The
emergency management assistance compact is enacted and entered into
by this state with all other states legally joining the compact in
the form substantially as follows:
ARTICLE I
PURPOSES AND AUTHORITIES
This compact is made and entered into by and between the
participating party states which enact this compact. For the
purposes of this agreement, the term "states" means the several
states, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia,
and all United States territorial possessions.
The purpose of this compact is to provide for mutual
assistance between the states entering into this compact in
managing any emergency or disaster that is duly declared by the
governor of the affected state or states, whether arising from
natural disaster, technological hazard, man-made disaster, civil
emergency aspects of resources shortages, community disorders,
insurgency, or enemy attack.
This compact shall also provide for mutual cooperation in
emergency-related exercises, testing, or other training activities
using equipment and personnel simulating performance of any aspect
of the giving and receiving of aid by party states or subdivisions
of party states during emergencies, such actions occurring outside
actual declared emergency periods. Mutual assistance in this
compact may include the use of the states' national guard forces,
either in accordance with the national guard mutual assistance
compact, or by mutual agreement between states.
ARTICLE II
GENERAL IMPLEMENTATION
Each party state entering into this compact recognizes many
emergencies transcend political jurisdictional boundaries and that
intergovernmental coordination is essential in managing these and
other emergencies under this compact. Each state further
recognizes that there will be emergencies which require immediate
access and present procedures to apply outside resources to make a
prompt and effective response to the emergency. This is because
few, if any, individual states have all the resources they may need
in all types of emergencies or the capability of delivering
resources to areas where emergencies exist.
The prompt, full, and effective utilization of resources of
the participating states, including any resources on hand or
available from the federal government or any other source, that are
essential to the safety, care, and welfare of the people in the
event of any emergency or disaster declared by a party state, shall
be the underlying principle on which all articles of this compact
shall be understood.
On behalf of the governor of each state participating in the
compact, the legally designated state official who is assigned
responsibility for emergency management will be responsible for
formulation of the appropriate interstate mutual aid plans and
procedures necessary to implement this compact.
ARTICLE III
PARTY STATE RESPONSIBILITIES
(1) It shall be the responsibility of each party state to
formulate procedural plans and programs for interstate cooperation
in the performance of the responsibilities listed in this article. In formulating such plans, and in carrying them out, the party
states, as is practical, shall:
(a) Review individual state hazards analyses and, to the
extent reasonably possible, determine all those potential
emergencies the party states might jointly suffer, whether due to
natural disaster, technological hazard, man-made disaster,
emergency aspects of resource shortages, civil disorders,
insurgency, or enemy attack;
(b) Review party states' individual emergency plans and
develop a plan which will determine the mechanism for the
interstate management and provision of assistance concerning any
potential emergency;
(c) Develop interstate procedures to fill any identified gaps
and to resolve any identified inconsistencies or overlaps in
existing or developed plans;
(d) Assist in warning communities adjacent to or crossing the
state boundaries;
(e) Protect and assure uninterrupted delivery of services,
medicines, water, food, energy and fuel, search and rescue, and
critical lifeline equipment, services, and resources, both human
and material;
(f) Inventory and set procedures for the interstate loan and
delivery of human and material resources, together with procedures
for reimbursement or forgiveness;
(g) Provide, to the extent authorized by law, for temporary
suspension of any statutes or ordinances that restrict the
implementation of the responsibilities listed in this compact.
(2) The authorized representative of a party state may request
assistance of another party state by contacting the authorized
representative of that state. The provisions of this agreement
shall only apply to requests for assistance made by and to
authorized representatives. Requests may be verbal or in writing. If verbal, the request shall be confirmed in writing within thirty
days of the verbal request. Requests shall provide the following
information:
(a) A description of the emergency services function for which
assistance is needed, such as, but not limited to, fire services,
law enforcement, emergency medical, transportation, communications,
public works and engineering, building inspection, planning and
information assistance, mass care, resource support, health and
medical services, and search and rescue;
(b) The amount and type of personnel, equipment, materials,
and supplies needed, and a reasonable estimate of the length of
time they will be needed;
(c) The specific place and time for staging of the assisting
party's response and a point of contact at that location.
(3) There shall be frequent consultation between state
officials who have assigned emergency management responsibilities
and other appropriate representatives of the party states with
affected jurisdictions and the United States government, with free
exchange of information, plans, and resource records relating to
emergency capabilities.
ARTICLE IV
LIMITATIONS
Any party state requested to render mutual aid or conduct
exercises and training for mutual aid shall take such action as is
necessary to provide and make available the resources covered by
this compact in accordance with the terms of this compact. However, it is understood that the state rendering aid may withhold
resources to the extent necessary to provide reasonable protection
for the state. Each party state shall afford to the emergency
forces of any party state, while operating within its state limits
under the terms and conditions of this compact, the same powers
except that of arrest unless specifically authorized by the
receiving state, duties, rights, and privileges as are afforded
forces of the state in which they are performing emergency
services. Emergency forces will continue under the command and
control of their regular leaders, but the organizational units will
come under the operational control of the emergency services
authorities of the state receiving assistance. These conditions
may be activated, as needed, only subsequent to a declaration of a
state of emergency or disaster by the governor of the party state
that is to receive assistance or commencement of exercises or
training for mutual aid and shall continue so long as the exercise
or training for mutual aid are in progress, the state of emergency
or disaster remains in effect, or loaned resources remain in the
receiving state or states, whichever is longer.
