Description

Safety is priority for all!  Our Interim Director of Emergency Management/Office of Resilience and Sustainability, Phong Nguyen, joins Clayton connected Podcast hostess, Communications Administrator Valerie L. Fuller, to share what happens in planning for emergencies before, during, and after an event and more importantly, what residents should do to plan ahead all in the name of safety!

Transcript

Valerie Fuller (Intro):
You’re tuned in to the Clayton Connected Podcast in Clayton County, where the world lands and opportunities take off.

Valerie:
Hello, I’m your hostess Valerie Fuller, Clayton County Communications Administrator for the Office of Communications. Today, we feature the Clayton County Emergency Operations Plan and how it functions during major disasters. Joining me in the Clayton Connected podcast studio is Interim Director Mr. Phong Nguyen. Welcome!

Phong Nguyen:
Hello!

Valerie:
I know you’re excited to be here.

Phong:
Yes, ma’am.

Valerie:
So, today’s discussion will cover county response and coordination and how various departments work together in crisis situations. So, disasters mean different things for different people. And we always like to stress being prepared there, having a plan. Or should I say residents even having a plan, not just the county side. So, let’s talk about the operational plan and what happens when it is activated in case of emergency.

Phong:
Sure. So, when the plan is activated, it’s actually very simple. What happens is I make a recommendation to our leadership and also to the chair of the board and advise them, ‘hey, this is what I see that’s coming.  It is recommended that we go ahead and activate the emergency operations plan,’ which is under Chapter 34.  And at that point, the emergency management director will coordinate our operations through the county.

Valerie:
And in emergencies, you know, there are different types of emergencies…..

Phong:
Correct.

Valerie:
….But all of the emergencies operate under this plan?

Phong:
No. So only large-scale disasters. So, when I mean large scale disasters, I’m not talking about the car accidents or the truck that may have flipped over or a shooting.  When I talk about large scale disasters, it could be manmade. It could be natural or intentional. So, when I talk about intentional, it could be terrorism and things like that. A manmade disaster could be a plane falling out of the sky or natural being, such as our latest snowstorms that we had. That’s when the emergency operations plan really is activated under Chapter 34.  And then basically, we all work under one roof at the emergency operations center.

Valerie:
So, in essence too you basically coordinate emergency response efforts, you know, with local, state and federal.

Phong:
Correct.

Valerie:
And help me understand or help our residents understand what it means to be prepared, what it means to respond and what it means to recover.

Phong:
Of course.  So, during a disaster, and even before at our office, we’re always coordinating. Those are the areas that we are always looking at, which is basically planning. We want to make sure that we’re prepared. We are responding and recovering from any major disasters. Those are always what we’re looking at. So, throughout the year, we’ll meet with our public safety individuals.  And we have this meeting called a Multi-year Training Exercise Plan, which everybody will start talking about what kind of training they’re needing and what it is that our office can assist with. And then, we also have a severe weather task force that we meet together and essentially go over what it is that we need for severe weather.  So those are the plans or the meetings that we have throughout the year just to prepare. So, with that being said, we’re planning on our end, but we are also asking the citizens of Clayton County to continuously plan for these things as well, because you never know when a disaster may occur, and you can’t leave, or you might be stuck where you’re at.  So, in this simple snowstorm that we had it, well, it wasn’t really simple. It was quite devastating to the county because several people were actually stuck. We actually had one part of the county where we had about 26 vehicles. They hit each other and they were stuck in the Panhandle, and we couldn’t really help them because we were also responding to about 46 accidents within an hour.  So having something with you in the vehicle so that you can obviously stay in your vehicle until we get there is very important.