Frequently
Asked Questions
Office of Emergency
Management
Q. Do we have a plan in case of emergencies and/or disasters?
A.
Q. What happens when we have exhausted all of our local resources?
A. When it is apparent that all local resources will
be exhausted or if there is a particular need, the Office of Emergency
Management Director contacts the WV Office of Homeland Security and Emergency
Management to request state resources.
That request is forwarded to the Governor. If the emergency/disaster also exceeds the
state’s resource capacity, the Governor will contact the Federal Emergency
Management Agency and the President to request federal resources. The only variation of that is when it is a
health emergency. In certain situations,
the local health department would contact the state health department, rather
than the office of emergency management.
Q. How is Public Information disseminated during disasters and/or emergencies?
A. Any time that the
Q. If the telephones are out, the electricity is down and the internet isn’t working, how can we ask for additional resources?
A. If all of our other
ways of communicating aren’t working, we now have satellite telephones and
service that will be used for back-up communications in our office.
Q. What is NIMS?
A. NIMS stands for the
National Incident Management System.
Using NIMS is required by all local, state, federal and tribal
governments throughout the
Q. Who are Red Cross Disaster Responders?
A. Volunteers who take courses in ARC Disaster Services and participate in regular meetings, drills and community disaster exercises.
Q. Are
there enough local volunteers trained and available in the event of a major
disaster in
A. No. Despite
an increase in volunteers and people taking disaster courses,
Q. If I
needed to go to a shelter, how would I know its location, and what should I
bring?
A. The Office of Emergency Management will consult with the Director of the Red Cross to select a shelter location in a safe area, and will announce its location via radio and TV stations. People coming to a shelter should bring bedding, including sleeping bags and air mattresses, if you have them; grooming and personal hygiene items, casual clothing, items for personal entertainment (books, kids games, radio/dvd with ear phones), personal identification, contact information for family members.
Q. Are pets
allowed in shelters?
A. Service animals (seeing-eye dogs) are allowed, but pets are not permitted in Red Cross shelters for health and safety reasons. Animal welfare groups are working with the Red Cross to make provisions for companion animals.
A. As recent experiences with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have shown, the best preparations begin at home by knowing the potential hazards for our area and developing a family disaster response plan. As a community, we can help one another by strengthening our community response capability. In a major disaster, help from outside may not be readily available.
A. Yes! Both the County and the individual schools have plans for approximately 22 different emergencies.
A. To previously designated reunion sites.
Q. What is the amount of time students will spend out of doors during an evacuation?
A As little as possible since this is not the safest scenario either.
A. You will be notified by your child and or school personnel.
A. Prior to the event, parents should be sure that the school has all necessary valid phone numbers of emergency contacts and how the school will be able to identify those contacts.
Q. Is there a plan to evacuate
A. On any given day or
hour, hazardous materials are transported through our
county. Most likely a segment or portion
of our county would be affected which could result in the evacuation within the
proximity of the event. Emergency
responders are prepared in case of a hazardous materials situation in which all
emergency services, fire, police, EMS and other responders work in unison in
response to the event, in the process of evacuation, if needed, and in
providing a remedy to the disaster.
Q. What if there is a man-made or natural disaster where we need more police officers than we have in our county?
A. The Jefferson County
Sheriff’s Office not only have deputized members of the local police
departments, but have included deputies from
Q. What kinds of redundant communications do the
police have in case the regular means of communications go down?
A. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department is equipped with an Incident Command Vehicle which can be taken directly to the scene of an incident and is capable of operating separately from the Jefferson County Emergency Headquarters dispatcher system.
Q. Please explain your Volunteer Reserve Program
(Volunteers in Police Service) and how an interested person would get signed up
to volunteer.
A. The Jefferson
County Sheriff’s Department has a resource of 30 volunteers in its Deputy
Reserve Program. These are non-sworn
members who perform support functions, such as traffic control at events and
traffic accidents, service of process, road check events and act as the eyes
and ears of the department through directed patrol activities.
Q. How do the city, county,
state and private police forces work together to protect
A. At any given moment,
city, county and state law enforcement officials may be called upon to assist
one another in times of major traffic accidents, major incidents, disasters and
during homeland security events.
Although each department remains independent in their day to day
functions, when serious events occur become part of a cohesive participant
group in offering a safe and secure resolution to the disruption or event.
Q. What levels of training have the local Fire Companies participated in to prepare for disasters?
A.
Q. What happens in the daytime and other times when there is a shortage of Volunteers?
A. We have Mutual Aid Agreements with the surrounding
Counties where we could call for additional resource. A recent incident that is a good example is
the mountain fire near Shannondale in November. We
had over 30 Companies and 200 firefighters from as far away as
A. Handle entirely- No. Stabilize until other resources arrive -Yes. There is no way we could be trained and equipped to handle all situations without assistance of specialized teams. With this in mind, we have members that are trained in hazardous material operations, extrication, water rescue and other areas that can apply these skills to stabilize situations until the specialized teams can respond.
