Officials with the Tennessee Valley Authority and Browns Ferry as well as Eddie Gilbert with Limestone County Emergency Management Agency and Chris Reed of Madison County EMA gathered this week for the opening of the new joint information center or JIC.
TVA spent about $560,000 to turn a 60-year-old brick truck maintenance building at 2055 Market St. NE into a state-of-the-art information center.
During a disaster, officials need to have a designated location from which to convey information to the media so they can convey it to the public. Media need a designated location to obtain that information in case telephones and the Internet are inoperable.
What was once a garage now features a media briefing room with white boards; a media work room with telephones, televisions and Wi-Fi hot spots and Internet access; a computerized work room for TVA and other emergency officials; and a room dedicated to monitoring various social media in order to spot incorrect information and correct it.
The facility will be test-driven on Dec. 12 to see how everything works, said John Parshall, with TVA’s emergency preparedness program planning and implementation. Such tests will be conducted twice annually on alternate years, he said.
EMA officials in the five counties within the 10-mile radius of Browns Ferry will receive a key to the building so they can use the facility for disaster response and emergency planning meetings, he said.
Why Decatur?
Decatur was chosen for the JIC site — even though Browns Ferry is located in Limestone County — simply because TVA already owned the maintenance garage and because it is a central location for those counties within the 10-mile radius of the nuclear plant.
Better JIC
TVA had a JIC in the past but it wasn’t practical. The old JIC was located in the auditorium and three classrooms at Calhoun Community College, which meant bringing in computers, telephones and televisions each time a disaster drill was held, said Kristine Shattuck-Cooper with TVA public relations.
“There was no dedicated spot for us, so we had to set up our equipment,” she said.
Hostile actions
TVA has long been required to be prepared for and to notify the public of radiological emergencies. In addition, the Nuclear Regulatory Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency now require Browns Ferry to be prepared for and to alert the public in case of hostile action in the area.
TVA will hold its next hostile action drill on Nov. 4, 2015. During a hostile action drill, residents might be told to stay inside and listen to the radio rather than evacuate the area because a different kind of danger may be lurking outside.
©2014 The News Courier (Athens, Ala.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
