About This Group

The Emergency Management Committee provides resources for public works professionals on a wide variety of emergency management topics. Committee members consist of experts in emergency management from agencies and from the private sector.

Mission

To provide APWA members with resources and a forum for exchanging and developing ideas, knowledge, and technologies for mitigating from, preparing for, responding to, and recovery from all hazards (manmade and natural disasters). The committee also intends to foster recognition of public works’ important role(s) in emergency management.

Technical Committees Member Expectations

Today, as recognized First Responders, we are an integral part of the “All-Hazards” and “Whole Community” approach to both emergency management and homeland security.We are constantly being reminded that we must be prepared to stand on our own for the first 72 hours. Change will continue to be forthcoming for public works professionals. Technological and policy changes in our daily operations and emergency management will be dotted across our future. Committee members represent APWA on many diverse committees on some of these issues such as:

  • FirstNet Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network
  • National Homeland Security Consortium
  • FHWA’s Traffic Incident Management (TIM) Program
  • and others

In the following video, Philip Mann, Public Works Director for the City of Gainesville, Florida, discusses the Public Works First Responder symbol and how public works professionals and emergency managers can work together to restore services after a disaster.

Resources for Members

The Emergency Management Committee has developed resources for members which can be found in the Resource Center and on the Focus on Emergency Management page.

Peer Resource Directory

A resource for APWA and CPWA members is the APWA Emergency Management Peer Resource Directory, which contains information on volunteer public works professionals with direct experience in various aspects of emergency management who are willing to provide advice or information on emergency management matters.

Emergency Management Knowledge Team

In an effort to expand volunteer opportunities to those who may be interested in contributing to the Emergency Management Committee, the committee has created a knowledge team. Members of the knowledge team will commit to share information with APWA members through working on projects such as writing articles, presenting Click, Listen, and Learn sessions, speaking at PWX and other conferences and other methods. You can find the knowledge team roster here.

APWA Connect – Share and Discuss

Members interested in discussing Emergency Management topics with other APWA members are encouraged to subscribe within APWA Connect, which will be relaunched in 2025. This forum connects you with other Engineering and Technology professionals and provides opportunities to post and answer questions to your peers.

Committee Charter

NIMS Training

Collaboration between APWA and FEMA/Emergency Management Institute (EMI) led to the creation of four public works-centric online courses, available as web-based independent study programs. Compliance with National Incident Management System (NIMS) requires that all agency responders complete:

Together with the following four, a well-rounded training base is available to all organization staff—at no cost, other than the commitment of time.

The Emergency Management Committee urges each public works professional to take the lead in working with your fellow first responders. Utilize disaster drills and planned special events as training opportunities for you and your staff to integrate into your community’s Incident Command System (ICS).