Coshocton County Emergency Operations Plan

Coshocton County Emergency Operations Plan WARNING and NOTIFICATION

I. PURPOSE

The purpose of this annex is to describe the process for dissemination of warning information to response agencies/organizations and the public throughout Coshocton County in the event of an emergency incident.

II. SITUATION and ASSUMPTIONS

1. Coshocton County will have emergencies and disasters. Some of these emergencies and disasters will require public officials to warn both the public and private sectors of the county. The warnings will identify the event, possible consequences, and recommendations of protective actions to take.

2. Coshocton County will use all available warning mechanisms as needed to warn and notify the public if a disaster or emergency occurs. See Section 5 of this Annex for a complete listing.

3. Coshocton County has the following means of dissemination of warning information:  Coshocton County has seven (7) sirens in place that can be activated as needed. See Tab 1 for siren locations and activation procedure. These sirens are located in populated areas and will not be heard by the entire county.  Print media will be used, time permitting, to assist in the dissemination of warning and notification.  All Hazard Alert Radios are in place in various institutions such as schools, nursing homes, hospital, etc. These radios are monitored by staff personnel when the facilities are occupied.  Telephones and radios will be used to notify public officials, EOC staff and emergency personnel.  Coshocton County has one public radio station (WTNS AM 1560 & FM 99.3).  Cable TV in the Coshocton & West Lafayette area has the capability of programming warning messages from the Sheriff’s Office.  Coshocton County has a contracted telephoning service (Emergency Telephone Calling Service, formerly referred to as Code Red / Reverse 911) that can be used to notify every listed phone in the county at the rate of several thousand per minute.  Mobile public address and (or) door-to-door notification could be used when a quick onset emergency occurs necessitating an evacuation.  When a warning is received by the Sheriff’s office, the dispatch desk will notify critical facilities that could be affected.

III. CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS

Once there is evidence that a warning is necessary the following have responsibilities to notify the listed as needed: (See the Controlled and Sensitive Information Document and/or the Emergency Reference Directory)

1. SHERIFF’S OFFICE WILL NOTIFY: Emergency Management Director West Lafayette Police Department (as needed) Local Fire Departments (as needed) Emergency Medical Service REACT

Annex C - Warning and Notification May 2011 - 1 - Coshocton County Emergency Operations Plan WARNING and NOTIFICATION

Coshocton County Memorial Hospital Other possible affected vital services

2. EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR NOTIFIES: Coshocton County Commissioners Coshocton County EMA Staff Red Cross Salvation Army Ohio Emergency Management Agency Public Information Officer(s) Amateur Radio - ARES Coshocton County Engineer Health Departments Other County Department Heads City and Village Mayors Township Trustees

3. CITY and VILLAGE MAYORS NOTIFY: City or Village Officials Local Fire Departments Safety Director Service Director Engineer Clerical staff

4. PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER NOTIFIES: WTNS Radio Coshocton Tribune Other Media

5. DISSEMINATION OF WARNING INFORMATION TO THE PUBLIC

Dissemination of warnings to the public will be accomplished by one or more of the following:

Activation of Sirens Emergency Telephone Calling System (formerly Code Red / Reverse 911) Local Radio Broadcast (WTNS) Emergency Alert System Cable Television (Con-Alert System) Weather Alert Radios Mobile Portable Public Address Systems Door-to-Door Notification

IV. ORGANIZATION AND ASSIGNMENT OF RESPONSIBILITIES

The Coshocton County Sheriff’s Office serves as the continuous 24 x 7 county warning point to alert the emergency response agencies, key organizations and the public by using Sheriff’s office SOPs for the type of emergency or disaster that occurs. The City of Coshocton Fire Department is the back up for the notification point.

The following are available for accomplishing the notifications:

Emergency Alert System Voice Over for Cable TV Emergency Telephone Calling System (formerly Code Red, Reverse 911) Media (local newspaper) Radio - WTNS Radio - All Hazard Radios (List of locations is in Reference section 9.7) Telephones Cell phones Sirens, See Tab 1 Door-to-Door using vehicle Public Address system

V. DIRECTION and CONTROL

1. The Coshocton County Sheriff has the responsibility to maintain a procedure to receive and disseminate warning notifications on a 24 x 7 basis.

2. Coshocton County EMA Director has the responsibility to maintain a procedure that, once notice is received, will evaluate the conditions and respond by opening the EOC if needed, notify additional personnel as needed, and to effect additional public notification if needed.

3. Coshocton County PlO, once notified, will began to collect information from the Sheriff’s office, EMA, EOC, and on site Incident Commanders to prepare and disseminate additional information about the incident to the media and public.

