ORSEC plan
The ORSEC plan is the French generic emergency plan in case of disaster, when the local means are not sufficient. "ORSEC" stands for Organisation de la Réponse de SÉcurité Civile, although most people say ORganisation des SECours, i.e. "rescue organization".
The ORSEC plan is for widespread or long-lasting natural disasters such as floods, severe storms, earthquakes or major industrial disaster ; this does not necessarily mean many casualties, as there can be an ORSEC plan even when there are no wounded. The disasters with limited effects but with numerous casualties are handled by a red plan.
There is one ORSEC plan per département, started by the préfet, and one national ORSEC plan started by the prime minister.
Since 2007, the red plan is a specific case of the ORSEC plan.
Description
The ORSEC plan is not a list of to-dos, but the description of a general organization:- missions: who is in charge of what, of which danger.
- listing of the means: personnel, equipment, transmissions...
- how the means are mobilized: who must be called...
- one management staff ;
- if the disaster is localized: a double command, one close to the disaster and one distant ;
- five operational services:
- * police and inquiries: maintenance of law and order, road traffic, requisition, identification of the victims;
- * search-and-rescue: firefighters, SAMU, volunteer first responders;
- * medical care and social aid: SAMU, hospitals;
- * transportation and work: civil engineering, buses...
- * contact and signals ;
- one service in charge of public relations.