What is a Comm Plan and what does it include?

• A. Budget and resource allocation plan for communications.
• B. Public relations strategy.
• C. Communication plan detailing information dissemination, audiences, channels, schedules, and responsibilities for incidents.
• D. Debriefing schedule.

Answer: (C)

A communication plan in incident response is a structured guide for how information is shared during an incident. It lays out what information will be communicated, who needs to receive it (audiences), through which channels (email, phone trees, social media, press conferences, dashboards), when updates will be released (schedules), and who is responsible for each piece of messaging (roles like the incident commander, Public Information Officer, and liaison).

This setup keeps messages consistent, timely, and accurate, helps prevent rumors, and ensures internal teams, leadership, partner agencies, and the public get appropriate updates. It also coordinates messaging across platforms so information isn’t duplicated or conflicting.

Other options don’t fit as well because they describe broader or ancillary aspects not specific to the incident-focused flow of information: budgeting and resource allocation cover costs rather than messaging; a public relations strategy is broader and not necessarily tailored to incident updates; and a debriefing schedule relates to after-action reviews rather than ongoing incident communication.