The Polk County Emergency Management Agency hosted other officials from around the area to ensure that when something goes wrong, they have the skills they need to take control of any situation or disaster that may come their way.
Local and area officials from Polk County, Rockmart Fire and Rescue, the Paulding County CERT Team, the Paulding County School District, the Marietta Fire Department, Gordon County Fire and Rescue, the Cedartown Fire Department and Wellstar were all on hand to take part in a three-day course for the Incident Command System.
Polk County EMA Director Bobby Dockery explained the classes are designed to emphasize the requirements of Unified Command, bringing teams together during a response to a disaster or emergency situation to organize efforts to ensure that the chaos created by a situation doesn’t become worse through the response by first responders and other agencies coming into help.
“The Unified Command then establishes a common set of incident objectives and strategies that all can subscribe to,” Dockery reported. “This is accomplished without losing or giving up agency authority, responsibility or accountability.”
As an example, Unified Command techniques and procedures would be needed if Polk County Emergency Management were to respond to a severe weather incident, where multiple outside agencies are brought into the county to help at the scene of disaster and have to coordinate their efforts with those in charge on the ground.
“The course was fast-paced on purpose to give a real world feeling to different challenges,” Dockery said. “(It) was not just lecture, each student on multiple occasions presented to the class.”
Georgia Emergency Management and the Homeland Security Agency taught the class, and sponsored by the Northwest Georgia Healthcare Coalition Region C.
Photos courtesy of the Polk County GA Government Facebook Page.
