Core Capability

A plan built on data, not on what we think might happen.

Most THIRAs are built by sitting a planning team in a room and asking how bad a flood could be. Fenix EM builds them by pulling NOAA, USGS, FEMA, state climatology, and historical loss data, then quantifying impacts against actual demographic and infrastructure exposure. Plans that survive auditor scrutiny because they were built that way from the start.

What's Included

Defensible Planning Documents

  • THIRA & Stakeholder Preparedness Review
  • Emergency Operations Plan (EOP)
  • Continuity (COOP / COG) plans
  • Integrated Preparedness Plan (IPP)
  • Hazard-specific annexes
  • Audit-ready documentation package
Who This Is For

If your plan is the document someone will eventually audit, sue over, or rely on under stress.

Public Sector · Primary
01

Municipal & County Emergency Management

Cities, counties, and Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) regions facing THIRA/SPR cycles, EMAP accreditation, federal grant compliance, or planning documents inherited from prior administrations that won't survive scrutiny.

02

Tribal Nations & Special Districts

Tribal emergency management, water districts, school districts, transit authorities, and other special-purpose governments needing planning documents aligned to federal preparedness frameworks and grant-eligibility requirements.

03

State Agencies & Public Health

State-level emergency management, public health preparedness offices, and agency-specific COOP programs requiring updated planning documents that reflect current doctrine and post-COVID lessons learned.

Private Sector · Applied
04

Healthcare & Critical Infrastructure

Hospital systems, utility operators, and critical infrastructure protection programs applying the same risk-based methodology to enterprise emergency operations planning, regulatory compliance, and continuity programs.

05

Multi-Site Enterprises

Large industrial operations, distribution networks, and corporate campuses needing rigorous, data-grounded hazard analysis to drive emergency planning, insurance documentation, and board-level risk reporting.

The Methodology Difference

Authoritative data, not committee consensus.

Most THIRAs and hazard plans get built one of two ways. The lazy way: stakeholders sit in a room and rate threats on a 1–5 scale based on what they remember and what they fear. The compliance way: a consultant copies last year's document, updates the dates, and submits it. Both produce documents that fail under any meaningful review.

Fenix EM builds them differently — and the methodology is the differentiator.

Conventional Approach
Fenix EM Approach
Hazard frequencies estimated from planning team consensus or anecdotal recall.
FrequencyNOAA Atlas 14, USGS hazard maps, state climatology, and historical loss records.
Impact severity rated qualitatively on Likert-style scales (low / medium / high).
ImpactQuantitative impact modeling against demographics, infrastructure exposure, and economic value at risk.
Capability targets pulled from prior-year THIRA or aspirational planning team estimates.
TargetsCapability targets calibrated to actual scenarios, modeled response times, and resource availability.
Citations to "subject matter expert input" or "stakeholder consensus."
CitationsDocumented authoritative sources for every quantitative claim — defensible under audit.
Methodology

The work, in three phases.

Every planning engagement follows the same disciplined arc — assess what's on paper today, build documents grounded in real data, and stand them up so they actually drive program operations.

01Baseline

Document & Doctrine Baseline

We start by reviewing every plan, annex, MOU, and supporting document currently in force. We map them against current FEMA doctrine (CPG 101, CPG 201, NIMS, EMAP standards) and identify what's expired, contradictory, or hollow. Most engagements surface significant gaps in this phase alone.

Typical timeline: 3 – 6 weeks
Deliverables
  • Document inventory & currency assessment
  • Doctrine alignment gap analysis
  • Stakeholder & authority mapping
  • Findings briefing for leadership
02Build

Hazard Analysis & Plan Development

This is the core of the engagement — building the actual documents. Hazard analysis grounded in authoritative data, capability targets calibrated to real scenarios, plans written in plain language that staff can actually use during an event. Cross-referenced and cited end-to-end.

Typical timeline: 8 – 16 weeks
Deliverables
  • Quantitative hazard analysis
  • THIRA & SPR (or enterprise equivalent)
  • Emergency Operations Plan (EOP)
  • Hazard-specific annexes as scoped
  • Continuity plans (COOP / COG / BCP)
  • Integrated Preparedness Plan (IPP)
03Adopt

Adoption, Training & Sustainment

Plans that get adopted but never read are nearly as useless as no plan at all. We support actual adoption — leadership briefings, staff orientation, exercise validation, and a year-one sustainment plan that makes sure documents stay current as conditions change.

Typical timeline: 4 – 8 weeks
Deliverables
  • Executive / governing-body briefing
  • Staff plan orientation training
  • Tabletop or functional validation exercise
  • Plan maintenance & review schedule
  • Year-1 sustainment plan
How to Engage

Three ways to start.

Engagement scales to the scope of the planning effort and what your funding cycle allows. Most jurisdictions begin with the document review and decide on the larger build from there.

