Greetings, all!
Boy, it has been insanely busy here at the EMA since our last update.
From spearheading and working with our partnering agencies/organizations on the Local Emergency Operations Plan review and revision, to the Great ShakeOut and Communications exercises, to public outreach at Camdenton’s football game on October 22nd, to the EOC activation on the 24th for severe weather in our county, we have been running non-stop!
Okay, here we go!
We have to RAVE about the amount of cooperation we have received when we have called for help overhauling Camden County’s Local Emergency Operations Plan! We have had three meetings so far via WebEx and the key organizations/people we have needed were able to attend their meetings or reached out to us privately to help if their schedules couldn’t accommodate the meeting! We are keeping a running list each week for the public to view on our LEOP page because we appreciate the hard work, effort, and time these individuals carve out to help the EMA bring the LEOP up to the levels we need to operate during a large-scale emergency!
“No one person can do it alone; but together we can!”
We completed a full inventory of the EMA office and bays, thanks in large part to the volunteers of the Camden County, MO Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).
The EMA is up to date on our monthly, federally-required IPAWS test.
The EMA participated in the Truman Dam Emergency Action Plan review. This helps us keep the residents and visitors of Camden County safer by allowing us to prepare emergency messages and activation triggers before a large-scale event occurs.
We have participated with the Pipeline Association of Missouri in a virtual tabletop exercise which essentially does the same as above for a different hazard/danger.
We have completed TWO training courses (four days for the first and three days for the second) with the National Weather Service and the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency for gaining a better understanding of how the NWS works with respect to severe weather alerts, watches, and warnings.
We have built a tabletop exercise for the Local Emergency Planning Committee which will feature participation from local first responder agencies, businesses, and individuals at the upcoming LEPC meeting on November 5.
We have distributed water and AA batteries to first responder agencies, as well as masks and hand sanitizer to the library district.
We wrote the Incident Action Plan for the EMA and CERT for Warsaw Pioneer Heritage Days, then spent both days serving as traffic control for the event.
We took part in a random MOSWIN radio test for Region F to check the response and communications efforts.
We arranged upcoming training on November 2nd for two of the Homeland Security assets we keep here at the EMA.
We attended the Regional Homeland Security Oversight Committee meeting and secured additional funding to bring in the cables for one of the large generators we house.
We completed the NWS request for the Impact Database.
We participated in the regionwide communications test for the Simulated Emergency Test.
And finally, the EOC was activated at Level 4 for yesterday’s severe weather. Our Lake Area Storm Spotters turned in continuous reports, photos, and information which directly resulted in a tornado warning being issued by the NWS Springfield office. We can’t thank this group enough for their continued efforts to help keep the residents and visitors of Camden County!
Stay tuned for our next update!
Camden County, MO Emergency Management Agency 