Camden County, Kings
Bay partner to increase
preparedness
FEMA National Level Exercise allows county, cities, naval base to
collaborate
By Brandy Mai
Camden County used lessons learned from Hurricane Irma and the FEMA NLE 2018 Exercise to increase their preparedness strategies.
T
he Federal Emergency
Management Agency’s
National Level Exercise
2018 involved a simulated major
tropical storm, Hurricane Cora,
and brought together more than
250 federal, state, local, and tribal
governments across the nation in
April and May. “Preparedness
is everyone’s responsibility,”
said FEMA Administrator Brock
Long. “This (exercise) is your
opportunity to set an example for
others and help create a culture of
preparedness in your community.”
Camden County officials took
the opportunity to help others
and set an example, using NLE
2018 to continue working together
with its partners to create a
more comprehensive emergency
plan and unified approach to
emergency management.
Nestled in the far southeast
22
corner of the state, county residents
enjoy fishing and boating on its
tidal creeks and marshes. Due
to its location on the coast and
memory of damage caused by
recent storms, county leadership
understands the need to be vigilant
about hurricane planning and
preparedness.
Camden County Emergency
Management Agency used NLE
2018 as an opportunity to uniquely
engage its cities and naval base
and test four main objectives:
evaluate current operational
conditions of readiness and ability
to execute them as preparedness
measures; test WebEOC usage as
related to local cities and Naval
Submarine Base Kings Bay for
situational awareness; assess
continuity of government/continuity
of operations capability if required
to evacuate and operate out of the
county; and test Amateur Radio
Emergency Service systems for
capabilities during a real-world
incident.
“We decided to participate
given that FEMA fully developed
the exercise in a way that allowed
local jurisdictions to opt in and use
the tools and scenario to achieve
local goals,” said Chuck White,
Camden County EMA Director.
“It was important to the county
for Kingsland, St. Marys, and
Kings Bay to collaborate with us,
but they could also test their own
objectives.”
With the exercise presenting the
chance to coordinate protective
actions while testing individual
objectives, the city of Kingsland
used NLE 2018 to test its continuity
of city business operations. “We
were able to ‘spin up’ our remote
servers and test those remote