The Emergency Management Assistance Compact [12-10-14 and 12-10-15 1978] is enacted into law and entered into with all other jurisdictions legally joining therein in accordance with its terms, in a form substantially as follows:

"EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ASSISTANCE COMPACT

ARTICLE 1 - PURPOSE AND AUTHORITIES

A. The Emergency Management Assistance Compact is made and entered into by and between the participating member states that enact that compact.

B. As used in the Emergency Management Assistance Compact:

(1) "party states" means the participating member states to the compact; and

(2) "state" means the several states, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia and all United States territorial possessions.

C. The purpose of the Emergency Management Assistance Compact is to provide for mutual assistance between the party states in managing any emergency or disaster that is duly declared by the governor of the affected state, whether arising from natural disaster, technological hazard, man-made disaster, civil emergency aspects of resources shortages, community disorders, insurgency or enemy attack.

D. The Emergency Management Assistance Compact shall also provide for mutual cooperation in emergency-related exercises, testing or other training activities using equipment and personnel simulating performance of any aspect of the giving and receiving of aid by party states or subdivisions of party states during emergencies, such actions occurring outside actual declared emergency periods. Mutual assistance pursuant to that compact may include the use of the states' national guard forces, either in accordance with the National Guard Mutual Assistance Compact or by mutual agreement between states.

ARTICLE 2 - GENERAL IMPLEMENTATION

A. Each party state entering into the Emergency Management Assistance Compact recognizes that many emergencies transcend political jurisdictional boundaries and that intergovernmental coordination is essential in managing these and other emergencies under that compact. Each state further recognizes that there will be emergencies that require immediate access and will present procedures to apply outside resources to make a prompt and effective response to such an emergency. This is because few, if any, individual states have all the resources they may need in all types of emergencies or the capability of delivering resources to areas where emergencies exist.

B. The prompt, full and effective use of resources of the participating states, including any resources on hand or available from the federal government or any other source, that are essential to the safety, care and welfare of the people in the event of any emergency or disaster declared by a party state, shall be the underlying principle on which all articles of the Emergency Management Assistance Compact shall be understood.

C. On behalf of the governor of each state participating in the compact, the legally designated state official who is assigned responsibility for emergency management will be responsible for formulation of the appropriate interstate mutual aid plans and procedures necessary to implement the Emergency Management Assistance Compact.

ARTICLE 3 - PARTY STATE RESPONSIBILITIES

A. It shall be the responsibility of each party state to formulate procedural plans and programs for interstate cooperation in the performance of the responsibilities listed in this article. In formulating such plans, and in carrying them out, the party states, insofar as practical, shall:

(1) review individual state hazards analyses and, to the extent reasonably possible, determine all those potential emergencies the party states might jointly suffer, whether due to natural disaster, technological hazard, man-made disaster, emergency aspects of resource shortages, civil disorders, insurgency or enemy attack;

(2) review party states' individual emergency plans and develop a plan that will determine the mechanism for the interstate management and provision of assistance concerning any potential emergency;

(3) develop interstate procedures to fill any identified gaps and to resolve any identified inconsistencies or overlaps in existing or developed plans;

(4) assist in warning communities adjacent to or crossing the state boundaries;

(5) protect and ensure uninterrupted delivery of services, medicines, water, food, energy and fuel, search and rescue and critical life-line equipment, services and resources, both human and material;

(6) inventory and set procedures for the interstate loan and delivery of human and material resources, together with procedures for reimbursement or forgiveness; and

(7) provide, to the extent authorized by law, for temporary suspension of any statutes or ordinances that restrict the implementation of the responsibilities delineated in this subsection.

B. The authorized representative of a party state may request assistance of another party state by contacting the authorized representative of that state. The provisions of this agreement shall only apply to requests for assistance made by and to authorized representatives. Requests may be verbal or in writing. If verbal, the request shall be confirmed in writing within thirty days of the verbal request. Requests shall provide the following information:

(1) a description of the emergency service function for which assistance is needed, such as but not limited to fire services, law enforcement, emergency medical, transportation, communications, public works and engineering, building inspection, planning and information assistance, mass care, resource support, health and medical services and search and rescue;

(2) the amount and type of personnel, equipment, materials and supplies needed, and a reasonable estimate of the length of time they will be needed; and

(3) the specific place and time for staging of the assisting party's response and a point of contact at that location.

C. There shall be frequent consultation between state officials who have assigned emergency management responsibilities and other appropriate representatives of the party states with affected jurisdictions and the United States government, with free exchange of information, plans and resource records relating to emergency capabilities.

ARTICLE 4 - LIMITATIONS

A. Any party state requested to render mutual aid or conduct exercises and training for mutual aid shall take such action as is necessary to provide and make available the resources covered by the Emergency Management Assistance Compact in accordance with the terms of the compact; provided that it is understood that the state rendering aid may withhold resources to the extent necessary to provide reasonable protection for such state.

B. Each party state shall afford to the emergency forces of any party state, while operating within its state limits under the terms and conditions of the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, the same powers, except that of arrest unless specifically authorized by the receiving state, duties, rights and privileges as are afforded forces of the state in which they are performing emergency services. Emergency forces will continue under the command and control of their regular leaders, but the organizational units will come under the operational control of the emergency services authorities of the state receiving assistance. These conditions may be activated, as needed, only subsequent to a declaration of a state of emergency or disaster by the governor of the party state that is to receive assistance or commencement of exercises or training for mutual aid and shall continue so long as the exercises or training for mutual aid are in progress, the state of emergency or disaster remains in effect or loaned resources remain in the receiving states, whichever is longer.