VI. ADDENDUM

Tab 1 - Coshocton County Siren Locations Tab 2 - Activation Procedure of Emergency Alert System (AES) Tab 3 - Terrorism Warning Procedures Tab 4 - Tornado Warning Procedure Tab 5 - Winter Storm Warning Procedure Tab 6 - Hazardous Materials Warning Procedure Tab 7 - Information Needed If Asked to Evacuate Tab 8 - Radiological Accident Information

VII. AUTHENTICATION

______Tim Rogers, Coshocton County Sheriff Dated

______James T. Van Horn, Director Dated Coshocton County Emergency Management Agency

Tab 1 COUNTY SIREN LOCATIONS and METHOD OF ACTIVATION

Co Name Location Activation Siren Signal # Usage 1 Bakersville Fire Station Bakersville CD Fire Fire Station CD Tornado 2 Conesville Fire Station Conesville CD Fire Fire Station CD Tornado 3 Coshocton City Fire Station Coshocton CD Tornado Fire Station 4 Three Rivers Fire Canal Lewisville CD Tornado Fire Station Pleasant Valley CD Tornado Fire Station 6 West Lafayette Fire Station West Lafayette CD Tornado Fire Station 7 Walhonding Valley Fire District Warsaw CD Tornado Fire Station Fire

Activation CD Activated by Central Dispatch

Tab 2 Activation Procedure of Emergency Alert System (EAS)

ACTIVATION PROCEDURES

Authority for Emergency Alert System (EAS) - Title 47 USC 1541, (o), (303r), (524g) and (606) 47 CFR Part 11, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Rules and Regulations.

1. Coshocton County is part of the East Central Ohio Emergency Alert System. It utilizes digital message encoding / decoding equipment, which complies with the standards in the FCC rules, Part 11, and is certified by the Commission.

2. The Coshocton County Sheriff and the Emergency Management Director are the designated officials authorized to request activation of the EAS system and are known as notifiers. This is standard procedure for all counties.

3. Each county notifier is given a code word (and a card) to authenticate request to activate. Coshocton County’s equipment, encoder, decoder and receiver are placed at the Coshocton County Sheriff’s office central dispatch location.

4. Requests for activation of the East-Central Ohio Local (EAS) for Amber level emergencies will be made by contacting WJEIBS (LP-1), for Coshocton County. Emergency communications from designated notifier will be handled immediately. If the designated LP station cannot be reached, WONE (LP-2) should be contacted. Notifiers must have all information prepared and ready to read prior to the requesting EAS activation. Prepared information must contain the type of emergency, area affected, and action that should be taken.

5. AUTHENTICATION — Authentication of all requests for activation of the East Central Ohio EAS made by telephone will be made by code word.

6. SEVERE WEATHER WARNINGS: The National Weather Service (NWS) will serve as the primary notifier for severe weather warnings and subsequent weather information. The NWS will verify that the transmission of all weather warnings sent over the NOAA weather radio system occurred. WCMJ will relay warnings for Coshocton County. If notifiers are unable to contact either of the two LP stations, as a last resort, they may contact NWS.

Emergency broadcast messages must not exceed two minutes in length. Pre-formatted messages are suggested and proceed with the following beginning and ending statements: “We interrupt this program to activate the Emergency Alert System,” (then use text of message), and end with “This concludes this Emergency Alert System message.”

Tab 3 Terrorism Warning Procedures

Once an event is suspected to be or is identified as being generated by a terrorist, individual or group, the considerations become complicated. The Incident Commander must determine several factors that have an effect on what warning and (or) notification must be initiated:

1. Is this an isolated event or is it part of a larger event;

2. What terrorist tools were employed (may be more than one):  Conventional explosives  Toxic Gases  Biological Agents  Radiological agents (as in a radiological dispersion device)  Nuclear events

3. Who should the IC notify:  Sheriff’s office  Emergency Management  Public Health  FBI

4. What should a notification include:  Evacuation or Shelter-In-Place instructions  Safety instructions, contamination of objects left outside  Nature of the incident

When dealing with a terrorist attack, the local public safety and health departments will be, in almost all cases, the first responding authority. An attack utilizing a biological agent may not be recognized at first, although at other times it may be obvious immediately. Emphasis must be put on deterrence, detection, and apprehension of terrorists, as well as providing assistance for victims.

The dissemination of warning information to response agencies/organizations and the general public in Coshocton County is done by using sirens, mobile public address system, telephone, door-to-door notification, cable television, and WTNS radio.

Upon the activation of the local Emergency Operations Center (EOC), the State EOC would be contacted. If assistance is needed from State or Federal agencies, they would be coordinated with the local Incident Commander (IC). A Unified Command (UC) or Joint Information Center (JIC) would be initiated. Portable radios, with different frequencies, have been issued to the different local responders so interoperability can be maintained.

