§ 81-829.41 — Agency; Adjutant General; powers and duties

Nebraska § 81-829.41

• Jurisdiction: Nebraska
• Ch. 81: State Administrative Departments

Text

(1) The Nebraska Emergency Management Agency
shall be maintained in the office of the Adjutant General. The Adjutant General
shall be the director of the agency, shall administer the Emergency Management
Act subject to the direction and control of the Governor, and shall receive
such compensation for these services as shall be determined by the Governor.
The agency shall have an assistant director and such other professional, technical,
secretarial, and clerical employees as are necessary for the performance of
its functions.
(2) The agency shall maintain an emergency operations plan and keep
it current. The plan may include, but need not be limited to:
(a) A history of Nebraska disasters, emergencies, and civil defense
emergencies;
(b) An analysis of past and potential disasters, emergencies, and civil
defense emergencies, including an identification of the functions and resources
required to cope with such occurrences. The expected frequency of occurrence,
along with the severity of effect, shall indicate the priority of preparedness
efforts of the emergency management organizations of the state;
(c) Measures to be undertaken to accomplish damage assessment and situation
analysis, warning, direction and control, coordination of operating forces,
emergency resource management, emergency information and official instructions,
communications and other necessary support to emergency response operations,
and coordination and cooperation of federal, state, local, and nongovernmental
agencies so as to provide a prompt and effective response to disasters, emergencies,
and civil defense emergencies to prevent and minimize the injury and damage;
(d) The provision of relief and recovery assistance to individuals,
political subdivisions of the state, and state agencies;
(e) Identification of areas of the state particularly vulnerable to
disaster, emergency, or civil defense emergency;
(f) Recommendations for preventive and preparedness measures designed
to eliminate or reduce disasters, emergencies, or civil defense emergencies
or their impact, including, but not limited to, zoning, building, and other
land-use control, and safety measures for securing mobile homes or other nonpermanent
or semipermanent structures;
(g) Authorization and procedures for the erection or other construction
of temporary works designed to protect against or mitigate danger, damage,
or loss from flood, conflagration, or other disaster, emergency, or civil
defense emergency;
(h) Assistance in designing city, village, county, and interjurisdictional
emergency operations plans;
(i) Preparation and distribution to the appropriate state and political
subdivision officials of catalogs of federal, state, and private disaster
assistance programs; and
(j) Other necessary matters.
(3) The Nebraska Emergency Management Agency shall take an integral
part in the development and revision of city, village, county, and interjurisdictional
emergency operations plans prepared under section 81-829.46 . It shall employ
or otherwise secure the services of professional and technical personnel capable
of providing expert assistance to political subdivisions and to city, village,
county, and interjurisdictional emergency management organizations. Such personnel
shall consult with such political subdivisions and organizations on a regularly
scheduled basis and shall make field examinations of the areas, circumstances,
and conditions to which particular city, village, county, and interjurisdictional
emergency operations plans are intended to apply and may suggest or require
revisions.
(4) In preparing and revising the Nebraska emergency operations plans,
the agency shall seek the advice and assistance of other agencies of government
and the private sector. In advising city, village, county, and interjurisdictional
emergency management organizations, the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency
shall encourage them to also seek advice from these sources.
(5) The Nebraska emergency operations plans or any part thereof may
be incorporated in rules or regulations of the agency.
(6) The agency shall:
(a) Determine the requirements of the state and its political subdivisions
for basic necessities such as food, clothing, and shelter in various disaster,
emergency, or civil defense emergency situations;
(b) Procure and pre-position emergency supplies, materials, and equipment;
(c) Adopt and promulgate rules and regulations setting out standards
and requirements for city, village, county, and interjurisdictional emergency
operations plans;
(d) Periodically review city, village, county, and interjurisdictional
emergency operations plans;
(e) Provide for state emergency response teams;
(f) Establish and operate or assist local governments, their emergency
management organizations, and interjurisdictional emergency management organizations
in establishing and operating training programs and programs of public information;
(g) Make surveys of such industries, resources, and facilities, both
public and private, within the state as are necessary to carry out the purposes
of the Emergency Management Act;
(h) Plan and make arrangements for the availability and use of any private
facilities, services, and property and, if necessary and if in fact used,
provide for payment for use under terms and conditions agreed upon;
(i) Establish a register of persons with training and skills important
in disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery and
emergency management;
(j) Establish a register of mobile and construction equipment and temporary
housing available for use in a disaster or emergency;
(k) Prepare for issuance by the Governor proclamations, orders, rules,
and regulations as are necessary or appropriate in coping with disasters,
emergencies, and civil defense emergencies;
(l) Cooperate with the federal government and any public or private
agency or entity in achieving any purpose of the act and in implementing programs
for disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery
and emergency management;
(m) Coordinate state emergency response as directed by the Governor;
(n) Cooperate with other
emergency management agencies and public agencies in the development of emergency
management registries which include persons with functional needs and the
families and guardians of such persons for purposes of planning for assistance
for such persons and their families and guardians before, during, and after
a disaster or other emergency. Participation in an emergency management registry
by persons with functional needs and their families shall be voluntary. Information
obtained by emergency management agencies or other public agencies for such
purposes shall not be considered a public record under section 84-712.01 .
All information acquired pursuant to this subdivision is confidential and
shall not be disclosed or released except to other agencies which have a legitimate
and official interest in the information for carrying out the purposes of
this subdivision. Any person acquiring information pursuant to this subdivision
who intentionally discloses or releases such information in violation of this
subdivision is guilty of a Class III misdemeanor; and
(o) Do other things necessary, incidental, or
appropriate for the implementation of the act.

Legislative History

Source: Laws 1973, LB 494, § 6; Laws 1996, LB 43, § 22; Laws 2013, LB434, § 1.