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DisasterMan
any conference room into a temporary emergency operations
center within an hour at no expense.
There were representatives from seven cities including
one mayor, several city managers, and a bunch of Fire and
Police Chiefs and Public Works Superintendents.
When I went to Sand City, the Police Chief remembered
me from this workshop. I asked him if he ever needed any
disaster consulting help, such as updating Emergency plans, to
remember that I was available (euphemism for unemployed).
The Chief surprised me by asking "Could you start here on
a full-time basis tomorrow?" I thought that he was joking,
but he was serious. He explained that the City's Emergency
Operations Plan was indeed about ten years old and needed
updating. He then got down to the nitty-gritty. "I have a
policewoman who was assigned to rewrite the plan, but she
is a Criminal Investigator in a Military Police Company of
the US Army Reserves. Mary was just called to active duty
and sent to Iraq two months ago for perhaps a year." He then
explained that his budget didn't have any money at all for
consultants, but he would make sure that if I came there as a
full-time volunteer he would make me a full-fl edged member
of their Police Department family, which consisted of three
sergeants, seven offi cers, and a police records administrator.
That was in May 2003. I found it an interesting and fun
place to work. I immediately started to work on the plan. The
disaster situation in the United States had changed with the
establishment of the Department of Homeland Security. I
wrote the new plan using the guidance of the National Fire
Protection Association NEPA 1600 Standard on Disaster/
Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs
2004 Edition.