ISHPEMING, Mich. (WZMQ) – It’s the old Boy Scout motto: Be prepared. It was the common theme this morning during a panel discussion on emergency preparedness. The panel, made up of local leaders and Marquette County emergency management officials, shared insight into local priorities, the emergency declaration process, and personal responsibility.
“I think the biggest thing for people to keep in mind, whether you’re thinking about preparedness for your family or preparedness for your business or just in the community in general, is to have those conversations before an incident happens,” said Marquette County Emergency Management Coordinator Brian Hummel.
The conversation then shifted to a panel discussion with local business leaders offering practical advice on how organizations can plan for, respond to, and recover from disruptions.
“Having those conversations with your family and within your business on what we’re going to do for that next big blizzard, where we can’t get to the office for a couple of days, or we’re stuck at home for a couple of days. Do we have enough water? Do we have enough food?” said Hummel.
The role of the government in a disaster is to maintain safety and security and protect community infrastructure. The rest, well, it’s up to the individual business.
“And restoring a business’s operations doesn’t necessarily fall into that. We’re happy to help as we’re able, but our limited resources have to go towards preserving life and property first,” said Hummel.
And no conversation about emergency preparedness would be complete without the adage, “If you see something, say something”.
“If you see something suspicious, you should always report to the police department, and they will go from there, and we’ll, we’ll follow up and see if your suspicion comes out to be something that is warranted to take care of”, said Negaunee City Manager Nate Heffron.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON A VARIETY OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT RESOURCES, visit The Marquette County Emergency Management website: https://co.marquette.mi.us/departments/emergency_management/index.php
