First of all, I want to wish everyone a very joyous Christmas. We will be traveling to Illinois to get together with our family. I’m very excited!! Our oldest son recently moved to Illinois from Colorado and this is the first Christmas in a very long time that we will all be together. We can begin some new family traditions that include the whole gang. I hope that you are able to connect with your family and spend some quality time together.
The After Action Report is completed for the flooding this spring and was presented at the Council Meeting this week. We learned many lessons about handling an emergency. The key learning is that we need to make sure that everyone is trained and we need to take time to practice handling a large scale disaster. Command and communication are the key factors to saving lives and property during a disaster. We need to practice establishing command, activating the Emergency Operations Center and filling the roles that perform important duties during a disaster. FEMA provides free training and practice exercises. I will bring proposals back to the Council to implement a much expanded training and practice program for our city. It is important that we are better prepared in the future to face any emergency.
Enjoy the holidays. Be safe when you travel as the weather doesn’t seem to want to cooperate with our travel plans.
