By Mary Drier (Contact / Staff Bio)
June 21, 2008 - 12:00 a.m. EST

CARO ‹ Because an emergency can happen at anytime, a cohesive, uniform plan is necessary.

Tuscola County Emergency Services Director Pat Finn has been working on an emergency procedure guide for county offices.

A draft of the six-page guide was presented to county commissioners at last Thursday’s committee meeting.

“To make this work, we will need team leaders in each building and on each floor. We’ll need volunteers for that,” said Finn, suggesting a safety committee be formed. “It would be good to have weather radios in each building, too.”

The county has 12 facilities.

“I’m more worried about natural disasters than terrorism in the county,” said Finn.

Some of the emergencies the guide addresses are tornado, severe weather, fire, evacuation routes, shelter areas, bomb threats and medical emergencies. It also gives detailed instructions on how to handle each emergency.

“I know from my experience at the hospital that protocol, communication and a chain of command are important,” said Commissioner Tom Bardwell, who is also vice president of human resources and organization departments at Cass City Hills and Dales General Hospital. “With the one incident I ended up being in charge of, it seemed like we made up protocol as we went along.”

In February there was a major snowstorm. The chairman of the county board of commissioners was gone, so Bardwell was next in command.

“I’m calling around at 4 a.m. trying to find out what I should do and who I should be contacting for (the snow) emergency,” said Bardwell. “It was a real learning experience.

“There needs to be a written procedure and a list of phone numbers.”

A comprehensive method of simultaneously contracting all county employees during an emergency was discussed, and will be studied, with additional work being done on the emergency procedure guide before it is finalized.

“We want all of the department heads to look at this and make suggestions before it is finalized,” said Finn.

The guide is small enough to be kept by the phone.

Mary Drier is a staff writer for the Tuscola County Advertiser. She can be reached at drier@tcadvertiser.com.