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VILLAGE OF CHATHAMThe Chatham Emergency Management Agency is responsible for the protection of our community from the impacts of disasters. Through a coordinated, whole-community effort, the agency takes an all-hazards approach to preparedness, building resilience, establishing effective and efficient incident response, and enabling timely recovery. As part of this responsibility, the Chatham Emergency Operations Plan (CEOP) was developed and approved by the Board of Trustees. The CEOP sets forth a means for management and orderly operations with the Village of Chatham during a major incident, emergency, or disaster.
Establishing a resilient community begins at home with individual and family preparedness. There are four key things that will enhance the level of preparedness of families and individuals. These include:
- Staying Informed – Know the different types of emergencies that could occur and appropriate responses to each
- Make a family emergency plan and a family communications plan
- Build an emergency supply kit
- Take action now, to prepare for emergencies
You can find more information, as well as planning templates, on the Federal Emergency Management Agency website at: https://www.ready.gov/. Here you can find preparedness tips for Winter Weather, Severe Weather, and Power Outages. You’ll also find tips for building an emergency supply kit, making a family communications plan, and you can learn about the many ways to receive Emergency Alerts.
Let’s get started today. Got to /cema?anchorElerts and sign up to receive alerts from the Village of Chatham Civic Ready program.
Continue to check in for updates and additional information to help you prepare and help your community be more resilient.
Trenton Thompson
Emergency Management Director
trentt@chathamil.gov
COORDINATION
In the event of a natural or man-caused disaster or major emergency, CEMA assists first responders by providing service coordination and incident command, as needed.
FACILITATION
During large-scale events CEMA facilitates multi-jurisdictional involvement and mutual aid agreement implementation, including coordination with county, state and federal agencies.
COMMUNITY COMMUNICATION
CEMA works with village officials and response agencies to ensure accurate situational information is collected and disseminated to residents and businesses as quickly as possible.
RECOVERY
First responder (Police, Fire, EMS, Public Works) involvement usually ends when there is no longer an immediate threat to the community and injuries, fatalities and infrastructure damage have been managed.
CEMA stays involved in recovery operations by assisting in:
CEMA's role in Chatham's disaster readiness and resiliency initiatives presents numerous opportunities to work collaboratively with village and township residents, Chatham Police Department, Chatham Fire District, Ball-Chatham School District, Chatham Area Chamber of Commerce and community service organizations.
Such collaboration is not only critical to its mission, but also reinforces the village's already excellent reputation as a caring and business friendly community.
CEMA operates an Emergency Outdoor Siren Warning System as part of an all-hazards system for providing early warning to the general population of potential danger.
The system is tested at 10 a.m. on the first Tuesday of each month with a single 3-minute tone. NOTE: The sirens are NOT capable of alerting residents who are inside buildings.
If the siren is activated for an emergency, the tone will last 5-minutes and will be followed by information about the potential or actual danger via the Village of Chatham Civic Ready system.
Receiving Emergency Alerts and Warnings
It is important to understand the Alert and Warning processes available to you and to make sure you have available to you the means to get Emergency Alerts and Warnings. The Village of Chatham utilizes Civic Ready to provide information to the public. You can sign up to receive information through Civic Ready by selecting the "Sign up for Alerts" tab below or using the "Alerts" button at the top of our website page.
Other tools that you should become familiar with includes the following:
Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) – Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) are short emergency alerts authorities can send to any WEA-enabled mobile device in a locally targeted area. Alerting Authorities who are authorized to send WEAs include state, local, tribal, and territorial public safety officials, the National Weather Service, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the President of the United States.
Emergency Alert System (EAS) – The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national public warning system that allows the president to address the nation within 10 minutes during a national emergency. Other authorized federal, state, local, tribal and territorial alerting authorities may also use the system to deliver important emergency information such as weather information, imminent threats, AMBER alerts and local incident information targeted to specific areas.
NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) – NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR) is a nationwide network of radio stations that broadcast continuous weather information from the nearest National Weather Service office based on your physical location.
FEMA App – The FEMA App allows you to receive real-time weather and emergency alerts, send notifications to loved ones, locate emergency shelters in your area, get preparedness strategies and more
The Chatham Emergency Management Agency - Volunteer (CEMA-V) program is part of the local and national Citizen Corps effort to incorporate and utilize trained volunteers in the community in times of emergency or disaster. Citizen Corp is endorsed by the President of the United States, the Department of Homeland Security, state and county operational areas and local jurisdictions. Volunteers are trained in basic response techniques and mutual aid training to assist the Village of Chatham and surrounding areas in a disaster or major emergency situation.
Volunteer’s Mission:
The mission of CEMA is to build disaster resiliency through community readiness. To do this the CEMA volunteer will harness the power of every member through education, training, and volunteer service to make our community safer, stronger, and better prepared to respond to natural and man-made disasters as well as community events.
Volunteer’s Statement:
CEMA volunteers will work in the community with first responders to provide a quality resource for community events as well as disaster response assistance when the community is overwhelmed by an incident or requires additional trained volunteers.
Volunteer’s Goals:
The goals of the CEMA-V are:
1. To ensure our focus is SAFETY for ourselves, our team, first responders and disaster victims.
2. To do the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
3. To maintain readiness through ongoing training.
4. To maintain professionalism in all areas within the scope of the program.
Volunteer’s Training:
Due to their mission, CEMA Volunteers may respond and operate in several different environments and be responsible for numerous functions. All CEMA Volunteers must receive an appropriate level of training necessary for their function. Training requirements for the CEMA Volunteer includes the following:
Volunteer’s Requirements:
All volunteers are required to attend monthly meetings and established training. These meetings are intended to discuss past and future deployments and issues within the organization. Training is also completed during the meetings to continually enhance the volunteer’s ability to function in an event or disaster.
Still Interested? Contact the CEMA Director at trentt@chathamil.gov to get more information and an application to be part of the team. We look forward to hearing from you.
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