Why Fenix EM for Planning

Plans built to survive an actual review.

The test of a plan isn't whether it gets adopted — it's whether it holds up when EMAP arrives, when a federal grant audit asks for substantiating analysis, when a council member asks how a capability target was set, or when an after-action report has to be written against it.

Fenix EM builds plans designed to pass those tests, because the principal has been on the other side of them.

  • 1

    EMAP Assessor experience

    Active EMAP Assessor credentials. The plans we build are designed by someone who knows what accreditation reviewers actually look for — and what they fail.

  • 2

    Quantitative hazard analysis

    Authoritative-data methodology that produces THIRAs and hazard annexes with traceable citations to NOAA, USGS, FEMA, and state-level data sources for every quantitative claim.

  • 3

    Real-world deployment experience

    Plans informed by sixteen years of actual deployments — Kerrville, Helene, Milton, Hawaii, COVID, Route 91. The work reflects how plans actually fail under stress, not how they're supposed to perform.

  • 4

    FEMA Adjunct Instructor depth

    Active FEMA Adjunct Instructor and HSEEP Instructor credentials. Plans align to current FEMA doctrine because we teach it.

Common Questions

What buyers actually ask.

Below are the questions that come up most often in pre-engagement conversations. If yours isn't here, the discovery call is the right place for it.

How long does a full planning engagement take?
Most engagements run 4 to 8 months from kickoff to adopted, validated plans. Larger jurisdictions, multi-jurisdictional UASI work, or planning efforts with significant hazard annex development may extend to 12 months. The plan review tier alone is typically 3 to 5 weeks.
Can our existing documents be salvaged, or do you have to rebuild from scratch?
Honestly, both happen. The Tier 1 plan review tells you which. Many jurisdictions have solid bones — workable structure, accurate authority sections, sound annexes — that just need rigorous hazard analysis underneath them. Others have plans that look complete but are built on assumptions the underlying analysis doesn't support, in which case rebuilding is faster and cheaper than retrofitting.
Do you build plans that pass EMAP accreditation?
Yes — and we build them with active EMAP Assessor experience on staff. Fenix EM's principal is a current EMAP Assessor, which means plans are designed by someone who knows what accreditation reviewers actually look for and what they fail. We can scope engagements specifically around EMAP accreditation pathway support if that's the driving need.
What does "authoritative data sources" actually mean in practice?
For hazard frequency: NOAA Atlas 14 for precipitation, USGS for seismic and flood, FEMA NRI, state climatology offices, and historical loss records. For impact: census data, infrastructure inventories, economic exposure modeling, and (where applicable) HAZUS outputs. For capability targets: documented response time analysis, mutual aid capacity, and resource availability — not aspirational planning team estimates.
Can this be funded through preparedness grants?
Almost always for public-sector buyers. THIRA/SPR work is directly funded under EMPG, UASI, and SHSP. Hazard mitigation planning is funded under HMGP and BRIC. EOP development is allowable under multiple FEMA grant programs. Grant strategy is part of the plan review phase — we'll identify likely funding pathways and align the engagement to grant cycles where possible.
We just had a federal disaster declaration. Can plan work be charged to recovery funds?
Possibly — depending on the disaster type, declared categories, and the specific plan being developed. Plan updates triggered by lessons learned from a declared disaster are often eligible under 404 mitigation funds and certain 406 categories. This is a question for your state emergency management office and the FEMA recovery team assigned to the declaration. We can help structure the work to be funding-eligible, but the eligibility determination rests with FEMA.
Do you work with private-sector clients on planning?
Yes — healthcare systems, utilities, multi-site industrial operators, and large enterprises apply the same risk-based methodology to their emergency operations planning, business continuity, and regulatory documentation. The doctrinal framework changes (NFPA 1600, ISO 22301, sector-specific regulations replace FEMA doctrine), but the underlying discipline of authoritative-data hazard analysis is the same. Private-sector engagements generally run faster than public-sector ones.
Do you work with smaller jurisdictions and special districts?
Yes, frequently. Special districts, small municipalities, and tribal governments often have the most urgent planning needs because they lack the in-house capacity to maintain plans. Engagement scope and pricing scale appropriately — a single-hazard plan update for a small special district looks very different from a county-wide multi-hazard rebuild, and so does the price.
Next Step

A discovery call is the right starting point.

Thirty minutes, no pitch deck, no contract pressure. We talk through what plans you have, what condition they're in, what's driving the need to address them, and whether a Fenix EM engagement is the right fit. If a plan review is the right next step, we'll discuss it. If not, you'll leave with a clearer view of what should come next regardless.

Prefer to start smaller?

Download a Fenix EM diagnostic — both surface planning currency as a domain. Free, immediate.

Municipal Preparedness Audit (PDF) → Business Continuity Risk Snapshot (PDF) →