Planning Division

The Planning Division is comprised of the Strategic Planning Branch, VEST Planning, and the Hurricane Program. The division provides a methodical approach to engage the whole community through the lifecycle of emergency and disaster preparedness. It helps determine required capabilities; identify gaps in capabilities; and establishes a framework for operationalizing roles and responsibilities for all hazards protection, prevention, response, recovery, and mitigation activities.

The Strategic Planning Branch

The Strategic Planning Branch coordinates comprehensive emergency management planning within the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM). The Strategic Planning Branch utilizes emergency management planning principles, including the development of a collaborative planning team, to accomplish the following:

Identify threats and hazards.
Assess vulnerability and risk.
Analyze options to address risk throughout emergency management mission areas.
Draft and promulgate plans, tools, and templates to address risk.
Exercise and revise plans in accordance with internal timeframes.

The primary focus of the Strategic Planning Branch is state-level emergency management planning aligned with the agency mission and long-term goals throughout the preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation cycle.

The Strategic Planning Branch supports local and regional emergency management planning initiatives through collaboration with the VDEM regional staff, as appropriate.

Hurricane Program

The VDEM Hurricane Program provides subject matter expertise on the Commonwealth’s hurricane history, vulnerabilities, and protective action planning for at-risk communities. A core responsibility of the Hurricane Program is managing the development and revision of the Virginia Hurricane Evacuation Study (HES) — a comprehensive analysis of hurricane hazards, vulnerabilities, evacuation requirements, and sheltering needs. The HES forms the foundation for hurricane planning at both the state and local levels. It is a federally funded initiative available to all states vulnerable to hurricanes.

During hurricane season, the Hurricane Program works in coordination with the National Weather Service to monitor tropical activity daily, maintain situational awareness of potential threats to the Commonwealth, and provide recommendations to the Hurricane Evacuation Coordination Group on appropriate protective actions. In addition to tropical cyclones, the program also monitors non-tropical coastal storms, such as nor’easters, which can have similar impacts.

Emergency Operations Support Planning

The Emergency Operations Support Planning team oversees state-level operational planning efforts, including providing subject matter expertise to support localities, regional, and state agency partners. A major responsibility of this team is to coordinate both internally and with the Virginia Emergency Support Team Liaison Officers (VLOs) to ensure operational readiness of the Virginia Emergency Operations Center (VEOC). This includes development and maintenance of VDEM Continuity of Operations Plan and facilitation of the annual Agency Support Plan program to ensure each executive branch state agency is able to fulfill its roles and responsibilities as outlined in the Commonwealth of Virginia Emergency Operations Plan.