ARTICLE V
LICENSES AND PERMITS
Whenever any person holds a license, certificate, or other
permit issued by any state party to the compact evidencing the
meeting of qualifications for professional, mechanical, or other
skills, and when such assistance is requested by the receiving
party state, such person shall be deemed licensed, certified, or
permitted by the state requesting assistance to render aid
involving such skill to meet a declared emergency or disaster,
subject to such limitations and conditions as the governor of the
requesting state may prescribe by executive order or otherwise.
ARTICLE VI
LIABILITY
Officers or employees of a party state rendering aid in
another state under this compact shall be considered agents of the
requesting state for tort liability and immunity purposes; and no
party state or its officers or employees rendering aid in another
state under this compact shall be liable on account of any act or
omission in good faith on the part of such forces while so engaged
or on account of the maintenance or use of any equipment or
supplies in connection therewith. Good faith in this article may
not include willful misconduct, gross negligence, or recklessness.
ARTICLE VII
SUPPLEMENTARY AGREEMENTS
Inasmuch as it is probable that the pattern and detail of the
machinery for mutual aid among two or more states may differ from
that among the states that are party to this compact, this
instrument contains elements of a broad base common to all states,
and nothing in this compact shall preclude any state from entering
into supplementary agreements with another state or affect any
other agreements already in force between states. Supplementary
agreements may comprehend, but shall not be limited to, provisions
for evacuation and reception of injured and other persons and the
exchange of medical, fire, police, public utility, reconnaissance,
welfare, transportation and communications personnel, and equipment
and supplies.
ARTICLE VIII
COMPENSATION
Each party state shall provide for payment of compensation and
death benefits to injured members of the emergency forces of that
state and representatives of deceased members of such forces in
case such members sustain injuries or are killed while rendering
aid under this compact, in the same manner and on the same terms as
if the injury or death were sustained within their own state.
ARTICLE IX
REIMBURSEMENT
Any party state rendering aid in another state under this
compact shall be reimbursed by the party state receiving the aid
for any loss or damage to or expense incurred in the operation of
any equipment and the provision of any service in answering a
request for aid and for the costs incurred in connection with the
requests. However, any aiding party state may assume in whole or
in part the loss, damage, expense, or other cost, or may loan
equipment or donate services to the receiving party state without
charge or cost; and any two or more party states may enter into
supplementary agreements establishing a different allocation of
costs among those states. Article VIII expenses may not be
reimbursable under this article.
ARTICLE X
EVACUATION
Plans for the orderly evacuation and interstate reception of
portions of the civilian population as the result of any emergency
or disaster of sufficient proportions to so warrant, shall be
worked out and maintained between the party states and the
emergency management/services directors of the various
jurisdictions where any type of incident requiring evacuation might
occur. The plans shall be put into effect by request of the state
from which evacuees come and shall include the manner of
transporting evacuees, the number of evacuees to be received in
different areas, the manner in which food, clothing, housing, and
medical care will be provided, the registration of evacuees, the
providing of facilities for the notification of relatives or
friends, and the forwarding of evacuees to other areas or the
bringing in of additional materials, supplies, and all other
relevant factors. Plans shall provide that the party state
receiving evacuees and the party state from which the evacuees come
shall mutually agree as to reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses
incurred in receiving and caring for the evacuees, for expenditures
for transportation, food, clothing, medicines and medical care, and
like items. Expenditures shall be reimbursed as agreed by the
party state from which the evacuees come. After the termination of
the emergency or disaster, the party state from which the evacuees
come shall assume the responsibility for the ultimate support of
repatriation of the evacuees.
ARTICLE XI
IMPLEMENTATION
(1) This compact shall become operative immediately upon its
enactment into law by any two states. After the first enactment,
this compact shall become effective as to any other state upon its
enactment by such state.
(2) Any party state may withdraw from this compact by enacting
a statute repealing the compact, but no withdrawal may take effect
until thirty days after the governor of the withdrawing state has
given notice in writing of the withdrawal to the governors of all
other party states. This action may not relieve the withdrawing
state from obligations assumed under this compact before the
effective date of withdrawal.
(3) Duly authenticated copies of this compact and such
supplementary agreements as may be entered into shall, at the time
of their approval, be deposited with each of the party states, and
with the federal emergency management agency and other appropriate
agencies of the United States government.
ARTICLE XII
ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS
Nothing in this compact shall authorize or permit the use of
military force by the national guard of a state at any place
outside that state in any emergency for which the president is
authorized by law to call into federal service the militia, or for
any purpose for which the use of the army or the air force would in
the absence of express statutory authorization be prohibited under
18 U.S.C. Sec. 1385.