Emergency Management is responsible for coordinating the County’s preparation for and response to emergency situations. The Plan Lamar County is exposed to many hazards, which have the potential for disrupting the community, causing damage and creating casualties. Natural hazards include hurricanes, floods, tornadoes and severe thunderstorms.
Lamar County also faces the threat of hazardous material accidents involving transportation, pipelines; manufacture plants and storage tanks on the highways and in the county’s industrial areas.
To address these potential threats, the Emergency Management Agency publishes the county’s emergency management plan.
This plan provides the framework upon which the county prepares for, responds to and performs its emergency response functions during times of natural or man-made disasters.
Four Phases of the Plan
- Mitigation: Those activities, which eliminate or reduce the probability of disaster.
- Preparedness: Those activities which governments, organizations and individuals develop to save lives and minimize damage.
- Response: Those activities, which minimize loss of life and property damage and provide emergency assistance.
- Recovery: Those short and long-term activities, which restore county operations and help, return the community to a normal state.
When Lamar County faces an emergency and the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is activated, the agency works with appropriate county departments as well as various city, state, and federal agencies to respond effectively and quickly to provide the continuity of services to the public.
Since tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, hurricanes, floods, extreme cold and ice, and extreme heat could cause severe weather emergencies, we monitor the Jackson radar on a continual basis.
The agency has direct communication with Jackson Weather and communicates throughout the area with the local Skywarn Team, as well as emergency management centers in adjacent counties. Agency personnel, working with Jackson Weather Service, monitor regional and national weather information for its potential impact on the county.
This is particularly true during the hurricane season (June – November) when we also monitor Atlantic and Caribbean weather activity.