Response Capabilities

EMA operates the Countywide Emergency Operations Center (EOC). This facility is the primary location that is established & equipped to enable chief elected officials, agency administrators, executives, and key stakeholders to assemble during emergencies, disasters, and major pre-planned events. From the EOC, personnel coordinate the strategic direction, control, and coordination for all responding agencies and organizations; facilitating the seamless integration of organizations & establishment of a consistent common operating picture & situational awareness required to enable response & recovery success. The facility serves as the daily countywide watch center with watch operations conducted by an on-call duty officer monitoring conditions and activities remotely outside of normal duty hours. 

The agency maintains & deploys a mobile platform in support of local agency responses that are longer in duration or larger than a standard incident or event. As such, these incidents and events typically require a larger on-scene personnel & command presence that necessitates enhanced incident management support capabilities and resources related to the essential functions of planning, logistics management, situational awareness, operational coordination & operational communications. This mobile capability also posseses the funcionality to serve as a stand-alone 9-1-1 backup center for the county. 

EMA provides incident & event action planning (IAP/EAP) expertise for public safety & government agencies. Plans are developed in accordance with national best practices and standards which are utilized by incident managers & support personnel during emergencies, disasters, and major pre-planned events. This capability allows response organizations to implement operations in a coordinated & consistent manner that helps achieve the desired response objectives and priorities while providing a management structure for the seamless integration of multi-jurisdictional and multi-agency resources.

EMA maintains a 24/7 on-call Duty Officer that serves as the countywide watch officer and primary contact for assistance needed by program partners and stakeholders. The agency maintains a small fleet of rapid response vehicles that can deliver EMA rapid incident management support to local incidents that require expanded scene & resource management operations. Personnel serve in these incident responses as supplemental incident management command or general staff positions or sub-functions such as situation unit or resource unit leaders. This response capability addresses those incident or events that are not anticipated to be of duration or scope to require a full ICS deployment of the Mobile EOC or activation of the Emergency Operations Center.

EMA maintains a cache of specialized equipment that can be deployed to assist jurisdictions and regional partners with the myriad of incidents and events they may encounter. Some of the equipment is agency owned while other assets are housed & deployed by EMA under cooperative agreements with partners such as the Iowa Department of Homeland Security & Emergency Management and the American Red Cross. Some of the equipment includes: a critical incident support unit, shelter supply trailer,  6" trailer-mount flood pump, sandbags, trailer-mount sandbag machine, barricades, vehicle ramming prevention equipment, portable data/communications station, portable generators, light tower, digital messaging board, and other various pieces of support equipment.  EMA personnel also coordinate and manage large emergency and disaster logistics management operations in support of local jurisdictions and regionally, as may be required. This centralized logistics support model increases resource efficiency, reduces duplication of effort, and creates a coordinated strategic logistics management system that can be quickly implemented, identify needs, streamline assistance acquisitions, and make priority resource allocation decisions across multiple jurisdictions and incidents. This type of logistics management model also leverages assistance from neighboring county, state, and federal resources.