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Show Public emergency preparedness workshop held Elected officials and their representatives rep-resentatives from throughout Davis County held a workshop Friday to discuss Emergency Preparedness and public officials responsibilities during major disasters. The workshop, held at Sheriff Harry Jones' office in Farmington, was attended by more than 40 participants par-ticipants who would be directly in- volved in emergency management issues. Sheriff Jones, who organized the workshop through the Sheriffs Emergency Services Division, indicated in-dicated that it was an appropriate time for newly elected officials from throughout the county to become familiar with emergency management issues as well as the Davis County Disaster Preparedness Plan. Lorayne Frank, director of the State Office of Comprehensive Emergency Management, addressed participants on the importance of preparing for a disaster and the role expected of elected officials. Participants reviewed lessons learned from the earthquake which struck San Francisco last year. Video tapes of rescue efforts and property damage in San Francisco were studied. County and municipal representatives were briefed by state officials who traveled to the quake site, on problems and issues which affected rescue efforts. Other topics discussed at the workshop included: - What can public officials do better to prepare themselves and the community for a major disaster? - What does the public expect of elected officials and what are their responsibilities? - The legal and liability aspect of Emergency Management. - Individual and family preparedness. Important legislation now before the state legislature concerning continuity con-tinuity of government was discussed. discuss-ed. This issue is of tremendous concern con-cern during times of disaster if elected officials are unable to direct emergency efforts. If mayors, coun ty commissioners or city coun-cilmen coun-cilmen are out of town or injured. who is authoiized to expend funds? Who can legally declare a disaster and ask the state and federal authorities au-thorities for assistance? Davis County has been concerned concern-ed with emergency preparedness since the floods and mud slides of 1983. In 1984 the county office of Civil Defense and Emergency Management was merged with the sheriff in order to more appropriately appropriate-ly respond to both natural and man made disasters. As a result of those circumstances, cir-cumstances, a county disaster plan was developed and put into effect. The plan has been updated through the years and is tested twice yearly during simulated disaster exercises. During the workshop, the Davis County disaster plan was mentioned as a very comprehensive plan which is currently being used by the state as a training model for other jurisdictions. Other observations and comments com-ments from the workshop include: 1. Local governments report over $16 billion in property losses, thousands of deaths and numerous injuries from disasters since 1970. 2. Most local governments (90 percent of counties) have a formal emergency management plan. The rest have no response plans. 3. Only 58 percent of cities and 72 percent of counties actually test their plans annually. 4. Communications and coordination coor-dination problems were reported as the major difficulties in disaster management. 5. The chance of a major disaster striking an American city today is greater than ever before in our history. |