Tabletop exercises help Floyd County communities prepare for disasters

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

It’s better to be safe than sorry.

Those are words that Lezlie Weber lives by in her chosen profession.

Weber, the Floyd County emergency management director, has helped initiate what are called tabletop exercises between city department heads throughout Floyd County. The presentations help communities band together, collaborate and be prepared if disasters strike.

Aided by PowerPoint presentations, Weber has gathered community leaders to pose questions, think outside the box and also walk through hypothetical disaster situations that may arise.

“The purpose is to have everyone at the table together talking, because during a disaster there is so much chaos that happens,” said Weber. “It’s a way for everyone to kind of come together at the table and say this is what we do and you have to control the chaos.”

Weber experienced first hand such a disaster during the flood of 2016. Torrential rains in late September pushed the Cedar River’s crest to almost 21 feet. The ensuing high waters caused all sorts of problems, including the flooding of Charles City’s wastewater treatment plant. The city was inundated with so much water that the pumps went out and Charles City didn’t have the ability to use its sewer system for three days.

Floyd County was also severely affected by the flood. And the chaos created by the 2016 flood still couldn’t rival the devastating effects of the 2008 flood — a once in a 500-year flood event.

Weber wants Floyd County to be ready for and to help combat a flood, tornado, major fire or other event that could threaten the safety of Floyd County residents. She said it’s important that everyone knows the part they’ll play in trying to get towns back to normalcy.

“It’s all discussion-based,” she said of her tabletop exercises.

Weber presents a disaster scenario and then local leaders have to figure out how to react. She said some scenarios can almost seem unrealistic or over the top.

“It was basically getting everyone on the same page,” she said.

Some of the core capabilities or goals of the tabletop exercises are public information and warning. Others include operational coordination, forensics and attribution, screening, search and detection, as well as supply chain integrity and security.

Weber met with people in Floyd, Marble Rock and Rockford in three separate meetings in April. The presentations are currently in their infancy, or as Weber put it, “crawl” phase. The goal is to reach all communities during the rest of the calendar year.

Weber will visit Rudd, Nora Springs and Colwell this summer. Then come fall and into this upcoming winter she’ll hold the tabletop exercises in Charles City. In 2020, Weber will again perform the presentations, building on the ones done this year.

“There’s always going to be that chaos in a disaster. But if we can work together prior to that and know each other’s roles, get comfortable with each other, know who we are, it helps lower that chaos,” she said.

In 2021, Weber said, they’ll start the planning process for a 2022 full-scale presentation that will involve the public. She said a full-scale exercise takes 12-18 months to prepare and plan for.

“The full scale, if anyone has interest in being part of it, having a role in it, volunteering, we’re definitely going to need some numbers for that,” she said.