Monday, December 15, 2014

Chester County Employee Graduates from FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute


Emmitsburg, MD- Heather Morgan, Training and Exercise Coordinator for the Chester County Department of Emergency Services graduated from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Emergency Management Basic Academy at the Emergency Management Institute (EMI) on September 18, 2014. 
EMI has created the National Emergency Basic Academy to produce a comprehensive curriculum that provides the foundational knowledge and skills needed to support the unpredictable challenges in the field of emergency management. 
Morgan completed the five courses in the Basic Academy that includes Foundations of Emergency Management; Science of Disaster; Planning: Emergency Operations; Exercise Design; and Public Information and Warning.  To graduate, she fulfilled a total of 167 hours of training.   
The Basic Academy is the first phase of FEMA’s new Emergency Management Professional Program (EMPP).  The EMPP curriculum is designed to be a lifetime of learning for emergency managers and includes three separate, but closely related, training programs. The National Emergency Management Basic Academy is a gateway for individuals pursuing a career in emergency management. The National Emergency Management Leaders Academy is designed for emerging leaders and mid-level managers who lead emergency management programs and want to advance their skillset. The Executive Academy is designed for senior-level executives who are responsible for making decisions that have a significant effect on prevention, protection and mitigation policy or the management of disaster response and recovery.

This past week, Heather received a citation from the Commissioners for her continued dedication to ensure the safety of Chester County citizens.


Amy Kate Amer
Community Outreach Coordinator

Chester County Department of Emergency Services

DES Employee wins Award for his Map 2nd Year in a Row

Award given at International Conference       

West Chester, PA – At the ESRI International Conference held in San Diego, CA, this past July, Dave Sekkes, Emergency Planning Coordinator for DES was honored with a first place award for Best Analytic Presentation. 

As a part of the ESRI International Conference they offer a Map Gallery.  The Map Gallery consists of 13 categories and provides an opportunity for conference attendees to share GIS work by showcasing innovative printed maps. 

Dave received the Best Analytic Presentation.  This judges entrants on communication of the problem/project to be solved; presentation of the analytic procedures; relevance of the problem-solving methods to the analysis – complexity and logic of analysis; and, integration of cartographic principles with analytic processes. 

For his submission, Dave performed an analysis of the 164 emergency warning sirens that have been strategically placed throughout the three-county Limerick Generating Station Emergency Planning Zone. 

In the event of a siren failure during an emergency at the Limerick plant, local fire companies will perform what’s known as “route alerting” as an alternative means to notify the public.  Dave utilized GIS to explore updating the route alert sectors in order to optimize the efficiency of the response to a siren failure.  The study found that 40% of the Emergency Planning Zone had redundant siren coverage and the drive-times to alert the public could be greatly reduced by focusing the alerting to those areas without redundant coverage. 

This is the second consecutive year that Dave has won an award for his maps at this conference.  Last year, Dave won a first place award for Best Data Integration where he examined the Marsh Creek Dam inundation zone using new building footprint software.

Dave utilizes the GIS to provide analysis and mapping support in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) during activations and to the department as a whole during daily operations.  Additionally, Dave provides technical support for department IT initiatives.  Dave has worked with GIS at Chester County since 2002 beginning with the Health Department and joining DES in 2008.

This past week, Dave received a citation from the Commissioners for his continued award winning maps.




Amy Kate Amer
Community Outreach Coordinator

Chester County Department of Emergency Services

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Director's Report - November 2014

For the month of November, 2014:
Emergency Telephone Calls - 21, 827
      728 Per Day
Fire Incidents - 889
EMS Incidents - 3,124
Police Incidents - 26,547

Voice Radio Project:
-Of the 27 tower sites we will be using, we have completed the legal and financial process at 21 sites and have released these sites to Harris for their work to begin.
-Site construction has begun at 17 sites.

CAD Project:
-Data and response stream input continues
-Responder input (Police, Fire and EMS) for Mobile Data configuration continues
-New request for additional interface with Knowledge Center
-Investigating new enhancements for capabilities

Training Facility:
-Construction continues at the Tactical Village.  Last month the Drill Tower and Burn Building structural work was completed.
-Design meetings for the firing range with architect, facilities and emergency responders continue.
-Last month we hosted 1,506 people at 71 events.

Tactical Village Construction pictures can be seen on our website at www.chesco.org/des