Emergency preparedness update at health department
Supplies and training aims to strengthen the program
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ALPENA -- District Health Department No. 4 (DHD4) Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Katie Detegen gave an update of the DHD4 emergency preparedness program noting new supplies the department has received and generator maintenance guidelines in response to ice storms the past two years in Northeast Michigan.
Detgen said that recent planning and department reviews have shown how responsive DHD4's volunteers are in times of emergency, as well as emergency preparedness for equipment.
"We completed a Michigan volunteer registry functional drill in September, that went pretty good," she said. "We got some good insights on how responsive our volunteers can be and know what to do to engage them better in the future."
"We completed an updated jurisdictional strategic activities plan, some highlights on this plan tie to the volunteers management, our generator maintenance and how we make sure that we’re keeping those maintained for power outages," she added.
Detgen also said that she plans on collaborating with other emergency preparedness coordinators in the region for future training to ensure that they are all on the same page and meeting the needs of the community.
"In November, we have a multi-year training and exercise template that is due. This is something that I’m going to try to collaborate with our community or county emergency managers and see what exercises they have planned and where we can kind of sync up to complete our objectives."
She said other reviews in November will test the response rate of DHD4 partners.
"Just kind of send out an alert to our partners and see what type of response rate we get back," she explained. "So that we can check if our communication is good."
As part of a state grant, DHD4 received emergency preparedness items that will better equip the department in the event of power outages or severe weather. Detgen added that these supplies will be especially helpful in the event of another ice storm.
"We did buy some starter emergency management kits that we can help give out to the community in case another emergency happens like that again," she said. "I think we collaborated really well to have those in our office."
She added that DHD4's work with volunteers will also aid the community in the event that another ice storm occurs.
"Volunteer management coordination that we’re working on will also help with potential ice storm in case a shelter needs to open up."
Detgen said that DHD4 bought sleeping bags, flashlights, headlamps, and dry food kits which have a shelf life of approximately 25 years.
"That is a good long-term investment and then helpful to the community if they ever need that," she said.
DHD4 Environmental Health Director Joe Scheele commended Detgen's work and her ability to effectively disseminate accurate information to the public in times of emergency.
"Katie does a really good job when stuff actually does happen, like the ice storm, or the flooding this spring, or the cyclosporiasis ... Katie is the person that disseminates all of the ... information that we want to get out there, and Katie is the one that puts it out there to the public," he said. "She does a really good job with that."
Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.