Ready for Anything

It might have been easy to miss, what with all the local controversies and national upheaval, but Howard County has completed a new Emergency Preparedness plan. From the Office of Emergency Management:

The Howard County Office of Emergency Management is proud to present the Howard County Comprehensive Emergency Response and Recovery Plan (CERRP), which was promulgated by Howard County Executive Calvin Ball yesterday, September 26th, 2019.  The CERRP updates and replaces the 2015 Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) and incorporates lessons learned from the 2016 and 2018 Ellicott City floods.  

The CERRP encompasses emergency preparedness, response, and recovery tasks, and guides a more seamless transition from response to recovery. The development of the CERRP included all County Departments and various external partners who have a role in emergency response and recovery and reflects a very lengthy process to improve the emergency response capabilities within Howard County. 

The CERRP Base Plan can be viewed on our website here: http://ow.ly/EzoW50wtqD2 

Emergency preparedness is not always at the forefront of my mind but I imagine that, for those in Old Ellicott City, it’s never far from their thoughts. Seeing this announcement was a reminder to me that the work of county government is going on all the time in so many different areas. Preparing for something that may or may not happen - - in fact you really hope it won’t happen - -  takes a special kind of skill.

Of course, you can’t please everyone, and one reader responded with the following:

....but does it include a Zombie Apocalypse response?

While I haven’t contacted the Office of Emergency Management to get their official response, I did do a bit of preliminary research. If the OEM should decide to add Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness to their comprehensive plan, they need look no further than the CDC, which has published their own guidelines. 

Still, some folks may not find this approach comprehensive, but it works for me.