Counties Make Pitch For Disaster Funds
Deadline Today For Federal Emergency Compliance
Last updated Sunday, January 27, 2008 4:27 PM CST in News
By Christopher Spencer
THE MORNING NEWS
FAYETTEVILLE -- Federal money from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security comes with a catch.
Washington and Benton counties must show the federal government by today that law enforcement, firefighters and medical emergency workers have the skills and equipment to work together during a disaster.
Washington County's Department of Emergency Management submitted their information Thursday and Benton County officials said Friday they would meet today's deadline.
Agencies risk losing vital federal emergency dollars if they don't make the deadline.
Washington and Benton counties spent the majority of federal emergency dollars on communication equipment, such as radios and mobile command units, to help emergency personnel communicate.
"The one thing we have left to do is resource typing," said Mike Dixon, deputy director of Benton County's Department of Emergency Management.
Resource typing means categorizing emergency equipment to federal specifications. It's an ongoing process, since equipment and its classification always changes, Dixon said.
Meeting strict and changing federal standards for training is frustrating, said John Luther, Washington County's director of emergency management.
"It's getting to be very hard for them to meet these requirements," Luther said. "The timelines are too compressed. They need to be allowed more time to get training."
The federal government expects all emergency personnel, including volunteers, to do at least two eight-hour training sessions on how to use the National Incident Management System.
The system aims to help agencies communicate in a disaster situation. It requires agencies to use plain language when they talk to each other.
Luther said meeting the federal requirements was difficult and credited his staff for the accomplishment.
About 36,000 people in Arkansas have been trained to the federal standards since October 2004, said Mark Hooker, who serves as the State Department of Emergency Management's contact with the federal government.
Dixon said Benton County works hard to ensure emergency personnel are trained in the federal communication system.
"We do it because having everybody on the same sheet of music when we do have an incident is extremely important," he said.
Sept. 30 was the first deadline for the 77 state emergency agencies to show that they were meeting the federal requirement.
More than half of the agencies met the first federal deadline but the remainder -- including Washington and Benton counties -- filed for 120-day extensions, Hooker said.
"But that's not that uncommon," he said. There won't be any repercussions as long as the agencies get updates filed very soon after today's deadline, he said.
Because police departments and other emergency agencies constantly hire new people, training will never be complete, despite the federal requirement that all personnel be trained, Hooker said.
Hooker said Arkansas is ahead of most of its state peers in its geographical region of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which includes Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Louisiana.
Representatives of the state departments of emergency management met in Anniston, Ala., in October and discussed the training compliance issue, Hooker said.
The state agencies hope the federal government will soften its stance on training to be more realistic, but there are no signs yet that is going to happen, he said.
"The states were basically saying, 'We don't want any new initiatives this year. Let us catch up'," Hooker said.
BY THE NUMBERS
Emergency Dollars Dwindling
Washington and Benton counties received less money from the Homeland Security Grant Fund the past two years. The money buys machinery and equipment to better prepare the counties for emergency situations.
Year Washington County Benton County
2005 $707,635 $689,574
2006 $299,038 $291,442
2007 $248,541 $242,323
Source: Staff Report
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