NIMS stands for National Incident Management System and is a consistent nationwide framework and approach to enable government at all levels (Federal, State, Tribal, and Local), the private sector, and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) to work together regarding disasters. NIMS gets everyone on the same page when it comes to preparing for, responding to, and recovering from a disaster situation.
ICS stands for Incident Command System and is a component of NIMS. ICS consists of a standard management hierarchy and procedures for managing incidents of any size. These procedures should be pre-established and personnel should be trained on them prior to an incident. ICS lays out a clear chain of command, encourages common terminology to be used between departments, and assigns each person a job before the disaster occurs.
As a local government official, you may be put in charge of a disaster situation at some point in your career. The Emergency Management Director (EMD) for each county is the County Judge and for each city is the Mayor. In some counties, the Judge has appointed an Emergency Management Coordinator (EMC) to handle the day-to-day functions for the county and/or cities within.
During a disaster, the EMD and EMC would work together to help the community respond to and recover from the event. However, if the EMD is not available, whether they have been impacted by the event, they are out of town, or they are deceased, there is a line of succession for the role. If the County Judge/Mayor is unavailable, the next in line is usually the Judge Pro-Tem/Mayor Pro-Tem (or City Manager). If those individuals are unavailable, the responsibility is passed down to the County Commissioners and City Councilmembers based on seniority.
Assuming the role of EMD could be stressful, and you would be forced to make some tough decisions. With NIMS and ICS training, you will have some background knowledge of how the disaster will operate, who is in charge of what, and the levels of organization. Each person receives this training, so that during an event, there are no questions, and everyone can focus on responding to the disaster.
Because these elected officials have the potential to step into the role of EMD during a disaster, there are some necessary courses to take. These courses can be taken in any order, but if you are not familiar with emergency management, the order listed below will help the most. The National Response Framework (800) is the most broad course that covers things at a federal level. One component of the Framework is NIMS (700). One component of NIMS is ICS (100). Then, IS 200 talks about ICS on the basic level that first responders use when responding to an incident. All of these courses can be done online.
IS-800: An Introduction to the National Response Framework
IS-700: An Introduction to the National Incident Management System (NIMS)
IS-100: An Introduction to the Incident Command System (ICS)
IS-200: Basic Incident Command System for Initial Response
After taking these courses, if you are interested in diving deeper, IS-300: Intermediate ICS for Expanding Incidents, is the next course recommended. It is an in-person course where you apply what you learned in 100, 200, 700, and 800 to disaster scenarios.
FEMA provides Independent Study courses that you can take online at your own pace. At the end of each course, there is a test about the material covered. Once you pass the test, they will email you a certificate of completion that you can upload to Preparing Texas. You do need to register for an "SID" with FEMA to start taking courses online. FEMA also lists in-person courses that are being offered around the country.
Preparing Texas is a website created by TDEM that allows you to upload all certifications and certificates for safe-keeping. You will need to register for an account to use this service. You can also view in-person courses (G series) being offered locally from TDEM or other partners.