includes radio and television, loudspeakers, sirens and telephones. Warning activities will be coordinated by the Mayor. The Town will request support from the County ECC and OPSSS, as needed. The Town receives warning information through the Carroll County ECC that serves as the Local Warning Point (LWP). Upon activation of the TCC, warning activities in the Town will be coordinated by the EOC Manager.b.Communications – the Town will request communication support, as needed, through the County. The Town will coordinate the use of its internal communication assets through the TCC.c.Radiological Protection – the Town will request support, as needed, from the County as detailed in the Radiological Protection Annex to the County EOP. Primary responsibility for this function is the Mount Airy Volunteer Fire Company.d.Evacuation – the Town will be assisted by the Mount Airy Volunteer Fire Company with support requested from the County, as needed, as detailed in the Evacuation Annex to the County EOP. The Mount Airy Volunteer Fire Company may provide support in conducting door-to-door warnings and instructions.e.Damage Assessment – the County OPSSS has primary responsibility for coordinating damage assessment activities as detailed in the Damage Assessment Annex to the County EOP. The Town will be responsible for damage assessment of critical infrastructure and for providing support and information for damage within the Town boundaries.f.Firefighting and other Fire/Rescue Functions – the Mount Airy Volunteer Fire Company has primary responsibility for these functions within the Town and will coordinate requests for support through existing mutual aid.g.Emergency Medical Services (EMS) – The Mount Airy Volunteer Fire Company has primary responsibility for this function within the Town and will coordinate requests for support with existing mutual aid.h.Law Enforcement – the Resident State Trooper has primary responsibility for law enforcement functions within the Town during emergency situations and will provide support as detailed in the Law Enforcement Annex to the County EOP.i.Direction and Control - primary responsibility for direction and control with the Town is assigned to the mayor, assisted by the Town Administrator. The Town Administrator will serve as the TCC manager upon activation and will manage the Town’s emergency response operations.j.Hazardous Materials and Oil Spills – the Mount Airy Volunteer Fire Company has primary responsibility for hazardous material response operations as detailed in the Hazardous Material and Oil Spill Response Annex to the County EOP.k.Search and Rescue – the MD State Police/CCSO has primary responsibility for search operations following a major disaster or emergency as detailed in the Law Enforcement Annex to the County EOP. The Mount Airy Volunteer Fire Company has primary responsibility for rescue operations following a major disaster or emergency as detailed in the Fire and Rescue Annex to the County EOP. (CC may have search and rescue annex)l.Terrorist Incident – the MD State Police/CCSO has primary responsibility for local response to a terrorist incident as detailed in the Terrorist Incident Annex to the County EOP.m.Shelter and Mass Care – the County Citizens Services Division has the primary responsibility for shelter and mass care operations as detailed in the Shelter and Mass Care Annex to the County EOP.n.Health and Medical Services – the County Health Department has the primary responsibility for health and medical service operations as detailed in the Health and Medical Services Annex to the County EOP.o.Human Services – the County Citizens Services Division has the primary responsibility of coordinating human services as detailed in the Human Services Annex to the County EOP.p.Transportation – the Town Department of Streets and Roads has primary responsibility for coordinating transportation support. The County will assist, when requested, as detailed in the Transportation Annex to the County EOP.q.Emergency Public Information (EPI) - The mayor or the mayor’s designee will serve as the chief spokesperson for the Town. The Town will coordinate its EPI with the County and assign a representative to the County Joint Information Center (JIC), if activated.r.Recovery – The Town Administrator will be the lead for recovery operations within the Town and will serve as the Town’s point of contact with the County.s.Public Works and Engineering – the Town’s Department of Public Works has the primary responsibility for this function.t.Utilities – the Town’s Superintendent, Water and Sewer, has the primary responsibility for this function.u.Resource Management – The Town will, upon exhaustion of Town resources, request assistance from the County.v.Donations and Volunteer Management - the County Citizens Services Division has the primary responsibility for coordinating donations and volunteers during an emergency response as detailed in the Donations and Volunteer Coordination Annex to the County EOP.w.Legal – The town attorney will provide appropriate advice to Town officials.VI. DIRECTION AND CONTROLA.General1.The mayor, assisted by the Town Administrator, is responsible for establishing objectives and policies for emergency management and providing general guidance for disaster response and recovery