County better prepared for disaster after training

Chris Van Ormer
Staff Writer
Citrus County just became a safer place to live if a disaster happens.
Last week, 67 people from county government and other agencies completed a training session at the National Emergency Training Center Emergency Management Institute in Emmitsburg, Md.

Special to the Chronicle

Special to the Chronicle Sixty-seven people from Citrus County went to Maryland last week for emergency management training. Some are pictured here in a classroom at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, Md. They learned about carrying out long-term recovery procedures and how all their efforts work together.

“It was hurricane response and recovery, but we wanted more emphasis on recovery,” said Robert Wesch, assistant emergency management director. “We do a lot of response and have done it in the past, but thankfully we have never had to do the two-week, two-month or longer recovery.”

Should a big storm create a long-term emergency, such as happened in 2005 in Louisiana and Mississippi with Hurricane Katrina, county responders are better prepared. Their week’s training took them through all the stages: the initial response for the first 24 hours, the middle phase of 24 to 72 hours, and then the longer term beyond that time.

The trainees represented many backgrounds: sheriff’s office, county government, Nature Coast Emergency Medical Services, animal services, Progress Energy, Citrus County Fire Rescue, economic development council, chamber of commerce and the health department.

FEMA picked up the expense for the training, which Wesch said would have cost the county $35,000 to $40,000. The meals cost $97 per person for the week.

Wesch initiated the training idea about two and a half years ago, after he attended training in Manatee County.

“They were talking about their county sending 75 people up to Maryland to take training on hurricane response,” Wesch said.
Early last year, the county learned it could send staff for training. FEMA staff came to Citrus County first to customize the training to its conditions and situations. During scenarios, familiar roads and landmarks were named. Everything seemed real.

The reason all 67 had to go to Maryland was to emphasize the importance of the training.

Fire Chief Larry Morabito said having the training in the county would leave staff open to interruptions from their regular jobs. Lindsay Ubinas, public information officer, said trainees didn’t just go home to a regular life at 5 p.m. Everyone could socialize in the evenings, get to know each other and build trust.

“So many areas of our county were represented,” Ubinas said. “We learned how we could use people in those areas for needs that might arise during a hurricane.”

“What was nice is that after the exercise, one of the comments we got back was that Citrus County has a lot of synergy,” said Ken Frink, public works director and assistant county administrator.

Both Frink and Cathy Pearson, community services director and assistant county administrator, attended the training.

It became evident that staff might be short for a long-term recovery.
“We need to train more people on EOC operations,” Morabito said. “We need more depth.”

Larry Brock, deputy public works director, explained that a long-term recovery period would be physically draining on staff who would be working shifts of 12 hours on and 12 hours off.

“When you get into an extended time period, then you’ve got to start considering days off for those workers to get some R and R,” Brock said. “That’s going to require another shift to bring in there and backfill that position. Your pool is only so deep to draw from.”

People working in a long-term recovery also need their own security.
“You’ve got to let your responders know that their families are protected,” Morabito said. “If they don’t know their families are protected and secure, they may be there physically, but their minds are going to be somewhere else.”

Eric Williams, geospatial systems administrator, said he was impressed with the team, especially Dr. George Everly, associate professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University, whose subject was “critical incident stress management.”

All trainers were experienced in long-term response, and were complimentary of how well the Citrus crew worked together.
County staff indicated they would arrange more training within the next few months to teach others — staying home this time.
Chronicle reporter Chris Van Ormer can be reached at cvanormer@chronicleonline.com or 564-2916.