Emergency Management

The Emergency Management Director's Office

Jason Thomas Bryant

Emergency Management Director

Mission Statement

Johnston County Emergency Management will serve the citizens of Johnston County by monitoring and alerting of severe weather; working with local, state and federal agencies to mitigate issues that may cause damage to property and loss of life; assisting local public safety agencies with preparedness planning and resource allocation; and by providing preparedness presentations to the community

The Johnston County Emergency Management Department works to mitigate, plan and prepare for, respond to, and recover from the various emergencies and disasters that affect our County. We utilize an all-hazards approach, focusing on the various emergency functions that need performed in time of trouble. Our work includes:

Identification and analysis of the hazards in our County
Work to eliminate the hazards or lessen their effects
Development of Emergency Operations Plans that guide our overall countywide response to emergencies that occur
Identification of assets and resources that can be used in the mitigation, response, and recovery efforts
Rapid response to the disaster needs of our community, in an attempt to quickly return our lives to normal

4 Phases of Emergency Management

Preparedness: Preparing to handle an emergency
Response: Responding safely to an emergency
Recovery: Recovering from an emergency
Mitigation: Preventing future emergencies or minimizing their effects

Preparedness

Preparedness includes plans or preparations made to save lives and to help response and rescue operations. Evacuation plans and stocking food and water are both examples of preparedness. Preparedness activities take place before an emergency occurs.

Response

Response includes actions taken to save lives and prevent further property damage in a disaster or emergency situation.

Response is putting your preparedness plans into action. Seeking shelter from a tornado or turning off gas valves in an earthquake are both response activities. Response activities take place during an emergency.

Recovery

Recovery includes actions taken to return to a normal or even safer situation following an emergency. Recovery includes getting financial assistance to help pay for the repairs. Recovery activities take place after an emergency.

Mitigation

Mitigation includes any activities that prevent an emergency, reduce the chance of an emergency happening, or reduce the damaging effects of unavoidable emergencies.

Emergency Operations Plan and Hazard Mitigation Plan
The County maintains two emergency planning documents. The Hazard Mitigation Plan identifies various natural hazards that could impact Johnston County and/or the Public Schools systems, and potential means to eliminate the hazard or reduce its potential effects. The Emergency Operations Plan is a guide to how Johnston County conducts all-hazards emergency response, describing specific authorities and best practices for managing incidents that range from the serious but purely local, to large-scale terrorist attacks or catastrophic natural disasters.

Hyper-Reach: Community Signup for Johnston County, OK

https://jceoc.wufoo.com/forms/z11avsn0ji9yvf/

Johnston County does not have "public storm shelters."

The following information is referenced from the "Public Storm Shelter Position Statement" as seen in the link below.

The decision to not identify public storm shelters is not an easy one to make, but the overwhelming contradicting information is more than can be ignored. The rationale behind the decisions to not designate public buildings as storm shelters is outlined in the points below:

Travel to a Shelter
Shelter Capacity
Shelter Availability
Shelter Construction
Shelter Rules, Risks and Liabilities

The Better Solution is Personal Pre-planning for you and your family.

Personal preparedness limits risk and anxiety. The past shows that having a personal plan and staying informed (or awareness) are the two critical elements in staying safe during a severe weather event.

Develop a plan
Awareness

Weather Information

A Weather Radio is an important warning device you should have in your home or business. Weather radios come in many sizes and with a variety of functions and costs. Many of the radios sound a tone alarm and/or turn on the audio when severe weather announcements or emergency information are broadcast. To make use of the new digital coding technology, more sophisticated weather radio receivers are now available. New radios are available which feature NOAA Weather Radio Specific Area Message Encoding, or NWR-SAME, technology. These radios can be programmed to alert only for a specific area.

During an emergency, National Weather Service forecasters will interrupt routine weather radio programming and send out a special tone that activates weather radios in the listening area. The hearing and visually impaired also can get these warnings by connecting weather radios with alarm tones to other kinds of attention-getting devices like strobe lights, pagers, bed-shakers, personal computers and text printers. Public safety experts agree: the receivers should be standard equipment in every home. They are especially valuable in places that are entrusted with public safety, including hospitals, schools, places of worship, nursing homes, restaurants, grocery stores, recreation centers, office buildings, sports facilities, theaters, retail stores, bus and train stations, airports, marinas and other public-gathering places.

For additional information about NOAA Weather Radio, click here.

If you have received damages from the recent storms, please report your damages at the link below.

What is a Local Emergency Planning Committee?

Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPC's) were established by the Federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act, as Title III of the Superfund Amendments & Reauthorization Act of 1986.

The Johnston County Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) is a non-profit community organization composed of police and fire emergency response personnel, industry and environmental representatives, news media, and interested citizens of Johnston County.

LEPC members work together to develop plans to educate, communicate, and protect our local community in case of a hazardous materials release.

Purpose

To enhance the protection of the community and environment from hazardous materials incidents through planning, preparation, and communication between citizens, business and government.

Johnston County is not a participating member of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Formal adoption of Floodplain Ordinances was accomplished on July 25, 2011, by the Johnston County Board of County Commissioners.

The Ordinances and Resolution can be found in the right hand column of this page. Other documents in the list are the Floodplain Permit Application..

Paper maps are available for reference at the Map Repository; 110 N Fisher St., Tishomingo, Oklahoma 73460, along with digital map products