On January 4, 2016, the Kootenai County Board of Commissioners heard an after-action report from Sandy von Behren, Director of the Kootenai County Office of Emergency Management. As itemized in the meeting agenda, her report discussed several emergencies that affected some or all of Kootenai County during 2015.
OpenCdA urges its readers to take about an hour and listen to the audio recording of her presentation and the responses from the County Commissioners. (After clicking on the hyperlink, click on the caption 01-04-2016 Office of Emergency Management Update – cs, then click the Open O button.) Readers may also want to review some or all of our previous posts on Windstorm 2015.
I listened to both the City Council presentation and the presentation to the County Commission. The presentation by Chief White and Chief Gabriel was thorough and indicated concern, thought and effort to ensure the well being of all residents. They also addressed their ongoing concern for emergency issues they are addressing, i.e. emergency notification system(s) and back up systems for signals at key intersections.
I am not so sure that the County Commissioners understand the importance of emergency preparedness and their responsibility in ensuring the safety and well being of the residents in the county. They did not seem to be interested in the emergency notification system – reverse 911 or how it functioned. Actually, I thought the meeting was to review in detail the events of the windstorm emergency – what worked and what should change. Not much time on that issue. Also, a bit of time was spent on the request for additional office space and employees. I had no idea that much of the time of the OEM is spent writing grants and compiling and submitting reports.
Comment by Susie Snedaker — January 11, 2016 @ 11:06 am
Susie,
I’m not sure the BOCC understands the underlying reasons for, let alone importance of, emergency preparedness. We are fortunate that in recent history we have had no emergencies here causing mass casualties or mass fatalities. We are fortunate that property loss and inconvenience have been the major consequences.
The southeast has hurricanes and an occasional tornado.
The midwest has lots of tornados and the occasional earthquake.
California and southwest Nevada had about 700 earthquakes in the past week alone!
And we’ve got stagnant air.
Maybe the Commissioners are right: Just do the paperwork to get the Fed $$.
Comment by Bill — January 11, 2016 @ 11:49 am