Ouray County emergency manager reviews courthouse procedures, evacuation plan and EOP ahead of November drill

Emergency Manager Glenn reviewed Ouray County's courthouse emergency procedures, the countywide evacuation plan and the recently adopted multi-jurisdiction Emergency Operations Plan during a March 5 work session, urging regular drills and clearer communications ahead of a full-scale evacuation exercise scheduled for Nov. 3.

Glenn told the Board of County Commissioners the courthouse emergency plan (adopted by the BOCC on June 7, 2002) and related documents are being updated and that county staff, elected officials and department heads should familiarize themselves with the details of assigned roles before an incident. He said the county will hold a tabletop exercise on Sept. 29 and a full-scale evacuation on Nov. 3 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The presentation outlined specific courthouse responsibilities: follow directions from the courthouse security team (now defined as the sheriff, county administrator/manager, maintenance/facilities manager, clerk of the courts, county judge and courthouse security officer), account for personnel, assist with evacuations and maintain accessibility for people with functional needs. Designated primary and alternate offsite meeting locations for courthouse evacuations are the URA community center and the URA school gym; when meetings occur in this BOCC room the first alternate is the public health and social services building and the grandstands, depending on incident command direction.

Glenn emphasized the practical timeline that shapes early response: roughly the first 10–15 minutes after an incident are dominated by instinctive “fight-or-flight” responses, the following 45–50 minutes by arrival of emergency responders and local security teams, and later the extended recovery and return-to-normal phase. He urged regular training so that actions during the initial minutes become intuitive.

On evacuation scope, Glenn described the plan as “all-hazards” and noted that while wildfire is a prominent local threat, chemical spills, flooding, avalanches, rock slides or other hazards could also trigger evacuations. He said the county has mutual-aid memoranda of understanding for sheltering with San Miguel and Montrose counties, but stressed that shelter and evacuation routing decisions will depend on incident conditions and cannot always be pre-prescribed for locations such as Log Hill.

The plan includes guidance on voluntary and mandatory evacuation stages (“Be ready — Get set — Go now”), shelter-in-place triggers (for example chemical incidents or a nearby escapee), accounting procedures, and special provisions for people with access and functional needs. Glenn said the county will rely first on fast internal alerts (Google Chat groups) rather than slower county alert systems for immediate staff notification and that IT and sheriff’s office connectivity will be tested in future mini-exercises.

Glenn also reviewed courthouse-specific procedures (lockdown, suspicious persons, hostage scenarios, bomb threats), stressing that occupants should treat every threat as real until cleared, avoid radio/cell-phone use during bomb threats, and follow floor-level incident command instructions. He recommended that departments maintain “go bags” with supplies and documentation and keep printed copies of their emergency plans available at departmental work sites even where cloud storage exists.

Commissioners and staff discussed practical follow-up steps: scheduling regular department-level briefings, expanding Google Chat testing, confirming meeting locations for satellite county facilities (Mall Road, rental offices), and planning additional training dates (land use and vegetation management on March 19; sheriff’s office on April 3; public health on May 3). Glenn said the county’s multijurisdictional EOP was adopted by the BOCC on Dec. 17 and by the Town of Ridgeway in early January, with Ridgeway staff seeking a March adoption date for city plans when they meet March 11.

Board members and staff also discussed resource constraints for large incidents. Glenn warned that some state and federal resources have become less available and recommended the county consider budgeting contingency funds to respond to catastrophic events if outside assistance is delayed or unavailable.

The session closed with consensus from commissioners that the trainings are valuable and should continue; no formal adoption vote or ordinance was taken during the work session, and Glenn said staff will pursue scheduling the tabletop exercise and arranging department-level refresher trainings prior to the November full-scale drill.

Ending: The emergency manager asked departments to review their plans, participate in scheduled drills and coordinate with the county public information officer on incident messaging. Commissioners thanked Glenn for the review and asked staff to bring adoption items and any formal actions to a regular meeting when ready.