If tornadoes, flooding and power outrages were to occur during a major community event - how would county agencies work together to mitigate the disaster?
The almost 80 business leaders, public officials and safety officers participating in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's training course worked through how their different agencies would respond when faced with infrastructure damage and personal injury across the county.
By discussing the scenario with officials from both the public and private sectors, participants heard a variety of opinions and approaches to the situation that often aren't discussed back home.
"I think there's things today that we learned that maybe we haven't thought of in the past," said Johnny Platt, director of the county's 911 Center, DesCom. "I think it's actually making everybody talk to each other more than they have in the past too, so we've actually opened up a pretty good dialogue in seeing what the other agencies and other entities have to offer in these kinds of situations."
Created in 2014 by local public safety entities, the dispatch center directs all 911 calls in Des Moines County for the police and fire departments. In the event of a large-scale disaster, a community's dispatch center is crucial in fielding calls from the public and alerting safety officers to emergent and non-emergent situations.
"It's not something we train for all the time, but we need to look into maybe better training in high-intensity call situations and what we're going to do," Platt said.
In anticipation of Wednesday's full-scale simulation exercise, Platt, like many others in the group, expressed a mix of anxiety and excitement about the unknown activity.
"I'm a little nervous about tomorrow. But I think we all have a pretty good handle on how we work together, especially on the public safety side. You know, we work together very well in this county, so I don't think it's going to be overly difficult for us to work together in this type of situation."
For the past two days, course instructors have alluded to the all-day exercise that will present the county with a large-scale disaster they must respond to in real time. But the specific nature of the emergency has not been disclosed, other than it will include a severe weather event.
Simeon Counterman, a pastor at Calvary Baptist Church and member of the the Burlington Police Department Chaplin Corps, wasn't sure how he would contribute to the emergency management picture when he was invited on the trip, but has since found value in the training and a more clearly defined role.
"It's been very interesting to see where this is going, and again, trying to figure out ultimately what my involvement would be," Counterman said. "I think we've been focusing more on the front end, being more proactive than trying to ultimately be reactive. And so in that sense, I think that ends up bringing a lot more of the other agencies into play initially and even in the immediacy, then as a disaster unfolds. I think it's more on the tail-end where there will be more of an interaction, if you will, from my role."
Des Moines County utilizes about 14 volunteer chaplains - potentially the largest contingent of voluntary chaplains in the Midwest - to accompany police officers when they inform family members about an unexpected death, but also when law enforcement are dealing with grief or stress of their own.
"The police department - and particularly one of the officers in the police department - really kind of took an interest to see and develop a chaplaincy core, if you will, to work alongside the police department," Counterman said. "I would say that there is a large constituency of chaplains for our county because the police department has taken an initiative to develop that, in trying to look ahead and trying to be further prepared for unforeseen situations."
During the morning classroom sessions Tuesday, the group learned from course instructors Haven Simmons and Brad Huffines about the importance of gathering and distributing information to the public during an emergency. Keeping people calm and well-informed during times of disaster will be crucial, they emphasized, to a community's ability to respond and recover from traumatic event.
Huffines focused his presentation on the role social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter play in communicating with people before, during and after an incident occurs. Because almost anyone with a smart phone can now be an eyewitness and citizen journalist, local government and law enforcement are constantly faced with combatting rumors and misinformation online. During an emergency, an insufficient online presence can be highly detrimental to a city's ability to inform its residents with accurate and timely updates.
"The social media is part of the medium, that if you're not engaged in the social medium, you are not going to be able inform your citizens," Huffines said. "In fact, the majority of them will not hear a word you say."
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