Elected officials have a role to play when community emergencies arise. Cook County Emergency Management Director Jim Wiinanen helped some of the elected officials in Cook County understand what that role is at a training at the courthouse on July 23, 2013. At the meeting were several county commissioners and several Grand Portage officials and employees.
The training was spawned by a new 72½-hour certificate program for elected officials and local and tribal government personnel offered by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. It will complement two other certificate programs—a 172-hour training for response partners such as law enforcement officers, Red Cross workers, and public health employees and a 272-hour training program for emergency managers.
The role of elected officials in an emergency is to provide leadership and delegate responsibilities, Wiinanen said. In cases of emergency, government employees in public health, law enforcement, highway departments, and state and federal land management offices such as the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Forest Service have various roles to play.
Wiinanen divided emergencies into three categories: natural emergencies such as fires, floods, windstorms, and epidemics; technological emergencies such as communication interruptions from fiber optic line breaks; and manmade emergencies such as violence, threats or social disturbances. Cook County has had all three kinds of emergencies in recent years.
Emergencies begin and end locally, Wiinanen said, and are managed at the lowest possible geographical, organizational, and jurisdictional level. When necessary, outside resources are brought in to help manage immediate needs, relieve workers, and help in recovery efforts. Outside resources usually play a supportive role, but sometimes they take over in emergencies considered complex, such as when local resources are depleted, the event is long-term, help is needed from multiple jurisdictions, different levels of government are involved, or special resources are needed from a variety of agencies.
A source of public information is important. “It’s a really good thing for the public to know where they can go for information,” Wiinanen said. In an official community emergency, a public information officer is designated, but a separate spokesperson might be appointed.
One local official can declare a local emergency for up to three days. A board can pass a resolution declaring a state of emergency or requesting a presidential declaration of a major disaster. When this happens, normal protocols can be overridden in order to get crucial tasks done.
During an emergency, the first priority is to secure people’s safety. The next priority is to stabilize the incident and conserve resources—not wasting or destroying things—along the way. The final priority is to help the community return to normal.
A list of management principles helps things run smoothly. They include maintaining a unified command, implementing an established action plan, following the chain of command, limiting the span of a person’s or group’s control to no more than five to one, using a common language, and keeping track of who has which resources.
In a large emergency, an emergency operations center is set up. In Cook County, a room in the Law Enforcement Center is used for this when necessary. The people in charge there will refer to policies, such as those outlined in the county’s emergency management plan, establish what the resources are, and make a plan for dealing with the situation.
Wiinanen suggested that the county have an emergency management center separate from on-scene operations in situations such as forest fires that are handled by outside agencies. Local government officials would work on managing resources within their purview, such as assigning personnel, coming up with necessary funds, and helping plan how local needs will be met, such as shelter and food for displaced people and animals.
Ninety percent of the time, emergencies can be handled locally, Wiinanen said. Nine percent of the time, an incident will require opening an emergency operations center. One percent of the time, outside resources will need to be called in.
Wiinanen suggested that local officials obtain the 72½- hour certification, ensure that emergency management appointees be at least three deep, find a better space than the small emergency operations center at the Law Enforcement Center, and require organizations obtaining event permits to submit emergency action plans.
The ultimate goal of establishing emergency policies and procedures, according to Chapter 12 of the Minnesota Statutes, is to “protect the public peace, health, and safety, and preserve the lives and property of the people of the state.”
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