Charles City department heads part of tabletop exercises to plan for disasters

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

Hypothetical disaster situation:

The town of Rockford loses electricity after a cyber-security attack knocks out that city’s power. The light plant then goes on the fritz after the City Hall’s computer system is hacked into, leading to freezing cold temperatures at households throughout the community.

Would that town be prepared to deal with such an emergency?

That is just one of the questions that Lezlie Weber is asking Floyd County communities this year and something she’s already undertaken with Rockford. The disaster scenarios are part of her tabletop exercises that help communities band together, collaborate and be prepared if such a cataclysmic event would strike.

Weber, the Floyd County emergency management director, addressed Charles City department heads and other community leaders Tuesday evening about how they are equipped to deal with emergencies such as a tornado or flood.

Weber made it clear during the introductory meeting that a large part of the reasons for the exercises are to find out just what exactly are the current protocols in place to respond to an emergency or keep a catastrophe from occurring.

“The departments that you guys represent, you’re supposed to be able to tell me what your policies or procedures are to respond to that sort of situation,” she said.

Weber will eventually conduct presentations across the county with city leaders to think outside the box and brainstorm ideas. She said she is planning a meeting next month to coordinate what the group’s thoughts are and to iron out the details to get the Charles City group ready for the tabletop exercise they’ll deal with in December. She said it will last an hour and a half and be followed up by a half hour of “hot wash” – a Q&A session to review the action taken after the scenario is addressed.

Tuesday’s meeting was to get everyone on the same page and to figure out if anybody else needs to be in attendance at the meetings who could be a valuable resource in a natural disaster, Weber said.

Three goals or capabilities were asked to be identified out of a list of around 30 categories like critical transportation, mass care services, community resilience and long-term vulnerability reduction. Other topics that could be addressed in a tabletop are threats and hazards identification, public information and warning, as well as mass search and rescue operations.

Then one scenario could be worked out together among all those in attendance.

“It’s not meant for everyone as a whole to pass. It’s meant for you guys to think outside the box and work through situations so that we can fix those gaps that we might have before we get to an actual disaster or something comes up,” said Weber. “In order to know those gaps I have to kind of elaborate and kind of make it bigger than what it might actually be in this area.”

The tabletop exercises help community leaders gear up for bigger functional exercises that will lead to full-scale involvement later on down the road. 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.

“Our exercises for AMA’s is a five-year cycle and that’s regulated by Homeland Security,” said Weber.