[MRIC] New Information on the ICS-213

[Pat Scolla]

Because of the large amount of discussion on what we can and cannot add 
or delete to the ICS-213, my Emergency manager and I went to FEMA's NIMS 
Integration Center and learned the following:

"There appear to be two questions here; the major one seems to be 
whether the ICS-213 General Message Form can be altered for use in a 
given jurisdiction.  The simple answer is no, it cannot be altered.  We 
believe that what we are after in NIMS standardization is, during a 
large-scale, multi-jurisdictional event, that they have a 'General 
Message' form that any person from across the country could recognize 
and use with little or no additional training if they came to help.

As for the use of the ICS-213 by an agency as a requirement to gain 
state and federal funding, this is true when the agency is, like above, 
engaged in a large-scale event."

In further discussion with the NIMS Integration Center the officially 
recommended ICS-213 form to be used can be found at FEMA's ICS Resource 
Center:  http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/ICSResource/ICSResCntr_Forms.htm

However, off the record, I was told that FEMA will accept without 
problem the alternate version of the NFES 1336 form dated 1/79 which can 
be found at  www.nimsonline.com/nfes_ics/NFES_ICS-213.pdf.  it was also 
stated that one could use the NOAA ICS-213 with little risk of FEMA 
becoming upset, and this form can be found at 
http://www.dps.state.vt.us/vem/races/NOAA_ICS-213.pdf

Preambles, word counts, MESSAGE TYPE, etc., are not acceptable additions 
to the ICS-213 Form by FEMA.  The addition of a Jurisdiction's name or 
logo is tolerated, however.

We can discuss this more at tomorrow's meeting.

73,
Pat Scolla, wb0egr
Harford County EC & RO