The damage suffered by Camden County during Hurricane Irma included boats that washed ashore and into the marsh. (Photos
courtesy of The Brunswick News.)
capabilities for payroll and human
resource functions,” said Bill
Carreira, IT director for the City
of Kingsland. “Knowing we can
continue supporting our employees
while they are supporting our
residents is a success for us.”
NLE 2018 also offered a
distinct opportunity for county
commissioners and leadership to
be introduced to new technologies.
White injected web-based and
virtual tools into the county calls,
allowing leaders to become
comfortable with those tools and
the sharing of key documents
before an emergency incident.
“The platforms were accessed
universally by our county policy
group,” said White. “This equates
to a wider sharing of information
even without email functionality or
geographic access to one another.”
For Kings Bay, who serves
26,000 of the county’s 56,000
residents*, this exercise created the
chance for continued collaboration
with the county EMA. “We are
Camden County. Camden County
is us,” said Scott Bassett, Public
Affairs Officer for Kings Bay.
Bassett’s team appreciated the
simulated public affairs environment
provided by the exercise. “We used
the simulated newspapers, social
media sites, tv stations and chat
rooms to practice distributing our
public messages.”
According to White, Kings Bay
represents a substantial portion
of the county’s economy, so
collaboration between them and
coordinated public information
efforts enable a wider reach for
preparedness and recovery.
With the exercise providing the
potential to ask critical questions
and receive real-time answers,
White and his colleagues captured
those lessons learned with intention
of conducting AAR to close any
identified gaps in preparedness,
response and recovery operations.
And while those lessons learned
will prove helpful in solidifying
preparedness plans, it was the
collaboration under simulated
conditions that proved most
beneficial.
“Emergency management is
a team effort. Camden County,
along with the cities and Kings
Bay, will continue to build a unified
approach to critical incidents facing
our community,” said White.
*based on number of enrollees
in Defense Enrollment Eligibility
Reporting System (DEERS) within
30 miles of the installation.
DISPATCH