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New emergency-management staff outlines continuity planning, EOC design and training for Ocean Shores
Summary
Mike, Ocean Shores' new emergency-management staff member, presented a work plan emphasizing continuity-of-operations, an Emergency Coordination Group guideline, EOC design and tabletop exercises, and FEMA-compliance steps to preserve grant eligibility.
At the Nov. 18 meeting, the city's new emergency-management staff member, Mike, described an immediate work plan to improve the city's disaster response capability by focusing on continuity planning, department templates, and hands-on training for staff and elected officials.
Mike said his short-term goals include drafting continuity-of-operations and continuity-of-government plans, producing generic emergency-response templates for departments, and creating training outlines to bring all city staff and elected officials up to a baseline understanding of the Incident Command System (ICS). He said police and fire personnel already meet refresher requirements and will be included in cross-department exercises.
Mike said he drafted a standard operating guideline he called the "Ocean Shores Emergency Coordination Group," designed to involve department heads and elected officials in policy decisions during major incidents (distinct from a traditional EOC). He emphasized that policy-level decisions — for example, temporarily waiving certain policies after a mayoral or gubernatorial emergency declaration — require elected-official participation alongside department and administrative staff.
He said he will design an emergency operations center and schedule mostly tabletop exercises involving cross-department participation and elected officials. "Putting a plan in a book... and letting it collect dust does us no good," Mike said, describing his intention to make exercises practical and engaging. He noted FEMA compliance matters for mitigation and recovery grant eligibility and cited prior public-assistance grants the city received after the Windsong storm as an example of the importance of compliance.
Mike said he will begin scheduling presentations and training sessions and will follow up with more intermediate and advanced training once basic templates and exercises are in place.
