Continuity of Operations (COOP)

Continuity of operations refers to the process of ensuring that agencies, governments, businesses, etc. are able to continue to function when struck by disaster or a catastrophic event. Such a scenario could be sudden onset or long term problem. Regardless, the disaster life cycle applies to the approach to handling such cataclysmic events. Traditionally, governments were limited in their abilities to assist the private sector in responding to or recovering from disasters short of supporting infrastructure and bringing back utilities. However, this is changing as we speak under the leadership of the current FEMA director. Partnerships between the public and private sector, bringing business leaders into the loop regarding community preparedness and educational opportunities are just some of the changes which have been embraced within community emergency management in the last five years. Business and the private sector have many best practices which could aid and improve local governments in the setting of a disaster and the two would do well to learn from each others’ strengths.

*identify the crucial components of a viable “FPC 65” COOP plan. Identify a ‘Critical Infrastructure / Key Resource’ organization for your COOP plan, provide a description of the CIKR function provided by the organization, and delineate the ‘essential functions and activities’ required to provide that function or service.

The FEMA document attached as coop-multi-year_plan is most helpful.

To clarify….

Review the FEMA Multi-Year Guide.

Choose an entity such as a business, community center, hospital etc. ( i chose Dunkin Donut store )

Determine what critical infrastructures and key resources the entity provides and uses.

Describe briefly why each CI/KR is important.

Use Annex C of the FEMA plan as a guide to write a brief report of your entity’s COOP.

an example attached to clarify