The four-day Integrated Emergency Management Course is intended to prepare communities for large-scale disasters — from tornadoes to building collapses, airplane crashes and threats of terrorism.
Only 10 counties are chosen each year to participate in the free course worth $100,000. Seventy-nine people from law enforcement, government offices and critical industries will spend June 27 to July 1 on the agency's sprawling campus.
Des Moines County Emergency Management coordinator Gina Hardin assembled the winning application securing southeast Iowa's spot in the course.
Douglas Kahn, FEMA/IMEC exercise director, praised Hardin's efforts and emphasized the value the course can bring to a community's emergency management strategy.
"Your community was selected because Gina put together such a great package that it came to my desk and I said, 'Wow, Des Moines County, Iowa. Man, I got to get up there and check this out,'" Kahn said.
"We only do 10 of these a year, and we determine which communities can benefit the most," he said. "You won't see us going to New York City. You won't see us going to San Francisco. You'll see us going to the heartland of America that needs the training, that can benefit from the training."
Kahn and Hardin talked with the county's participants Tuesday morning in Burlington to discuss travel plans, logistics and answer questions.
"We want to use this trip as a catalyst for change," Hardin said. "To leave as totally different people with totally different perceptions about how to handle a disaster when it happens."
The county has used its Emergency Operating Center once in the past 20 years, Hardin said.
"I know this is totally new to most of you, so we're going to start out slow," she told the group at Memorial Auditorium. "It'll be a great learning experience."
Participants will take part in a variety of exercises from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. during their work day at FEMA's National Emergency Training Center. Kahn described the course as a "hands-on" experience for local officials to learn how to best run the county's Emergency Operating Center and effectively communicate between agencies in the event of a disaster. He will be in town for the next few days meeting with Hardin and others to determine how best to write course exercises benefiting Des Moines County.
"This is not a FEMA course where I'm throwing stuff down your throat. It's not anything like that," Kahn said. "This is Gina and the community telling me, 'Hey, we would like to learn about A, B, C and D. Can you help us on that?' That's what we're going to do. Every part of instruction is going to be something your community wants."
Kahn assured the group there will be time for fun and leisure in addition to the training. The institute is only 13 miles from historical attractions in Gettysburg, Pa., and just more than an hour's drive from Washington, D.C. On campus, the Command Post Pub provides an opportunity for course participants to socialize at the end of the day.
Des Moines County director of public health Barbara Baker will participate in the course with three others from her office. The Public Health Department responded to the 2008 flood, an influenza outbreak and other disasters, but Baker would like herself and her staff to learn all aspects of disaster preparedness.
"We're hoping to gain an understanding of how public health can be a part of the response team, even when it's not a public health emergency," she said. "We want to find out the most effective ways to help the community."
Baker's staff administered tetanus shots during the flood of 2008. But the roles may not be as clear after another natural disaster, such as a tornado, especially to people outside the department.
"I think it's going to be a really huge learning curve for all of us," she said.
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