In the event of receiving a bio/chemical threat, the Coshocton County Sheriff would be notified. He would then begin a criminal investigation to see if the threat is credible. If the threat is credible, then appropriate senior officials would be notified.

A decision would have to be made as to who needs to know and then a warning message would be prepared and disseminated. Care must be given to ensure that the warning message is worded in such a way that the public takes the action requested quickly, but does not panic. A response team would need to be activated to meet the needs of the emergency.

Tab 4 Tornado Warning Procedure

The county has people trained in the proper methods of identification of tornadoes and severe storms. Each person receives training every 2 years for the Sky Warn Program from the NOAA Office, Pittsburg, PA. The members have either amateur radio or other method (i.e., portable radio or phone) to report threatening situations. A method of dissemination of information to the warning point is established per Pittsburgh Weather Service, the local sheriff’s office and Emergency Management Office.

The Sheriff, his designee or the EMA Director, or his designee will use procedures set by weather service regarding putting out warnings for severe storms or threat of a tornado.

Government entities that do not have a siren warning system will use the local radio station and cable television and law enforcement capabilities to reach as many people as possible.

Radio station WTNS will interrupt programming and announce:

“A tornado has been sighted in the area of (location). Protective actions should be taken immediately. Please do not use telephones. Listen to this station for further information.”

Information will be dispatched for “Warnings".

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:

WATCH The Coshocton County Sheriff will dispatch this information to each unit on duty. Sirens will not be activated for WATCH conditions.

WARNING The sheriff and Village police will dispatch this WARNING information to each unit on duty. The EAS system will alert citizens of the warning and describe action steps to be taken.

WARNINGS Are issued when a funnel cloud has been sighted by an observer or detected by radar. Outdoor sirens will be activated using standard operating procedures by sounding three cycles of 3 minutes sound and 3 minutes silence.

Tab 5 Winter Storm Warning Procedure

This tab provides information and procedures for a winter storm warning. There is no fixed public warning system for winter emergencies. The best means of warning Coshocton County citizens of winter storms is local radio station WTNS and cable television.

Another means for residents to receive storm information and road conditions is by checking the sheriff’s office web site www.coshoctonsheriff.com/.

National Weather Service will place warning announcements to all Coshocton County radio / cable television stations. Broadcasts will keep the information updated to residents in the Coshocton and surrounding counties. They will issue advisories as necessary and broadcast information will be released by the weather service.

The Sheriff's Office maintains a three level snow emergency notification system for roads. Reference Annex L - C Winter Storms for details.

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:

WINTER STORM WATCH means there is a possibility of the occurrences of one or more of the following: heavy snow, freezing rain or drizzle, or heavy sleet.

WINTER STORM WARNING means that there is a high probability of one or more of the following: heavy snow, freezing rain or drizzle, or heavy sleet.

BLIZZARD means the following conditions will exist for an extended period of time; sustained or gusty winds of 35 mph or more, falling or blowing snow and very low visibility.

FREEZING RAIN (or drizzle) is rain or drizzle that freezes upon contact with an object. Even small amounts of freezing rain or drizzle can make roads slippery and result in heavy coatings of ice upon objects.

SLEET is solid grains of ice that are formed by the freezing of raindrops as they fall.

WIND CHILL INDEX describes the chilling effects of various combinations of wind and temperature on exposed flesh at a walking speed of 4 mph. The wind chill index refers only to the effect on flesh and not to inanimate objects such as car radiators and batteries.

HEAVY SNOW (in Ohio) generally means a snowfall of 4 inches or more in 12 hours or 6 inches in 24 hours. The criterion for heavy snow is somewhat higher in the snowbelt counties of northeastern Ohio.

TRAVELER’ S ADVISORIES mean that difficult driving conditions are expected to develop and be widespread. The criterion for issuing this advisory varies throughout the year and is dependent to some extent on the forecaster’s judgment and opinion. Early in the season or after long snow-free periods, less snow is generally needed to cause travel delays, so traveler’s advisories are frequently used for lesser accumulations at these times. During the middle of the winter season, when snow is on the ground and roadways, traveler’s advisories are not frequently needed. So, if traveler’s advisories are issued during the dead of winter, be ready for snowfall amounts just below heavy snow criteria.

Tab 6 Hazardous Materials Warning Procedure

Hazardous materials are common in our environment both in the workplace and in the home. These materials are used not only by industry but by government, small businesses and private citizens. Hazardous materials are transported on our roadways.

If there is an emergency regarding hazardous materials, fire and law enforcement communications will issue warnings to the citizens. This will be accomplished by use of WTNS radio, table television, door-to-door notification by law enforcement, fire and REACT personnel.

The Emergency Telephone Calling System (formerly Code Red / Reverse 911) will be utilized to assist with getting information to the public. Messages will depend on the location of the incident, type of incident and chemical nature of the material.

