Q What are the primary responsibilities of the Emergency Management department?
A The Emergency Management Department is responsible for developing, coordinating, promoting and evaluating programs to ensure emergency preparedness in Nobles County. The Nobles County Emergency Management Director administers a county-wide emergency management program with the goal of preparing the county to respond to and recover from major disasters. Disasters can be natural (typically weather related) or man-made.
This is done by:
Making sure the county’s Emergency Operations Plan is up to date and meets state and federal requirements.
Keeping a list of resources at the local, regional and state level that can be called upon to assist when the county experiences a major incident or disaster and our local departments (fire, law, EMS) have exhausted their resources and need additional help.
Helping educate the public on how to be prepared for a disaster, like having a smoke alarm and a weather radio, a winter survival kit in your car, applications on your smart phone that will alert you to threatening weather, etc.
Making sure Nobles County has trained “spotters” to report weather conditions to local dispatch and the National Weather Service to help keep the public safe during severe weather events.
Planning “exercises” or drills to test our capabilities to respond to incidents or disasters of all sizes and types. For example, an “exercise” could include developing a scenario where responders determine what actions they would take based on the information they are given. An exercise might also include setting up a mock disaster site where responders bring in the equipment they would use to respond to the incident and go through the procedures to test their abilities to respond to an incident. Typically exercises involve several departments so they get practice working together as a team. A train derailment exercise might include the railroad involved, law enforcement, fire departments, ambulance crews, the hospital and a hazardous materials team along with any appropriate state agencies. In addition to exercises testing response capabilities, they also build important relationships between departments which are critical during response efforts.
Making sure the county has a functional Emergency Operations Center where all the departments and agencies working on a disaster can come together in one room (located in the Farmers Room) to work as a team to support the response to a major incident or disaster.
Preliminary assessment of damage after a major disaster to determine if there is enough damage to initiate the process to request assistance from state or federal programs, like the Ice Storm of 2013 where Nobles County was included in Governor Dayton’s request to President Obama for a federally-declared disaster which meant we were eligible for the FEMA Public Assistance Program.
Building relationships across the county and between departments and agencies is very important and needs to be done before an incident or disaster occurs, so Emergency Management facilities the Emergency Management Planning Advisory Committee (EMPAC), which meets on a monthly basis to share information, review emergency plans and plan exercises with a representative from Emergency Medical Services, Fire Services, Government Administration, Hazardous Materials, Health Care, Law Enforcement, Public Health, Public Safety Communications and Public Works. This committee is key in reviewing and updating the Emergency Operations Plan for Nobles County.
Q How do these responsibilities serve the public?
A Emergency Management is really aimed at helping communities prepare for the worst so that when that “bad day” happens, the response will be executed in a manner that allows the recovery process to begin as soon as possible. Individuals and communities that are prepared are more resilient to disasters and will be able to recover quicker.
Q: What are the department’s major accomplishments over the past year?
A: Providing county-wide training on the National Incident Management System (NIMS) to county/city employees and first responders to make sure that Nobles County is “NIMS compliant.” NIMS provides the framework for responders to work efficiently during an incident or disaster with the ultimate goal of saving lives.
Working with local law enforcement, fire departments and staff from the Minnesota School Safety Center to complete a Safe School Assessment Process with all the school districts in Nobles County, both public and private.
Upgrading the technology available in the Emergency Operations Center located in the Farmers Room. These technology upgrades have been key in making the Farmers Room an ideal location to host multi-county and regional meetings and trainings.
Q: What are your expectations for the coming year?
A: To move forward with the implementation of FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). IPAWS will provide public safety officials with an effective way to alert and warn the public about serious emergencies from a single portal which will send the message through multiple communication pathways including the Emergency Alert System (EAS), Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), NOAA Weather Radios and any other public alerting system. Visitors or tourists will receive the warnings along with residents as it allows safety officials to inform people physically in the area in addition to those who have signed up through mass notification systems such as Nixle.
To continue to work with our partners and the citizens of Nobles County to strengthen our ability to respond to disasters in a manner that allows the recovery process to proceed in a timely and efficient manner.
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