Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana

Emergency Notification System for Whitehall & Jefferson County

With the state of the world in flux right now as the situation with Russia and Ukraine is only just beginning, it’s good to know the ins and outs of our hometown’s emergency plans.

Upon asking the Town of Whitehall office for the emergency plans, the Ledger was directed to Jefferson County Disaster and Emergency Services Coordinator Doug Dodge.

“Emergency notifications have several components. The first of which would be our telephone reverse notification system, either through landlines or through cell phones,” explained Dodge in an email. “The landline phone database is updated through the phone companies, while cell phone notifications are dependent upon individuals signing up for the service through the county. Those wanting to sign up need to go to the county website and click on the yellow “sign up for emergency notifications” button on the right-hand column.”

“The county also has low power FM radio stations whose primary purpose is emergency notifications, though daily operations include music, local sports, and events broadcasts. We provide updates on these stations in the event of major incidents within the county.”

“The third leg of our emergency notification chair includes our social media presence, the Sheriff’s Facebook page. Here we provide information about both smaller and larger incidents, as well as education and outreach. Finally, we have the old-fashioned notification method: door-to-door or vehicle-mounted Public Address system notices. These are of course dependent upon staff capacity and time availability to complete,” Dodge said.

Dodge also noted that the Town is a signatory to Jefferson County’s Emergency Operations Plan. The plan is comprehensive in scope and very large; it is available at https://bit.ly/35FvneC.

Dodge, when communicating with the Ledger, said the most important thing to note about evacuations is that no one incident is the same, so the framework managing evacuations is the key consideration.

“What route will be blocked or how many folks will have to be evacuated are incident-dependent variables that are too broad to encompass in a given county or town level plan,” said Dodge. “But we can plan for how we will conduct those operations and how such decisions will be made, and generally speaking that is the basis for the Emergency Operations Plan.”

Inside the Jefferson County Emergency Operations Plan, which was prepared in 2017 by Tetra Tech out of Helena, there is a plethora of information regarding Risk Assessment (vulnerable populations, hazard identification, ranking, and priorities, etc.), Mitigation Strategy (programs and resources available, administrative and technical capabilities, etc.) and Plan Maintenance Procedures (monitoring, evaluating, etc.). At the time of the plan’s creation, some of the biggest risks mentioned were Influenza, cyber terrorism, and flood hazards. In five years much has changed with the spur of COVID-19, OMNICRON variants, and the current crisis in Ukraine. An update of the operations plan, as it has reached its fifth birth date, may soon be in the works.

The Whitehall Ledger urges concerned citizens to visit the Emergency Operations Plan (https://bit.ly/35FvneC) and contact your local authorities in the case of questions.

• Doug Dodge, Office of Emergency Management: (406) 225-4035 and at ddodge@jeffersoncounty-mt.gov. Visit http://www.jeffersoncounty-mt.gov/DES.html for more information.

• Craig Doolittle, Jefferson County Sheriff: (406) 225-4075. Visit http://www.jeffersoncounty-mt.gov/sheriff.html for more information.

• Alissa Christensen Town of Whitehall: (406) 287-3972. Visit http://townofwhitehall.org/ for more information.

 

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