operations.2.The Town Administrator will provide overall direction of the response activities of all departments. As necessary, the Town Command Center (TCC) will be activated to coordinate emergency operations.3.The IC, assisted by a staff sufficient for the tasks to be performed, will manage the emergency response at an incident site.4.If the Town’s own resources are insufficient or unsuitable to deal with an emergency situation, assistance from other jurisdictions, the County, organized volunteer groups, or the state may be requested.B.Emergency Facilities1.Incident Command Post (ICP)Except when an emergency situation threatens, but has not yet occurred, and those situations for which there is no specific hazard impact site (such as severe winter storm or area-wide utility outage), an ICP or command posts will be established in the vicinity of the incident site(s). As noted previously, the IC will be responsible for directing the emergency response and managing the resources at the incident scene.2.Town Command Center (TCC)When major emergencies and disasters have occurred or appear imminent, the TCC, located at Mount Airy Town Hall, 110 S. Main Street, Mount Airy, will be activated. The alternate TCC is the Mount Airy Maintenance Facility. The mayor and OPSSS will determine if a Town liaison will be deployed to the County EOC or a liaison from the County OPSSS will be deployed to the TCC to coordinate emergency actions between the Town and the County.a.The following individuals are authorized to activate the TCC:1)mayor2)town administratorb.The general responsibilities of the TCC are:1)Assemble accurate information on the emergency situation and current resource data to allow local officials to make informed decisions on courses of action.2)Working with representatives of emergency services, determine and prioritize required response actions and coordinate their implementation.3)Provide resource support for emergency operations.4)Suspend or curtail government services, recommend the closure of schools and businesses, and cancellation of public events.5)Organize and activate large-scale evacuation and mass care operations.6)Provide emergency information to the public.c.Representatives of those departments and agencies assigned emergency functions in this plan will staff the TCC. TCC operations are addressed in the Direction and Control Annex. The interface between the TCC and the ICP is described in paragraph IV.E. above.C.Continuity of Government1.A major incident or emergency could include death or injury of key Town officials, the partial or complete destruction of established facilities, and the destruction of vital public records essential to the continued operations of the Town government. It is essential that law and order be preserved and government services maintained.2.Continuity of leadership and government services is particularly important with respect to emergency services, direction of emergency response operations, and management of recovery activities. A key aspect of this control is the continued capability to communicate official requests, situation reports, and other emergency information throughout the event.3.The line succession for the mayor is:a.Mayorb.President of the Town Councilc.Town administrator4.The line of succession for the Town Administrator is:a.Town Administratorb.Town engineerc.Director, Streets and Road DepartmentVII. EVACUATIONState law does not authorize the Governor or local officials to issue mandatory evacuation orders. State and local officials may recommend evacuation of threatened or stricken areas.A.EvacuationThe purpose of this section is to provide for the orderly and coordinated evacuation of all, or any part, of the population of the Town if it is determined that such action is the most effective means available for protecting the population from the effects of an emergency situation. This section is intended to work in conjunction with the County EOP.B.Evacuation Situation1.The Town is susceptible to both natural and man-made events such as floods, hurricanes, and hazardous material incidents that may necessitate an evacuation of nearby residents, businesses, and other facilities in order to save and protect lives. Evacuations may not always be the best option and Town officials or the on-scene IC may instead order affected populations to shelter in place. However, emergency situations such as a major fire, transportation accidents, hazardous material incidents, or localized flooding may require an evacuation of Town residents.2.The Town has the primary responsibility for ordering an evacuation and ensuring the safety of its citizens. The decision to evacuate will depend on the type of hazard, its magnitude, intensity, duration, and anticipated time of occurrence, assuming it hasn’t already happened.3.The on-scene IC may implement an evacuation, as necessary, to save lives and establish a zone around the impacted or potentially impacted area. The IC will request assistance from Town officials, as required, to provide notification, traffic management and control, and other support, as necessary. Should an evacuation become necessary, warning and evacuation instructions may be disseminated via radio, television, and other available media outlets, voice/tone siren, door-to-door