HOME Commissioners Departments Committees Services Documents Forms Projects Openings About Us Links			EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT Contact Information Phone:  Fax: 231-882-0567 231-882-0568 Location / Address 448 Court Place. Beulah, MI 49617 Personnel   Frank Post — Emergency Management Coordinator Services Offered Maintain Emergency Operations Plan Provide Benzie County Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan Operate the Emergency Operations Center Coordinate resources and efforts during response and recovery Description The role of Benzie County Emergency Management is to protect the lives and property of citizens before a disaster strikes through preparedness, training and mitigation, and to reduce human suffering after a disaster strikes through prompt and effective coordination of the County's response and recovery efforts utilizing the expertise and resources of federal, state, local agencies and voluntary relief organizations. The Four Phases in Emergency Management: 1. Mitigation – This is "sustained activities and measures aimed at eliminating or reducing the long-term risk of property damage and loss of live from hazards and their effects". This phase includes any activities that prevent and emergency, reduce the chance of an emergency happening or reduce the effects of unavoidable hazards. It can occur before or after an emergency or disaster. Examples include: zoning and building codes floodplain, buyouts, data analysis to determine where best to place shelters or temporary housing, educating the public in ways to reduce loss and injury. Mitigation can break the cycle of having to rebuild and rebuild again after every occurrence of floods or hurricanes. Attention to mitigation opportunities can make safer communities for all of us. 2. Preparedness – Iinvolves establishing authority and responsibility for emergency actions and having the resources available to support them. This includes developing written response plans, maintaining facilities and equipment, installing warning systems, training of staff and equipping the Emergency Operation Center (EOC) for operation during an emergency. A key element is developing plans that link the many aspects of a jurisdictions commitment to emergency management. 3. Response – This the action taken to save live and property. This may include warning, evacuating or sheltering the public, search and rescue, providing medical treatment, maintaining the law, assessing damage or requesting help from outside the jurisdiction if needed. 4. Recovery – This is the effort to restore the infrastructure and the social and economic life of a community back to normal after the disaster. Short term it includes bringing power, telephone etc, back into service, ensuring social needs of individuals and the community are met. Long-term goals are restoring economic activity and rebuilding community facilities and housing. Public Safety Information Line: (231) 882-0567 The Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) Founded in 1952, this is a public service provided by a reserve (volunteer) communications group within government agencies in times of extraordinary need. During periods of RACES activation, certified unpaid personnel are called upon to perform many tasks for the government agencies they serve. Although the exact nature of each activation will be different, the common thread is communications. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is responsible for the regulation of RACES operations. RACES is administrated by a local, county, or state civil defense agency responsible for disaster services. This civil defense agency is typically an emergency services or emergency management organization, sometimes within another agency such as police or fire. RACES is a function of the agency's Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS), sometimes known as DCS (Disaster Communications Service), ECS (Emergency Communications Service), ARPSC (Amateur Radio Public Service Corps), etc. RACES Meetings are 9:00 am on the last Saturday of each month at the Hungry Tummy Restaurant in Beulah. What Is the National Incident Management System (NIMS)? The National Incident Management System (NIMS) provides a systematic, proactive approach to guide departments and agencies at all levels of government, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to work seamlessly to prevent, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of incidents, regardless of cause, size, location, or complexity, in order to reduce the loss of life and property and harm to the environment. NIMS works hand in hand with the National Response Framework (NRF). NIMS provides the template for the management of incidents, while the NRF provides the structure and mechanisms for national-level policy for incident management.  Documents Benzie County Hazard Mitigation Plan, 47 page PDF document, 1.7 mB Local Training Materials Training Requirements Training Guide Related Web Links Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) FEMA main stie FEMA Training Resources for NIMS State of Michigan Emergency Management Note: To view the PDF documents on this page, Adobe Acrobat Reader is needed. If you do not already have it, you can get it free from Adobe. Once installed, simply clicking on the link will bring up the document. Note however that the document will first be transferred to your computer, which can take a while for large documents and/or if you have a slow connection.
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