Leavenworth County reviews Emergency Operations Plan; director outlines exercises, school coordination

Leavenworth County’s Director of Emergency Management briefed the Board of County Commissioners on the county’s Emergency Operations Plan (EOP), saying the plan “is the document that we use in, the state of Kansas by statute that becomes law in the event of a disaster.” The presentation explained how the plan activates emergency support functions (ESFs), uses secure mapping tools and coordinates exercises with schools and other partners.

The director said ESFs 1 through 15 lay out primary and supporting agencies for tasks such as evacuation and moving supplies. “In transportation, for an example ... myself as Director of Emergency Management would be the coordinator,” the director said, adding the Council on Aging and public schools are among primary agencies because of school bus assets and similar logistics.

Officials demonstrated the county’s Kansas EOP Mapper and said it is a closed, nonpublic resource that can filter infrastructure layers such as railroads and gas pipelines and show ownership details. “This is a closed website, sir,” the director said when asked whether the map is public, noting the map is updated by county, state and federal sources.

The director described WebEOC as the statewide situational‑awareness platform the county uses to share incident information with state and metro partners. He cautioned that notes entered there become a permanent record and are color coded to distinguish advisories from true emergencies.

On training and drills, the director told commissioners the county is required by the state to run two exercises a year and that the county has recently run hybrid exercises with partners. “We’re getting ready to do another one next Wednesday,” he said, noting an upcoming exercise with Saint Mary University and a series of smaller active‑shooter and tornado exercises with individual schools over the last three years. He said full participation by all districts is inconsistent and that the county recently scheduled an integrated planning workshop that invites school representatives.

The director also explained why the board uses a proclamation rather than a resolution to adopt the EOP: a proclamation allows continued edits and rolling updates until the next full update is due. “Propagation allows us to make those changes until we have to have the new plan, which is in 2029,” he said.

Commissioners asked about the county’s track record responding to major incidents. The director said the county has not experienced ‘‘major, catastrophic injuries’’ in recent events, citing a 2019 event with significant damage but no local injuries and noting a historical fatality from a 2000 tornado as an exception. On active‑shooter preparedness, the director said local response will likely be chaotic in the first hours but that the county’s role is to coordinate resources and accountability once multi‑jurisdictional response begins.

Logistics topics discussed included debris management: the director said dumpsters and placement decisions are covered by the county’s debris management plan, which integrates with the EOP for recovery and reimbursement purposes. He also said records produced during an incident help support federal and state reimbursement requests.

Next steps the director outlined included placing the proclamation item on a future agenda for formal sign‑off and using established notification channels to inform the county administrator and sheriff’s office in newsworthy incidents. The work session ended with commissioners thanking staff and noting follow‑up questions about information flow during incidents.

The board did not take a formal vote on the plan during the work session; staff said they will seek agenda placement to finalize the proclamation and continue coordinating exercises and school outreach.