notifications, etc.4.The primary means of transportation for evacuees will be by privately owned and operated motor vehicles. Town transportation resources may be utilized to provide supplementary transportation for those in need, including special needs populations, who may require accessible transportation. As necessary, additional transportation assets will be requested from the County.5.Depending upon the scope and magnitude of the incident, a Unified Command, including the Mount Airy Volunteer Fire Company, County OPSSS, CCSO and the MD State Police, may be established to coordinate notification to residents and businesses, and to provide direction for the orderly evacuation of the affected area. If the nature of the incident is escalating rapidly, or if large areas are impacted, the TCC may be activated to support the IC.6.In the event that emergency shelters will need to be established to support evacuations, the Town will request support from the County to establish and operate the shelter(s), as appropriate.7.Since the Town has no mandatory evacuation law, the mayor, or designee, can only recommend evacuation of a threatened area, not mandate it. However, when the mayor has issued a local disaster declaration, he or she may take action to control re-entry into a stricken area and the movement of people and occupancy of buildings within a disaster area.8.Town residents are expected to plan for the care of their pets in the event of a disaster or emergency. Companion animals are not be permitted in mass care shelters operated by the County except for service animals that accompany citizens with special needs. However, the County has made provisions for sheltering pets, as necessary, during emergencies. Refer to the County Animal Protection Annex for more information on the sheltering of pets during an emergency.C.Evacuation Assumptions1.Most people at risk will evacuate when local officials recommend that they do so. A general estimate is that 80 percent of those at risk will comply when local officials recommend evacuation. The proportion of the population that will evacuate typically increases as a threat becomes more obvious to the public or more serious.2.Some individuals will refuse to evacuate regardless of the threat.3.When there is sufficient warning of a significant threat, some individuals who are not at risk will evacuate.4.Some evacuation planning for known hazard areas can, and should be, done in advance.5.While some emergency situations are slow to develop, others occur without warning. Hence, there may be time for deliberate evacuation planning or an evacuation may have to be conducted with minimal preparation time. In the case of short notice evacuations, there may be little time to obtain personnel and equipment from external sources to support evacuation operations.6.The need to evacuate may become evident at any time and there could be little control over the evacuation start time.7.In most emergency situations, the majority of evacuees will seek shelter with relatives or friends or in commercial accommodations rather than in public shelters.8.Most evacuees will use their personal vehicles to evacuate; however, transportation may need to be provided for evacuees without personal vehicles.9.Public information messages that emphasize the need for citizens to help their neighbors who lack transportation or need assistance can significantly reduce requirements for public transportation during an evacuation.D.Concept of Operations1.The IC or, for large-scale emergencies, the mayor, shall assess the need for evacuation. The Town Administrator, as the TCC manager, will plan evacuations and coordinate support among Town departments and the County, as necessary, for the evacuation effort.2.It may be appropriate to recommend precautionary evacuation of certain residents in advance of a general evacuation recommendation.3.Evacuating residents with special needs may require specialized transportation.4.Advanced planning for special needs evacuees must be coordinated to ensure that proper care may be given at designated shelter locations.5.A recommendation to evacuate will be issued by the mayor or designee. The Town will use all means available to disseminate the evacuation recommendation.6.Actual evacuation movement will be controlled by the MD State Police/CCSO.7.The Town will request support, as needed, from the County as outlined in the County EOP. The Evacuation Annex to the County EOP provides additional information.VIII. ADMINISTRATION AND SUPPORTA.Agreements and ContractsShould local resources prove to be inadequate during an emergency; requests will be made for assistance from other local jurisdictions through mutual-aid and the County EOP.B.Records1.Record Keeping for Emergency OperationsThe Town is responsible for establishing the administrative controls necessary to manage the expenditure of funds and to provide reasonable accountability and justification for expenditures made to support emergency operations. This shall be done in accordance with the established Town fiscal policies and standard cost accounting procedures.a.Incident CostsAll departments shall maintain records summarizing the use of personnel, equipment, and supplies during the response to day-to-day incidents to obtain an estimate of annual emergency