September Preparedness Month, Part 1
Friday, September 12th, 2014 -- 11:15 AM
-The thought of your family or business being impacted by a disaster is never a pleasant one. It is however, extremely important to plan ahead and be ready if disaster strikes.That?s why each year the month of September is designated as National Preparedness Month to encourage residents to plan and prepare for disasters which may pose a hazard to them.
John Ross, Clark County?s Emergency Management Director, talked about the different types of disasters that can affect us here in Central Wisconsin.
John said, "In our part of the country, the obvious choices are the severe weather events. Whether it be thunderstorms, hail, heavy rain, flash flooding, tornadoes, but people don't always think about things such as Winter weather. Heavy snow, extreme cold, or even ice storms and the effect they can have. There's also the man made disaster aspect. Whether is be pipelines, rail transport, truck and trailer transport or, heaven forbid, an intentional act by a person or a group."
John said the county does have plans in place for dealing with disasters should they happen to our area.
"Planning takes place at the county level," said John. "Planning takes place at the city, village and town level. In Clark County, we have what's known as the Local Emergency Planning Committee. That is part of a federal program to deal with hazardous materials facilities in Clark County. We also looked at plans as far as county government and county response to disaster, whether it be natural or man made, and how we're going to keep the county government structure up and running; ow we're going to support municipalities."
Your help in planning and preparing will go a great distance in helping in their efforts to respond if disaster strikes. Together we can build disaster resilient communities through education and efforts to be ready.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.