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Council adopts updated emergency operations plan; county-led cybersecurity, sheltering and festival planning highlighted
Summary
Scott County/Georgetown emergency manager presented an updated emergency operations plan incorporating lessons from recent disasters and new cyber-security approaches; council voted to adopt the plan and asked for printed copies for elected officials.
Scott County emergency-management staff presented a revised Emergency Operations Plan and the Georgetown City Council voted to authorize the mayor to sign and adopt the updated plan at the Jan. 27 meeting.
Emergency management director Mike Hennigan told council the plan incorporates recent threat-and-hazard mitigation updates, lessons learned from deployments (including a recent train derailment and hurricane deployments) and expanded cyber-security considerations. Hennigan said the county will transition IT operations to a Madison County data center to meet state cybersecurity and insurance requirements and to use a centralized, hardened server environment.
Hennigan reviewed operational features of the county Emergency Operations Center (EOC), which he described as a hardened, partially underground facility, and discussed sheltering capacity and points of distribution. He said sheltering for some incidents remains a vulnerability, noting that some community buildings are not equipped to provide generator-backed heating/cooling for multi-day operations.
Councilors asked for printed copies of the plan for officials because electronic systems could be unavailable during an incident; Hennigan agreed to deliver printed binders for key officials. Councilors also asked about special-event and parade planning; Hennigan said the plan now includes festival and parade Annexes to guide those operations.
Council voted in favor of the plan, with the mayor and multiple council members expressing support and thanking the emergency-management staff for preparation and recent exercises.