Citizens will be instructed to:

1. Shelter-in-place or, 2. Leave the area, and move to a shelter, if required.

The spiller is responsible for notification to the Local Emergency Planning Committee, the National Response Center and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. If the spill involves a waterway the Coast Guard and Game Warden will also need to be notified.

Facts that may be used in public education regarding hazardous materials incidents:

INITIAL RESPONSE If you hear a siren or other warning signal, turn on a radio or television for further emergency information.

If caught at the scene of an accident or you see an accident, call 911 and report the nature and location of the accident as soon as possible.

Move away from the accident scene and help keep others away.

Do not walk into or touch any of the spilled substance. Try not to inhale gases, fumes and cover mouth with a cloth while leaving the area.

Stay away from accident victims until the hazardous material has been identified. Try to stay upwind and uphill from the accident.

IF ASKED TO STAY INDOORS (SHELTER-IN-PLACE)

Seal house so contaminants cannot enter. Close and lock windows and doors. Seal gaps under doorways and windows with wet towels and duct tape. Seal gaps around windows and air conditioning units, bathrooms and kitchen exhaust, stove and dryer vents with duct tape and plastic sheeting, wax paper or aluminum foil. Close fireplace dampers and close off nonessential rooms such as storage areas, laundry rooms and extra bedrooms. Turn off ventilation systems.

ASSISTING ACCIDENT VICTIMS

Don’t try to care for victims of a hazardous materials accident until the substance has been taken care of and authorities indicate it is safe to go near victims. Then you can move victims to fresh air and emergency medical care. Remove contaminated clothing and shoes and place them in a bag. Cleanse victims that have come in contact with chemicals by immediately flushing water over the skin and eyes for at least 15 minutes, unless authorities instruct you not to use water for the particular chemical involved.

Bring pets inside.

Immediately after the “shelter-in-place” announcement is issued, fill up bathtubs or large containers for an additional water supply and turn off the intake valve to the house.

If gas or vapors could have entered the building, take shallow breaths through a cloth or a tissue.

Avoid eating or drinking any food or water that may be contaminated.

Monitor the Emergency Alert System on radio for further updates and remain in shelter until authorities indicate it is safe to come out.

Tab 7 Information Needed if Asked to Evacuate

Authorities will decide if evacuation is necessary based primarily on the type and amount of released hazardous materials and how long it is expected to affect an area. Other considerations are the length of time it should take to evacuate the area, weather conditions, and the time of day.

IF ASKED TO EVACUATE

Stay tuned to the local radio WTNS or television cable for information on evacuation routes, temporary shelters and procedures.

Follow the routes recommended by the authorities - shortcuts may not be safe. Leave at once.

If you have time, minimize contamination in the house by closing all windows, shutting all vents, turning off attic fans, etc.

Take pre-assembled disaster supplies.

Remember to help neighbors who may require special assistance - infants, elderly or people with disabilities.

Return home only when authorities say it is safe.

Follow local instructions concerning the safety of food and water.

Clean up and dispose of residue carefully. Follow instructions from emergency officials on clean-up methods.

Tab 8 Radiological Accident Information

WARNING I NOTIFICATION

Radiological accidents can occur wherever radioactive materials are used, stored or transported.

Coshocton County has one hospital, a railroad and shipping yards at industry that could get involved in a radiological incident, but considered a low threat and low level of radiation.

Transportation incidents however, create a higher degree of threat.

Media can raise awareness about radiological accidents by providing important information to the community.

Radioactive materials are dangerous because of the harmful effort of certain types of radiation on the cells of the body. The longer the person is exposed to radiation, the greater the risk. It cannot be detected by sight, smell, or any other sense.

WARNING INFORMATION TO BE USED BY RADIO AND TELEVISION MESSAGES

If advised to stay at home, do the following: Bring pets inside Close and lock windows and doors Turn off air conditioning, vents, fans and furnace Close fireplace dampers Go to the basement or other underground area Stay inside until authorities say it is safe If you must go out, cover mouth and nose Be prepared to evacuate or find shelter in your home

If coming in from outdoors, advise: Shower and change clothing and shoes Put items worn outdoors in a plastic bag and seal it

If advised to evacuate: Listen to local WTNS radio station for information on evacuation routes, temporary shelters and other procedures Minimize contamination in house Close and lock windows and doors Turn off air conditioning, vents, fans, and furnace Close fireplace dampers Take disaster supplies

AFTER THE EVENT

When the immediate danger has passed, avoid foods from your garden or milk from your cows or goats until these can be inspected by a local emergency official. Contamination could affect areas as far as 50 miles from the accident site.

Annex C - Warning and Notification May 2011 - 13 -