General
Capability
Assessment
for
Readiness (CAR) was/is a U.S. Federal programme
to a. develop criteria to assess the capability of state
authorities and agencies to respond to and adequately manage crisis
situations and disasters, and b. evaluate current state
capabilities throughout the United States of America.
The CAR programme was commissioned by the Senate Committee on
Appropriations, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) was charged with the execution.
FEMA and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) jointly
developed the CAR methodology, trained state personnel to enable
them to perform a self-evaluation, and coordinated a first
nationwide assessment in 1997, and a second evaluation in 2000.
State oriented CAR has evolved since its conception; a version
of CAR to assess local disaster management capabilities, named LCAR (
Local CAR)
has been developed and even industry/activity specific modified CAR
procedures are available.
An example of the latter is HCAR - Hospital CAR - which is part of the
overall Hospital Emergency Incident Command System (HEICS).
The remainder of this page gives a general overview of the
Emergency Management Functions (EMF), 13 of which have been
identified and can be found as group header for
a number of executive tasks, and Emergency Support Functions (ESF).
EMF and ESF are subject of evaluation within the CAR procedure.
Each attribute or characteristic of the Emergency Functions is to be
scored based on a 1-5 scale, with the following meaning:
1 = Not Capable
No progress has been achieved.
2 = Marginally Capable
Some progress has been achieved, but a substantial
amount of effort is required to reach full capability.
3 = Generally Capable
A baseline capability has been developed,
but a significant effort is required to reach full capability.
4 = Very Capable
A high level of capability has been attained, and
only a limited effort is required to reach full capability.
5 = Fully Capable
A full capability has been achieved, and only
maintenance is required.
'n/a' (not applicable) - as a sixth possible entry -
refers to the fact that not all
functions are present or required in each state.
The evaluation in the original CAR methodology can be based on:
Real-World Experience (RW), Exercise Experience (EE) or UT (Untested).
The indication of the basis on which a score has been attributed, contributes
to the overall validation of the assessment (report).
The fact that
Capability Assessment
for Readiness is currently the only tested methodology to assess
the various aspects of 'capability', i.e. means and methods, personnel,
readiness, training, ... and is compatible with the NFPA 1600 standard
on 'Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Program[me]s'
has initiated CEMAC's project '
EMCAP (
Emergency Management
Capability Assessment Programme)
to develop a method based on CAR to assess
the disaster management capability of:
a. public authorities and
emergency management services and organisations, and
b. the emergency
response structures in business and industry.
The focus of this project is of course the
situation in the European Union, with its characteristic legislation
and socio-economic structures.
The objective is completely similar to NEMA's initiative 'EMAP'
(
Emergency Management Accreditation Program[me]) to translate the
concepts of CAR and NFPA 1600 into a functional review procedure aimed at
evaluation and
accreditation of Emergency Management structures in
government, business and industry.
More info on [
EMCAP™ ]
© All rights reserved - CEMAC, 2001. Doc: E1032 v1.0