response costs that can be used in preparing future department budgets.b.Emergency or Disaster CostsFor major emergencies or disasters, all departments and agencies participating in the emergency response shall maintain detailed records of costs for emergency operations to include:1)Personnel costs, especially overtime costs.2)Equipment operation costs.3)Costs for leased or rented equipment.4)Costs for contract services to support emergency operations.5)Costs of specialized supplies expended for emergency operations.These records may be used to recover costs from the responsible party or insurers or as a basis for requesting financial assistance for certain allowable response and recovery costs from the state and/or federal government.2.Preservation of Recordsa.In order to continue normal Town operations following an emergency situation or disaster, vital records must be protected. These include legal documents as well as property and tax records. The principal causes of damage to records are fire and water; therefore, essential records should be protected accordingly. Each department will include protection of vital records in its SOPs/SOGs.b.If records are damaged during an emergency situation, the Town may seek professional assistance to preserve and restore them.C.Consumer ProtectionConsumer complaints regarding alleged unfair or illegal business practices often occur in the aftermath of a disaster. Such complaints will be referred to the town attorney who will pass such complaints to the Consumer Protection Division of the Office of the Attorney General.D.Post-Incident and Exercise ReviewThe mayor is responsible for organizing and conducting a critique following the conclusion of a significant emergency event/incident or exercise. The critique will entail both written and verbal input from all appropriate participants. Where deficiencies are identified, an individual or department will be assigned responsibility for correcting the deficiency and a due date shall be established for that action.IX. PLAN DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCEA. Plan DevelopmentThe Town Administrator is responsible for the overall development and completion of the Town’s EOP and identified supporting annexes. The mayor is responsible for approving and promulgating this plan.B. Distribution of Planning DocumentsThe Town Administrator shall determine the distribution of this plan and its annexes, if any. This plan includes a distribution list (See Appendix 1) that indicates who receives copies of the basic plan and its annexes.C. ReviewThis plan and its annexes shall be reviewed annually by local officials. The Town Administrator will establish a schedule for annual review of planning documents by those tasked in them.D. Update1.This plan will be updated based upon deficiencies identified during actual emergency situations and exercises and when changes in threat hazards, resources and capabilities, or government structure occur.2.This plan and its annexes, if any, must be revised or updated by a formal change at least every four years. Responsibility for revising or updating the plan is assigned to the Town Administrator.3.The Town Administrator is responsible for distributing all revised or updated planning documents to all departments, agencies, and individuals tasked in those documents.X. APPENDICESAppendix 1 Distribution ListAppendix 2 Town Emergency Contact InformationAppendix 3 Assignment of Town ResponsibilitiesAppendix 4 Carroll County Emergency Operations Plan AnnexesAPPENDIX 1Distribution ListJurisdiction/Agency PlanBasic PlanAnnexesTown Command Center1AllMayor1AllTown Council5AllTown Administrator1AllStreets and Roads1AllWater and Sewer1AllParks and Recreation1AllPlanning and Zoning1AllTown Attorney1AllMount Airy Volunteer Fire Company1AllCarroll County OPSSS1AllCarroll County Division of Health Services1AllCarroll County Citizens Services Division1AllCarroll County Sheriff’s Office1AllCarroll County Finance Division1AllFrederick County Division of Emergency Management1AllAPPENDIX 2Mount Airy Contact ListNAMETITLEOFFICEHOMECELL/PAGERPatrick RockinbergMayor301-829-1424301-829-0895301-448-2598Monika WeierbachTown Administrator301-829-1424301-834-3750301-748-4943Barney QuinnTown Engineer301-829-1424301-831-5838240-793-3703Mark MoxleyDirector Streets and Roads301-831-7844301-829-1156240-793-3701Tom RobersonDirector WWTP301-829-2674301-829-0525240-793-3699Brian JohnsonDirector Water and Sewer301-831-7844301-829-8188240-793-3697MAVFCLocal Fire Company301-829-0100MD State PoliceResident Troopers301-829-0218APPENDIX 3Assignment of ResponsibilitiesRESPONSIBLE PARTYASSIGNMENTMayor·Establish objectives and priorities for the emergency management program and provide general policy guidance.·Serve as, or appoint, a chief spokesperson for the Town during emergency events.·Confer with the Town Administrator and other town officials, as appropriate, on policy issues related to the response and recovery operations.·Coordinate with other elected officials at the County, regional and state level, including the congressional delegation.·Order evacuations and implement this plan.·Keep the public informed during emergency situations.·In coordination with the County OPSSS, declare a local state of emergency, request the Governor declare a state of emergency, or invoke the emergency powers of government, when necessary.