In Disasters, at-Risks Need Help Fast — County is Updating Its List to Identify Residents With Special Needs

By Wayne Risher risher@desotoappealcom

DeSoto County officials want to hear from people whose disabilities or medical conditions might prove deadly in a disaster such as an earthquake.

The county’s Department of Emergency Services, headed by Bobby Storey, maintains a list of at-risk residents who might need extra help from emergency crews.

Storey told the Board of Supervisors people should call his office at (662) 429-1382 to get on the list.

“That can help us give a speedy response to them,” said Storey, whose department dispatches county fire and ambulance calls.

Volunteer fire departments, which cover unincorporated areas outside DeSoto cities, send out letters seeking to identify residents with special needs. Storey wasn’t sure if municipalities do the same.

The list helps quickly and efficiently flag people who might need help like drinking water or electric generators after a disaster strikes.

The discussion came as supervisors OK’d a rewrite of the county’s comprehensive emergency-management plan.

Storey and Tim Curtis, deputy director for emergency management, said the plan is getting its first complete overhaul since 1996.

Parts of it have been rewritten annually, but officials said this is the first top-to-bottom revamp since the nation’s emergency preparedness was tested by 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.

While supervisors approved the basic plan, Curtis said officials are still rewriting 15 subsections dealing with issues ranging from group shelters to communications among public safety agencies.

The rewrite must be completed by June 30, 2007.

A “mass care” subsection deals with shelters. Curtis said the Department of Human Services would oversee shelters, and the American Red Cross and Salvation Army are responsible for operating them.

The subsection was last used when the county housed about 4,500 evacuees from Katrina, Curtis said. The plan spells out a network of sites like schools and churches capable of housing several thousand people.

Supervisor Bill Russell quizzed Storey and Curtis about efforts to improve inter-agency communications and emergency efforts aimed at pets.

Storey said by the end of November, the county expects to have in place a communication console that enables emergency workers from different agencies to talk to each other via “cross patches,” or hookups through the emergency services office.

Russell recalled horror stories from Katrina about people who got trapped because they wouldn’t leave their pets behind.

Curtis said the animal shelter had secured a mobile unit designed to help in pet rescue efforts. Shelter staff members have attended emergency management training.

– Wayne Risher: (662) 996-1421

(c) 2006 Commercial Appeal, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.