Baptism by Fire & Water : Lessons Learned in EM

Baptism by Fire and Water Lessons Learned by Two EM’s Asst. Chief Dennis B Vincent Sgt. Jeremy M. Hales

Assistant Chief Dennis Vincent • Police Officer since 1989 • Patrol Officer • Detective • Strike Force Agent • Patrol Sergeant • Investigations Sergeant • Operations Lieutenant • Administrative Lieutenant • Promoted to Assistant Chief in 2015 • Appointed Brigham City Emergency Manager 2015 • Strike Force Commander

Sgt. Jeremy Hales • Deputy Sheriff since 2001 • Patrol Deputy • DARE Officer • SRO

• Promoted to Sergeant in 2008 • SRO • SWAT • Patrol

• Assigned to Emergency Management 2016

Wasatch County Emergency Manager •

History of EM in Wasatch County

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Appointed to be the Emergency Manager in June 2016 by Sheriff Todd L. Bonner

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My first 3 weeks •

Flooding

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2 wildfires

Badger Fire

Badger Fire

Steps to help prepare for the new role • Visit with other County Emergency Managers • • • •

Utah County Box Elder County Davis County Duchesne County

• Study of the Emergency Management handbook • Roles and Responsibilities • Tapping into predecessors

Collaboration and Relationships • Emergency Management Board • Planning • Region Partners and cities • State of Utah Liaison • City Emergency Managers • CERT, MRC, and ARES • Citizen Corps Council

• Local business • Religious Groups

• Fire Warden • Floodplain administrator • US Forest Service • EOC Staff • County and City Stakeholders • County Emergency Managers meeting • Bureau of Reclamation

Knowledge •

Attended the Utah Governor's Public Safety Conference, UEMA, Emergency Management Conference

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Continuing Education on Emergency Management (UVU)

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Complete all of the Professional Development Series, Independent Study courses and Advanced professional series.

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Utah Division of Emergency Management

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Emergency Management Institute •

National Emergency Management Basic Academy

Empowerment from all levels

Elected Official Buy-in • Do elected officials know what emergency managers do?

• Department directors/supervisors buy-in?

• Wasatch County Emergency Management Board • Brigham City Emergency Management Committees

Past versus future • Lessons learned in 2005 • Where we are in 2017

Lessons learned from 2005

Lessons learned from 2005

Lessons Learned from 2005

Lessons learned from 2005

Mitigation/Preparedness Committee • City Administrator • City Emergency Manager • City Public Works Director • City Public Power Director

City Issue Recommendations • Channel clean out • Partnership with Box Elder County, State of Utah and Town of Mantua

• Protection of city infrastructure • Inventory of all structures • Pipelines (water, natural gas, irrigation) • Waste Treatment Facility

• Determining snow levels in drainage area • Maps and procedures for determining levels

City Issue Recommendations Cont.

• Sandbagging locations • • • •

Pre-positioning along the channel (protection of homes) Using topo of channel bed Flooding pictures Train CERT volunteers

• Pre-positioning of sand • Locations near potential flooding • Use CERT and volunteers to fill sandbags • Provide training for filling bags

City Issue Recommendations • Spring Run Off Plan Development • Follow CPG 101 format

• Addressed roles and responsibilities of city departments • Addressed pre run off preventative actions • Development of check list for all to follow • Assigned Incident Command structure • Pre-flooding • Flooding event

City Issue Recommendations Cont.

• Mantua Reservoir for storage • Establish levels of storage capacity • Snow measuring indicators • Open dialog with water users

• Partnerships • City/county departments • National Weather Service • State of Utah

Brigham City Flood Control and Administrative Management

Brigham City Flood Control and Administrative Management

Brigham City Flood Control and Administrative Management

Box elder Creek Diversion Structure

2017 Snow Melt • Increased capacity of feeder canal • Armoring of channel • Realigning of channel in limit locations • Preposition of sandbags • Alert notification of residents • Cleaning of channel (in town and out of town) • Use of CERT volunteers

2017 Results

• Very limited damage to public infrastructure

• No flooding of residences

Dealing with FEMA after a disaster

Box Elder Creek Diversion Structure

Box Elder Creek Diversion Structure

Mantua Box Elder Creek

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