·Request assistance from other local governments, when necessary.·Exercise overall responsibility for plans and operations for emergency and disaster assistance within the Town.Town Council·Monitor the emergency response during disaster situations and provide direction where appropriate.·Ensure funds are available to support emergency operations as outlined in this plan.·Communicate with the public and provide guidance on responding to an emergency or disaster.·As necessary, vote to extend the disaster declaration for the Town beyond seven days.·Host community meetings to ensure needs are being addressed and information is provided to residents.·Promulgate the codes, regulations, and ordinances of the Town, and provides the funds required to implement and enforce an effective mitigation program.·Enact emergency ordinances, as appropriate.Town Attorney·Advise Town officials concerning legal responsibilities, powers, and liabilities regarding emergency operations and post-disaster assistance.·Prepare, as appropriate, emergency ordinances (i.e., gouging and curfews) and local declarations.·Assist with the preparation of applications, legal interpretations or opinions.·Assist in obtaining waivers and legal clearances needed to dispose of debris and materials resulting from an emergency or disaster.·Assist with the implementation of isolation and quarantine orders and other court orders, as needed.·Advise town officials on other legal matters arising from an emergency or disaster.Town Administrator·Activate the Town EOP.·Provide direction and control of Town departments and organizations during emergency operations. In the event the TCC is activated, the Town Administrator will serve as the TCC manager.·Direct and reallocate Town assets and resources during an emergency.·Serve as the lead for the Town in managing recovery operations.·Implement the policies of the governing body related to emergency management.Town Engineer·Develop and maintain the Public Works and Engineering Annex to this plan.·Manage the public works and engineering operations during an emergency situations.·Oversee the repair and restoration of key Town facilities and systems.·Manager debris removal operations.Director, Street and Road Department·Provide personnel, equipment, and supplies to support emergency operations upon request.·Develop and maintain SOPs/SOGs for emergency tasks.·Assess damages to Town streets.·Monitor the status of the Town’s transportation infrastructure and repair roads and traffic control systems, as necessary.·Provide for traffic control, as necessary.·Manage snow and debris removal on Town streets.·Provide support for evacuations.Director, Water and Sewer·Develop and maintain SOPs/SOGs.·Conduct damage assessments of water supply, distribution and control facilities, sanitary sewer systems and related facilities.·Manage the repair and restoration, as necessary, for Town water and sanitary sewer systems.·Provide for emergency water supply and assist with distribution.·Ensure the continued supply of potable water.·Ensure continuous wastewater collection services.·In conjunction with the County division of Health Services provide warnings and advice for contaminated or low water levels and “boil water” alerts.Mount Airy Volunteer Fire Company·Provide fire prevention, suppression and rescue services.·Provide support for emergency notifications.·As appropriate, establish initial on-scene incident command.·Provide emergency triage, medical care and patient transportation.·Assist in evacuation operations.·Assist in search operations.·Provide emergency medical care, triage, and transportationLaw Enforcement·Provide available staff, resources, and facilities to support emergency operations.·As appropriate, establish on-scene incident command.·Assist in evacuation operations.·Provide security of emergency site(s), evacuated areas, shelter areas, vital facilities, supplies, and other assigned locations.·Provide assistance in search operations.·Provide law enforcement services.·Initiate on-scene warning and alerting in cooperation with the Mount Airy Volunteer Fire Company.·Provide traffic control and management.·Conduct investigations in accordance with Federal, State, and local laws.Parks and Recreation·Provide available staff and resources to support emergency operations.·Provide facilities, as required, for use as staging areas and/or points of distribution.APPENDIX 4Carroll County EOP Annex AssignmentsANNEXASSIGNED TO:Annex A: WarningAnnex B: Communications and Information TechnologyAnnex C: Shelter & Mass CareAnnex D: Radiological ProtectionAnnex E: EvacuationAnnex F: Fire and RescueAnnex G: Law EnforcementAnnex H: Health and Medical ServicesAnnex I: Emergency Public InformationAnnex J: RecoveryAnnex K: Public Works and EngineeringAnnex L: UtilitiesAnnex M: Resource ManagementAnnex N: Direction & ControlAnnex O: Human ServicesAnnex P: Reserved for future use.Annex Q: Hazardous Materials & Oil SpillResponseAnnex R: Reserved for future use.Annex S: TransportationAnnex T: Donations and Volunteer ManagementAnnex U: LegalAnnex V: Terrorist Incident ResponseAnnex W: Animal Health EmergencyAnnex X: Private Sector CoordinationAnnex Y: Family SupportAnnex Z: Damage AssessmentGEOGRAPHIC BRANCHES