Powerful Partnerships

Storm Preparedness Is a Year-Round Effort

By the time a tropical system earns a name on the open sea, the work behind any necessary response and recovery effort has already been underway for months.

For members of Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative, the most visible signs of storm response are line crews replacing broken poles and mobilizing bucket trucks to restore power and utility vehicles navigating roads still littered with debris. But behind the scenes, year-round planning efforts by the emergency management agencies in Suwannee, Columbia, Hamilton, and Lafayette counties prepare for when disaster strikes, building relationships and refining plans in concert with organizations like SVEC, so everyone is reading from the same playbook.

“It’s a never-ending process,” Columbia County Emergency Management Director Shayne Morgan says. “Communication with our partners is first and foremost. We make sure we know exactly who to call, and they know how to reach us.”

Relationships are among the most valuable tools emergency managers have when it comes to coordinating shelters, arranging fuel deliveries, identifying medically vulnerable residents, securing equipment staging areas, and sharing real-time outage information. The county EMAs bank on close collaboration with utilities, law enforcement, fire rescue, public works, health departments, and nonprofit organizations.

Suwannee County Emergency Management Director Sharon Hingson compares the job to directing air traffic.

“We bring everybody to the table,” she says. “They’re the decision-makers for their organizations, and we all sit in the same room, listen to the information, and make decisions together. It’s all about communication.”

Blue Sky Planning

Hingson refers to the quieter planning months as “blue sky days,” the time when emergency operations plans are updated, training exercises are conducted, equipment inventories are reviewed, and partnerships are strengthened.

“We’re always planning,” Hingson says. “You have a fuel plan, a feeding plan, a sheltering plan, and an equipment staging plan. Just like Suwannee Valley Electric has a plan for everything they do, we’re working to have a plan for everything we do.”

Morgan says preparations often include tabletop exercises, where agencies walk through hypothetical disasters together, discussing how each organization would respond.

“We think about the worst things possible,” he says. “Then we ask, ‘How do we deal with it?’”

Ready To Respond

When a hurricane begins taking aim at Florida, those plans quickly transition into action. Emergency operations centers bring on added staff, and agencies exchange information continuously.

For SVEC, that means sharing outage information, coordinating restoration priorities, and helping emergency officials identify operating shelters and critical infrastructure that depend on reliable electricity.

Emergency managers also help coordinate road access for utility crews, assist with traffic control around damaged power lines, and work with state officials when special accommodations are needed to restore electrical infrastructure safely.

Just as importantly, they help communicate with the public.

“The more prepared the public is, the more it’s going to help us,” Morgan says.

Neighbor Helping Neighbor

Preparation is especially important in rural communities, where EMAs often operate with only a handful of employees while serving large geographic areas.

Hingson says many rural counties have staffs of just two or three people but must meet the same state and federal preparedness requirements as much larger metropolitan agencies. The difference is made up through cooperation with neighboring EMAs.

“We don’t have all the equipment larger counties have,” she says. “That’s where partnerships come in with neighboring counties, with organizations in the community and with Suwannee Valley Electric.”

Morgan, who began working for Columbia County Emergency Management in 2003, says communication between EMAs and electric providers is “night and day” compared to two decades ago.

“It flows so much better now,” he says. “I’m really grateful for the relationships we have with Suwannee Valley and our other electric providers.”

Hingson echoes that sentiment.

“They’ve always been very easy to work with,” she says. “They communicate well, and they’ve always been community-oriented. As long as I can pick up the phone and they answer, we’re good.”

Preparing the Public

For cooperative members, the impact is felt every time power is restored more efficiently, shelters open smoothly, and critical services continue operating during an emergency.

Emergency managers count on residents to be partners, as well.

Both Morgan and Hingson encourage families to prepare before storm threats emerge by creating emergency plans, assembling disaster supply kits, and signing up for their county’s local emergency alert systems, which provide weather warnings and emergency notifications by text, email, and phone.

“Plan for the worst and hope for the best,” Hingson says. “If people will prepare ahead of time, they’ll be so much better off.”