As the 911 of state government,
EMAP, which stands for the
Emergency Management Accreditation Program, is a four-letter word to many
departments or agencies in state government, but it has become more than that
at TEMA. The State of Tennessee Emergency Management program has been officially
accredited nationally for the first time.
An
independent non-profit organization that sets standards by which to measure
emergency management programs nation-wide at state, county, and municipal
levels, EMAP evaluators come from all walks of life in the emergency management
field and use National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1600 standards on
Disaster/Emergency and Business Continuity Programs, 2004, as their guidance in
the evaluations. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) has agreed to work with the EMAP commission in
recognizing the standards. Tennessee’s emergency management program had to meet
58 different standards in order to become accredited. The EMAP program is also
used to determine the baseline preparedness of states and territories as well
as to validate goals and objectives in Emergency Management Performance Grants.
TEMA
was fully accredited in November 2007. You can learn more about EMAP by
clicking on www.EMAPONLINE.org. We are
excited that this recognition of preparedness will result in better protection
for the citizens of our state and communities as responders answer the call to
emergencies.
Jim Bassham
Director of TEMA