One of them, James Joseph, director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, said about 1,000 emergency responders from across the state attended the 20th annual Illinois Emergency Management Agency’s training summit at the Prairie Capital Convention Center.
During the session on the June 12 shootings at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, attendees heard firsthand about issues local responders confronted in the aftermath of the tragedy that left 49 dead and 53 injured.
One of the lessons attendees took away from the Orlando training session was the high level of coordination that has to take place after such a catastrophic event.
“That’s everything from scene security and safety to allowing federal agencies to have their opportunity to do the investigation in partnership with municipal agencies. It’s also family reunification, family notification and victim identification. Because of the sheer number of deaths that occurred, there was a lot of stress that was put on the system,” Joseph said.
The Florida shootings occurred in the early-morning hours of a Sunday, a time when most police departments don’t have a full staff on duty, Joseph noted.
“Knowing that we in Illinois have a very robust police mutual aid system gives me a little bit of comfort,” he said. “If we did have something that happens in a smaller community, we have the ability to reach back to police and even fire agencies from around the region and the state if needed.”
In addition to the Orlando attack, participants in the IEMA summit heard from speakers from Flint, Michigan, who talked about the ongoing water crisis there. There were more than two dozen breakout sessions on other topics, as well.
The training summit started Tuesday and concluded at noon Thursday, just three days before the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
James Root, emergency management coordinator for Macon County, said that 15 years after 9/11, planners are preparing for another event like Orlando or the terrorist attacks in Paris and Nice, France.
“It doesn’t matter where you are at, there is always a possibility of something like that happening,” Root said. “It doesn’t have to be Chicago or St. Louis or bigger cities. They could do this in small-town America, and it would have the same impact as if it were done in a big city.”
Dan Fulscher, director of Logan County’s Emergency Management Agency, said one of the advantages of attending this week's seminars is getting to know emergency managers in other counties. Such familiarity could come in handy if he is ever called on to help out in another county, or if he needs help in Logan County.
- “The worst place you want to meet somebody is at a disaster. You want to be able to know who they are, what they’re thinking and what their resources are,” Fulscher said.
Ron Plummer, director of the Orange County Office of Emergency Management, said he hoped his presentation helped the Illinois officials.
“When it’s all said and done, the magnitude of that particular event took us beyond anything we could imagine,” he said in a video of the event posted by the state of Illinois.
–Contact John Reynolds: john.reynolds@sj-r.com, 788-1524, twitter.com/JohnReynoldsSJR.
———
©2016 The State Journal-Register, Springfield, Ill.
Visit The State Journal-Register, Springfield, Ill. at www.sj-r.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
