Rebecca Kumar is the Emergency Management Specialist with Lake County Emergency Management Agency (LCEMA). She started with the agency just three months before we were locked down in the pandemic. Before she joined the LCEMA, she was a 911 dispatcher in Waukegan. LCEMA has 3 full time employees and 20 volunteers. With everything she and her colleagues have had to face these past two years demonstrates that perhaps the county should consider adding to another employee or two to the operating budget. The mission of the agency is to provide a comprehensive emergency management program that is able to prevent, prepare for, mitigate, respond to, and recover from all hazards that may impact Lake County communities. LCEMA works as a coordinator with the Sheriff's department and the LC Health Department. Logistics is the one key task of the department. They integrate county programs and staff of the Emergency Management Program, Homeland Security Program and the Emergency Response Program. For instance with the flooding along the Des Plaines River, they coordinated resources for stakeholders and residents along the flooded areas. They also provided links for residents to apply for state emergency and FEMA funds. So far during this pandemic, LCEMA has had an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) active for over 780 days. During that time they have assisted the LCHD in mass vaccination efforts and coordinating testing sites. They received over 200 requests for resources and information so far. There have been almost 250 requests to the State or PPE and supplies. Nearly five million items have been distributed and over 425,000 items have been donated to LCEMA for distribution. During the civil unrest they activated an additional response. Other minor response activities can be weather related like extreme heat or cold, and storms. The agency's team stays informed about significant changes to the Emergency Management Program, any activations at the EOC, status of ongoing emergency operations, after-action reports and improvement plans and other significant information as recommended by LCEMA and coordinated by the County's Administrator's office. In times of emergencies, they coordinate with United Way, Red Cross and the Water Ways Agency. So what does LCEMA do? - Emergency Operations Planning and Response
- Resource Management and Logistics
- Training and Exercises
- Continuity Planning
- Threat and Hazard Analysis
- Public Education and Outreach
- Damage Assessment/Public Assistance Coordination
- Emergency Communications
- Volunteer Management
Their purpose is to coordinate and make decisions. This entails: - Acquire, allocate and track resources
- Manage and share information
- Establish response priorities among incidents
- Provide legal and financial support
- Liaison with other jurisdictions and other levels of government
It was a very interesting presentation and she even brought us handouts for emergency preparedness! |