On Wednesday, May 31, at the State Emergency Operations Center in Wake County, there was a whole lot of training going on in an effort to prepare leaders from all over the state to deal with whatever emergency might transpire in their counties.
The training was held as part of the initiative called “100 Counties Prepared: Emergency Preparedness for County Officials.”
The full day of learning was a collaborative effort between the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners (NCACC), Duke Energy and NC Emergency Management, which all came together to put on the event meant to improve crisis response among county leaders.
The training taught elected officials and county staff about the best practices during a crisis. Some of the guest speakers included NC Emergency Management Director Will Ray, former director Mike Sprayberry and Duke Energy Vice President of Governmental Affairs and External Relations Kevin McLaughlin.
Event attendees learned about things such as maintaining communications in bad storms and during other chaotic events, various effective emergency management procedures, and what to do to speed up recovery after the fact. For instance, the attendees learned how to find available sources for funding a recovery after a disaster strikes.
The 100 Counties Prepared training initiative has an official stated goal of giving elected leaders the tools they need to “lead effectively during critical local response and recovery activities during emergencies such as natural disasters, public health crises, and other critical incident situations.”
