Rockwell officials discuss emergency preparedness

Earlier this year, multiple agencies came together to participate in a tabletop emergency preparedness exercise in Rockwell. At the last regular council assembly, Cerro Gordo County’s Emergency Management Coordinator Steve O’Neil presented an after action report.

The exercise was analyzed by O’Neil and the results, broken into five categories, or “Improvement Actions,” were presented to the Rockwell council.

The categories are as follows:

Unsure of available resources within and outside of the community

For this category, O’Neil recommended the council form a resource management committee that would work with both public and private partners. This way, the need for resources can be identified and processed rapidly.

Community partners need a better understanding of the Incident Command System

O’Neil noted that public workers, elected officials and private partners need more extensive training in command centers and recovery processes.

He also suggested that the city hold at least one community emergency tabletop exercise annually.

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