ARTICLE 5 - LICENSES AND PERMITS

Whenever any person holds a license, certificate or other permit issued by any state party to the compact evidencing the meeting of qualifications for professional, mechanical or other skills, and when such assistance is requested by the receiving party state, such person shall be deemed licensed, certified or permitted by the state requesting assistance to render aid involving such skill to meet a declared emergency or disaster, subject to such limitations and conditions as the governor of the requesting state may prescribe by executive order or otherwise.

ARTICLE 6 - LIABILITY

Officers or employees of a party state rendering aid in another state pursuant to the Emergency Management Assistance Compact shall be considered agents of the requesting state for tort liability and immunity purposes; and no party state or its officers or employees rendering aid in another state pursuant to that compact shall be liable on account of any act or omission in good faith on the part of such forces while so engaged or on account of the maintenance or use of any equipment or supplies in connection therewith. Good faith in this article shall not include willful misconduct, gross negligence or recklessness.

ARTICLE 7 - SUPPLEMENTARY AGREEMENTS

Inasmuch as it is probable that the pattern and detail of the machinery for mutual aid among two or more states may differ from that among the party states, the Emergency Management Assistance Compact contains elements of a broad base common to all states, and nothing in that compact shall preclude any state from entering into supplementary agreements with another state or affect any other agreements already in force between states. Supplementary agreements may comprehend, but shall not be limited to, provisions for evacuation and reception of injured and other persons and the exchange of medical, fire, police, public utility, reconnaissance, welfare, transportation and communications personnel, equipment and supplies.

ARTICLE 8 - COMPENSATION

Each party state shall provide for the payment of compensation and death benefits to injured members of the emergency forces of that state and representatives of deceased members of such forces in case such members sustain injuries or are killed while rendering aid pursuant to the Emergency Management Assistance Compact in the same manner and on the same terms as if the injury or death were sustained within its own state.

ARTICLE 9 - REIMBURSEMENT

Any party state rendering aid in another party state pursuant to the Emergency Management Assistance Compact shall be reimbursed by the party state receiving such aid for any loss or damage to or expense incurred in the operation of any equipment and the provision of any service in answering a request for aid and for the costs incurred in connection with such requests; provided, that any aiding party state may assume in whole or in part such loss, damage, expense or other cost, or may loan such equipment or donate such services to the receiving party state without charge or cost; and provided further, that any two or more party states may enter into supplementary agreements establishing a different allocation of costs among those states. Article 8 of that compact shall not be reimbursable under this provision.

ARTICLE 10 - EVACUATION

Plans for the orderly evacuation and interstate reception of portions of the civilian population as the result of any emergency or disaster of sufficient proportions to so warrant shall be worked out and maintained between the party states and the emergency management directors of the various jurisdictions where any type of incident requiring evacuations might occur. Such plans shall be put into effect by request of the state from which evacuees come and shall include the manner of transporting such evacuees; the number of evacuees to be received in different areas; the manner in which food, clothing, housing, and medical care will be provided; the registration of the evacuees; the providing of facilities for the notification of relatives or friends; and the forwarding of such evacuees to other areas or the bringing in of additional materials, supplies, and all other relevant factors. Such plans shall provide that the party state receiving evacuees and the party state from which the evacuees come shall mutually agree as to reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses incurred in receiving and caring for such evacuees, for expenditures for transportation, food, clothing, medicines and medical care and like items. Such expenditures shall be reimbursed as agreed by the party state from which the evacuees come. After the termination of the emergency or disaster, the party state from which the evacuees come shall assume the responsibility for the ultimate support of repatriation of such evacuees.

ARTICLE 11 - IMPLEMENTATION

A. The Emergency Management Assistance Compact shall become operative immediately upon its enactment into law by any two (2) states; thereafter, the Emergency Management Assistance Compact shall become effective as to any other state upon its enactment by such state.

B. Any party state may withdraw from the Emergency Management Assistance Compact by enacting a statute repealing that compact, but no such withdrawal shall take effect until 30 days after the governor of the withdrawing state has given notice in writing of such withdrawal to the governors of all other party states. Such action shall not relieve the withdrawing state from obligations assumed hereunder prior to the effective date of withdrawal.

C. Duly authenticated copies of the Emergency Management Assistance Compact and of such supplementary agreements as may be entered into shall, at the time of their approval, be deposited with each of the party states and with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other appropriate agencies of the United States Government.

ARTICLE 12 - VALIDITY

This section shall be construed to effectuate the purposes stated in Article 1 of the Emergency Management Assistance Compact. If any provision of that compact is declared unconstitutional, or its applicability to any person or circumstances is held invalid, the constitutionality of the remainder of the compact and its applicability to other persons and circumstances shall not be affected.

ARTICLE 13 - ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS

Nothing in the Emergency Management Assistance Compact shall authorize or permit the use of military force by the national guard of a state at any place outside that state in any emergency for which the president is authorized by law to call into federal service the militia, or for any purpose for which the use of the army or the air force would in the absence of express statutory authorization be prohibited under Section 1385 of Title 18, United States Code.

ARTICLE 14 - REPORTING TO THE LEGISLATURE

The secretary of public safety shall, by January, 2000, provide to the legislative finance committee copies of all mutual aid plans and procedures promulgated, developed or entered into after the effective date of this section. The secretary shall annually thereafter provide the legislative finance committee with copies of all new or amended mutual aid plans and procedures by January of each calendar year."

History: 1978 Comp., § 11-15-2, enacted by Laws 1999, ch. 87, § 2, recompiled as 12-10-15 by Laws 2005, ch. 22, § 4.