Preparedness refers to the actions taken to plan, organize, equip, train, and exercise to build and sustain the capabilities necessary to prevent, protect against, mitigate the effects of, respond to, and recover from those threats that pose the greatest risk to the community.

Prevention refers to:

• Those capabilities necessary to avoid, prevent, or stop a threatened or actual act of terrorism.
• Actions to prevent imminent threats.

Mitigation refers to those capabilities and actions necessary to reduce loss of life and property by lessening the impact of disasters. Mitigation capabilities include, but are not limited to:

• Community-wide risk reduction projects.
• Efforts to improve the resilience of critical infrastructure and key resource lifelines.
• Risk reduction for specific vulnerabilities from natural hazards or acts of terrorism.
• Initiatives to reduce future risks after a disaster has occurred.

Response refers to those capabilities and actions necessary to save lives, protect property and the environment, and meet basic human needs after an incident has occurred. Response includes:

• Medical care/treatment.
• Mass care.
• Critical infrastructure restoration.
• Incident command and management

Recovery refers to those capabilities and actions necessary to assist communities affected by an incident to recover effectively. Recovery capabilities include, but are not limited to:

• Rebuilding infrastructure systems.
• Providing adequate interim and long-term housing for survivors.
• Restoring health, social, and community services.
• Promoting economic development.
• Restoring natural and cultural resources.