Officials find their place in emergency chain of command

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

Elected city officials and members of the business community in Floyd County got the 411 on the chain of command that would be in place during an emergency.

The class is for elected officials, but Floyd County Emergency Management Coordinator Lezlie Weber said she opened it up to others who would be involved in managing a disaster situation or who would need information during a disaster.

The class was taught by Thomas Craighton, the Franklin County emergency management and homeland security advisor. About six people attended, including Mayor Dean Andrews and Charles City Administrator Steven Diers.

“I see us as the incident command system,” Weber said.

The ICS 200 class is a two-day course that focuses on each role in the chain of command during a range of possible disasters, she said.

Prior to this week’s class the participants were asked to take ICS 100, which is a broad overview of the incident command system, Weber said.

The courses are from the Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency, and both are offered online, but Weber said she wanted to offer them in a physical setting so people involved could see in person their roles and how they fit with the roles of others.

“We can all discuss together and see where they would fall in the overall EOC incident command,” Weber said.

A full-scale emergency drill is being planned, possibly for 2022 or 2023.

Weber said the drill scenario could be something that starts in Charles City but spreads to other communities so people in those towns have to react.

“The main event will be here,” she said, referring to Charles City, “because that’s where we have the most departments coming together.”