Ocean Shores staff and volunteers reviewed city emergency-management readiness at a public safety meeting, emphasizing the need for a single, authoritative source for public information and interoperable communications if an earthquake affects the area.

At the meeting, a staff member described the tabletop exercise based on an earthquake scenario and said officials focused on public information and operational communications. "That information has to be called from the information that the first responders gather in the field doing what's called the windshield survey," the staff member said, adding that public messages must be "dead accurate" to maintain public confidence.

The meeting reviewed components that would support situational awareness and messaging during a major incident: FAA‑certified drone operators to provide overhead imagery; ham-radio operators as fallback communications; and a capability to interrupt local broadcast KOSW to issue emergency announcements. The staff member said the city has applied for a grant to purchase roughly three satellite phones but has not yet received notice: "I applied for a grant. We haven't heard back. I'll check with Tim again soon," the staff member said.

Speakers highlighted interoperable communications as a priority. The staff member cited congressional findings after the World Trade Center collapse to illustrate the consequences when police and fire cannot communicate during the same incident, and urged that Ocean Shores ensure systems allow all relevant agencies — police, fire, public works, county partners and state patrol — to exchange information.

Officials discussed the operational interface between field incident command and an emergency operations center (EOC), saying resource requests must flow from the field to the EOC and back. The staff member described the difference between incident command and unified command and said the EOC would likely operate out of a large training room at the fire station.

The meeting also addressed limits on capacity versus capability: Ocean Shores staff are capable and trained, but a limited number of personnel live inside the city, requiring plans for relief shifts during a multi‑day event. Volunteers were discussed as valuable but also a management burden: assigning, logging and verifying qualifications for many volunteers would require staff time and liability tracking.

The staff member recommended FEMA online courses for staff who need PIO, incident-management or EOC roles and urged elected officials and senior city staff to support training and equipment purchases that would sustain accurate, timely public information.

No formal actions or votes were recorded on communications equipment or training during the meeting.