By: Ryan Duey
During the Clay County Commissioner’s Board meeting on January 7th Pam Kemp, Emergency Management Director, presented an official Declaration of a State and Local Disaster for Clay County to be signed by the Board, due to the aftermath of Winter Storm Blair that swept through January 4th-5th.
Kemp said Governor Laura Kelly had issued a Statewide Disaster Declaration, helping local jurisdictions.
“It frees up state resources to help local jurisdictions. It also activates the State Emergency Operations Plan which does things like, work hour adjustments, those types of things, that can facilitate emergency situations getting taken care of.”
Kemp said laws apply, even during disaster situations, but there is a different set of laws during emergencies. These Declarations activate emergency activation laws and plans. She said at the local level in situations like now, she’s comfortable with asking the Board to activate the Emergency Operations Plan for the County. She explained how this helps locally.
“With this, we do not have to worry so much about all the details of following our normal procurement process. For example, if a piece of equipment breaks down under the Emergency Operations Plan, we can just get to business getting it fixed to get it back in service.”
“It really gives us flexibility. We still have to be accountable, and we still have to be transparent and follow basic guidelines, but it speeds everything up usually.”
Kemp said the link between the State and Local Disaster Declarations allows them to automatically roll into mutual aid assistance when resources are exhausted. In a large-scale disaster situation, such as this storm, where many jurisdictions are dealing with the aftermath, they can go straight to the state for assistance.
These Declarations fast-track procedures that would normally take several days to get done. Also, when dealing with a multi-state storm, like Blair, there is a potential to get Federal FEMA reimbursement, depending on qualification.
Overall, these Declarations give Kemp and those in the county the flexibility and resources to get the job done as quickly as possible.