A. Declining numbers of Volunteers, increased cost of operation and increased call volume. This is a national trend that has us all concerned. Each Company is working on recruitment and retention plans. We are looking at incentive plans, educational programs and length of service pension programs.
A. Call your local Fire Company. We have a need for everyone from auxiliary members to actual firefighters and Emergency Medical Technicians (We will train you!)
Blue Ridge Mountain Fire Co- 728-8006
Citizens Fire Co- 725-2814
Friendship Fire Co - 535-2211
Independent Fire Co - 725-2514
Shepherdstown Fire Dept – 876-2311
Q. What is the Jefferson County Health Department (JCHD) doing about the avian flu?
A. The Jefferson County Health Department has an
active disease surveillance
program. If there is evidence of an
avian flu outbreak in
Q. What would the role of the Jefferson County
Health Department in case of a biological terrorism attack?
A. The JCHD would request supplies from the CDC. This would include medication and medical equipment. Distribution sites would be set up to either dispense antibiotics (in cases of anthrax, tularemia, etc.) or vaccinate healthy citizens (in cases of smallpox, avian flu, etc). Sick people will be directed to medical facilities. In the event of a large scale disaster, medications will be free and if it is the distribution of antibiotics, one person per household will be asked to come to a dispensing site to collect the medication. This will cut down on traffic congestion and speed up the distribution process and speed up the distribution process so that every citizen can get the necessary medication in a timely manner.
A. The JCHD will notify people as soon as possible through numerous media channels (TV, newspaper, radio, cable TV, JCHD website) as to what people should be doing to protect their families from further harm and where to go to receive medical treatment and/or medications.
A. Because
Q. What would the role of the Jefferson County Health Department be in the event of a natural disaster (hurricane, flood, etc.)
A. The health department would set up clinics to give tetanus vaccinations to those people who have been determined to be at risk from contaminated water. We would also provide information via the various media channels mentioned above to educate the citizens about safe food and drinking water practices, how to disinfect your home and personal property, and how to prevent the spread of disease in these situations.
A. Hospitals
in general have always maintained disaster preparedness programs, but after
9-11, the nation’s hospitals took a closer look at their levels of
preparedness. JMH utilizes an all –
hazards disaster plan which is exercised twice a year, with table top exercises
in between. JMH has worked closely with
the West Virginia Hospital Association, and has used some grant money to increase
their capacity for patients in a disaster.
Capacity to take in patients has been increased, but in the case of an
overwhelming disaster work needs to be done with all other county agencies to
plan and implement setting
up health centers in other
locations to provide various types of care as an adjunct to the hospital. JMH
is committed to working with other
Q. During some
disasters we have heard that a hospital could not function because it lost
power. How can you prevent that from
happening here?
A. The hospital has a large generator which comes on automatically when the power goes out. It runs on heating oil and the supply is sufficient to last an average of several weeks. There is an aggressive system of testing the generator weekly to make sure there are no operational problems. In the event the generator would fail there is a written agreement with a company to bring another generator in which would fit our electrical system and needs.
A. Some extra supplies are kept on site in disaster carts. For sustained need for more supplies, there are arrangements with some of the companies that normally supply goods. JMH also has the advantage of being a member of West Virginia University Hospitals – East. Depending upon the scope of the disaster JMH could get supplies from the other member hospitals or their suppliers. Our food supply vendor even has contingency plans that allow for basic food to be sent in an emergency situation, even if we are unable to get the order to them. There are agreements for water supplies, also.
Q: What is the
purpose of the emergency communications department?
A.
Secondly,
the addressing office has responsibility for overseeing the mapping, road
naming, and addressing in
Q: I pay 9-1-1
fees. How are they used and where do
they go?
A. Fees paid as part of your Frontier Communications
telephone bill are remitted to the
Q: I have a wireless / cellular telephone. Will the dispatch center know where I am
located if I dial 9-1-1?
A. Currently, all 9-1-1 calls originating from
wireless towers serving
Q: I have an internet telephone. Can I dial 9-1-1, where does the call go, and
can I be located?
A. Internet telephony is not routed to the
Q: What will
happen if our 9-1-1 center is out of service?
A..
A. Our office
opened in February, 2002 under the FEMA Project Impact Grant Program. In January, 2004 the office was renamed by
the
A. Know what
kinds of things you are at risk from in
A. No you don’t. We hope that everyone who takes the classes will want to assist in their neighborhoods after an emergency or a disaster, but it is not a requirement to take the class. Even if you choose to only take care of yourself and your immediate family during a crisis, that will help.
A. Anyone can
become a JCOHS partner who has the desire to volunteer their time (or employees
time), or in some way contribute to making
A. Yes. Recently the invitations have picked up significantly and the speaking engagements have to be coordinated well in advance of the meeting date. Sometimes it is the staff member and sometimes it is a volunteer partner who speaks to groups.