14B NCAC 03 .0402          Abbreviations and Definitions

As used in this Section the following abbreviations and terms mean:

(1)           "Activation" means the status of a system resource placed at the direction, control, and funding of NCEM as part of the NC SAR System.

(2)           "All-hazards Disaster Response Model" means a response methodology where system resources provide all applicable capability to respond to any threat or hazard that is impacting the State or is forecasted to impact the State as determined by the NCEM Director.

(3)           "Authority Having Jurisdiction" (AHJ) means those local, state, or federal entities having a duty to act over a specific aspect of search and rescue in a specific geographic area.

(4)           "Contract Response Team" means a regional all-hazards disaster response team as defined in G.S. 166A-65 capable of conducting urban search and rescue, swiftwater rescue, and wide area search operations with self-sustaining logistical support allowing for responses into disaster areas.

(5)           "County to County Mutual Aid" means public safety resource sharing between local governments under the conditions of the NC Statewide Mutual Aid Agreement or another similar agreement between local governments.

(6)           "Federal Emergency Management Agency" (FEMA) means an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security with the responsibility to coordinate the federal response to Presidentially-declared disasters that has occurred in the United States.

(7)           "FEMA Public Assistance Program" means a federal reimbursement grant program that provides federal funding to help communities respond to and recover from disasters.

(8)           "Functionally equivalent" means an item or group of items that can be used in the same basic manner as another item or items to perform a task to the same standard.

(9)           "Local Emergency Management Coordinator" (LEMC) means the County Emergency Management Coordinator as defined in G.S. 166A-19.15 who is responsible for all local disaster preparedness, response, and recovery activities in a specific county.

(10)         "NC All-Hazards Incident Management Team" (NCAHIMT) mean the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management's program responsible for supporting local and state incident management during disaster response activities.

(11)         "North Carolina Search and Rescue System" (NC SAR System) means the NC Search and Rescue Program established in Article 6 of Chapter 166A of the North Carolina General Statutes. The NC SAR System includes five individual programs: Urban Search and Rescue, Swiftwater Rescue, Helicopter Rescue, Mountain Rescue, and Wilderness Search and Rescue.

(12)         "North Carolina Search and Rescue Team Advisory Committee" (NC SAR TAC) means an advisory committee established in Article 6 of Chapter 166A of the North Carolina General Statutes to advise the Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety on the establishment of the North Carolina Search and Rescue System.

(13)         "North Carolina Division of Emergency Management" (NCEM) means a division of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety established in G.S. 143B-1000 with the responsibility to coordinate the mitigation, planning, preparedness, response, and recovery to a disaster or emergency that has or could is forecasted to occur in the State as determined by the NCEM Director.

(14)         "North Carolina Emergency Management Operations Chief" (NCEM OSC) means the Assistant Director of Operations for the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management.

(15)         "North Carolina Emergency Management Director" (NCEM Director) means the Director of the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management.

(16)         "National Incident Management System" (NIMS) means a federal policy that provides a systematic, proactive approach guiding government agencies at all levels, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to work to prevent, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of incidents, regardless of cause, size, location, or complexity, to reduce the loss of life or property and harm to the environment.

(17)         "On-duty" means when a person is acting as an agent of their Sponsoring or Participating Agency or of the NC Division of Emergency Management as part of the NC Search and Rescue System.

(18)         "Participating Agency" means an entity that assists a Sponsoring Agency with the formation of a search and rescue team by providing personnel or equipment.

(19)         "Program costs" means training, equipment, personnel, or administrative expenses incurred by a Sponsoring or Participating Agency during activities of the NC SAR System.

(20)         "Resource typing" means a document defining and categorizing, by capability, the system resources requested, deployed, and used in incidents.

(21)         "Responsible Party" means the entity whose actions or inactions caused an event as determined by the authority having jurisdiction requiring system resources to respond and incur costs.

(22)         "Sensitive information" means any information, to include audio recordings, images, and video recordings, obtained during an activation that has not been released to the public by the AHJ.

(23)         "Specialty Rescue Team" means a group of response personnel who provide technical search and rescue capability as part of the North Carolina Search and Rescue System that is not a contract response team as defined in G.S. 166A-65.

(24)         "Sponsoring Agency" means a local or tribal unit of government or a corporation with an active response agreement with a local unit of government that organizes and coordinates a search and rescue team in the North Carolina Search and Rescue System. This entity serves as the lead agency for teams comprised of multiple agencies.

(25)         "State Emergency Operations Plan" (SEOP) means a document maintained under the authority of G.S. 166A-19.12(2) that details how the State of North Carolina will respond to a disaster or emergency requiring State assistance utilizing an All-Hazards Disaster Response Model.

(26)         "State Mission Assignment" (State Mission) means a NCEM approved request for assistance to deploy system resources at the request of a local unit of government.

(27)         "System agreements" means contracts, memoranda of agreements, or memoranda of understanding between NCEM and Contract Response Teams for the purposes of establishing and maintaining the NC SAR System.

(28)         "System personnel" means human resources from a Contract Response or Specialty Rescue Team or human resources employed by the Division of Emergency Management with a responsibility for search and rescue response.

(29)         "System resource" means personnel or equipment from a or specialty rescue team that is participating in the NC Search and Rescue System with the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management for search and rescue response.

History Note:        Authority G.S. 166A-65; 166A-66; 166A-67; 166A-69;

Eff. April 1, 2023.