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Eaton County emergency manager previews plan synchronization and a Tri-County wireless emergency-alert test
Summary
Emergency Manager Ryan Wilkinson told the Public Safety Committee he is consolidating the county27s emergency plans into a synchronized maintenance schedule and announced a Tri-County Wireless Emergency Alert test planned for March 19 at 12:59 p.m., followed by outdoor warning sirens.
Ryan Wilkinson, Eaton County emergency manager, told commissioners on Jan. 4 that the county is completing a multiyear effort to synchronize emergency planning documents and will soon present updated plans for board approval.
Wilkinson said the review will align continuity-of-government, continuity-of-operations, emergency operations and multi-hazard mitigation plans into a single evaluation and maintenance schedule; he described the effort as the culmination of work begun years earlier. He also reported participation in interjurisdictional exercises, including coordination on fatality-management planning with University of Michigan Health Sparrow Forensic Pathology and a tabletop exercise in Oakland County.
Wilkinson announced a cross-jurisdictional wireless emergency alert (WEA) test for March 19 at 12:59 p.m., which he said will be triggered from Ingham County but will reach tri-county audiences under agreements he described as in place. The WEA test will be followed one minute later by county outdoor warning sirens. Wilkinson said the test is intended to verify the county27s ability to send imminent-life-threat alerts and is, to his knowledge, a first-of-its-kind cross-jurisdictional test in the nation. He said the county will conduct public information and education in the weeks before the test so residents are not surprised by the alert and siren.
A commissioner asked whether residents must opt in to receive the alerts; Wilkinson said the messages are built into phones and do not require an opt-in action by users. He said WEA messages are reserved for specific criteria and imminent-life-threat situations and that more information will be circulated beginning in mid-February.
Wilkinson also presented a one-year progress report for the emergency office27s multiyear strategic plan and described ongoing work to credential public information officers and stress-test the county emergency operations center.
