Leavenworth County Emergency Management

Emergency Management is responsible for coordinating all four phases of Emergency Management with Federal, State, and Local governments, as well as private sector businesses and institutions. Coordination is inclusive with all jurisdictions in Leavenworth County and County agencies such as, the Health Department, Public Works, Sheriff’s Office, Council on Aging, G.I.S. and Appraisers to name a few of many.

Four phases of Emergency Management are:




Mitigation:


Activities designed to avoid or prevent disasters from occurring in the first place and to reduce the ill effects of those, which are unavoidable. This is the best emergency management tool of all.



Preparedness:


Being prepared to cope with unavoidable disaster. Trained personnel, planning, proper equipment, supplies and facilities are the essential elements of preparedness.



Response:


Immediate and decisive actions taken to eliminate or reduce the severity of the incident. This may include warning, evacuation, suppression, rescue, apprehension, treatment and in some cases, withdrawal for safety reasons.



Recovery:


Recovery is the return to a normal or improved state of being. It can be long term or short term. It can involve physical, mental and financial aspects. It includes repairing and rebuilding property, regaining public health and state of mind and regaining economic stability.


Another function of Emergency Management is maintaining the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The facility is self-contained and designed to remain operational in all environments including tornado, earthquake and chemical/biological attack. The EOC can be activated at several levels and in a major emergency it is the seat of local government. Elected and other agency officials can conduct not only emergency functions but also the necessary day-to-day business of city and county government.

It is the responsibility of the Emergency Management Office to provide public awareness in preparation for the events that occur before and after a disaster. Emergency Management will provide training for Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT). CERT establishes small groups of trained citizens that can assist their community during a disaster. Awareness training is available to service clubs, Church and other organizations upon request to this office.