Emergency Management

Ashley Ahlquist - Emergency Manager

The Office of Emergency Management is within the Public Works Division. Yavapai County Office of Emergency Management’s principle responsibilities are in supporting the safety of our citizens and visitors, protection of our infrastructure, as well as our environmental and cultural resources, and assisting in community recovery efforts after an incident occurs.

This is accomplished through supporting response to “all hazard” incidents and special events and preparedness through planning, training, and exercise development.

Priority is given to the area of mitigation (lessening the effect) of hazards in order to achieve disaster resilient communities, capable of responding to and recovering from any incident. Achieving this is only accomplished in cooperation and coordination with our first responder organizations, community groups and leaders, Yavapai County leadership and organizational partners, State level leadership and stakeholders, and finally the relationships with our Federal and National supporting organizations.

Our work is focused on the following hazards:

• Natural
• Technological
• Man-Made Threats

Plans

• Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) 
  Yavapai Communities Wildfire Protection Plan (YCWPP) 
  Developed collaboratively by numerous stakeholders and identifies and prioritizes issues such as wildfire response, hazard mitigation, community preparedness, or structure protection, etc. - or all of the above.
• Hazard Mitigation Plan 
  The Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan was written to identify the various hazards that impact communities within Yavapai County. It also assess the vulnerability and risk posed by those hazards to community-wide human and structural assets to develop future mitigation strategies.
• Emergency Operations Plan 
  Our Emergency Operations Plan serves as an all-hazard regional plan that describes how Yavapai County will organize and respond to emergency events. It describes the coordination for resources and activities for large-scale events.

What is a Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC)?

Schedule and Agendas

Local Emergency Planning Committees are part of a Federally legislated process to help manage hazardous material incident reporting and hazardous material preparedness throughout Yavapai County. The United States Congress initiated this legislation in 1986 after a disaster in Bhopal, India where thousands of people died from a chemical accident. To prevent similar incidents in any of our communities, Congress passed the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA) – also known as SARA Title III. This process establishes requirements for private companies and all levels of government to collaborate for emergency planning and reporting of hazardous material use in local communities.

The LEPC (Local Emergency Planning Committee) is the link for any hazardous materials incident between citizens, industry members and the government. The membership is formed by local area residents representing public safety, the environment, and the economy.

More specifically, the five voting segments of this committee include as a minimum:

• Elected State and Local Officials
• Civil Defense, Firefighting, First Aid, Health, Local Environmental, Hospital and Transportation Personnel
• Broadcast and Print Media
• Community Groups (HOA’s, Faith Based Groups, Community Based Groups, etc.)
• Owners and Operators of Facilities Subject to the Requirements of EPCRA

Primary functions of this committee include reviewing plans for facilities who report hazardous materials to the Arizona State Emergency Response Commission (Facilities who Conduct Business with Regulated Hazardous Materials) and helping establish relationships to maintain transparency before a hazardous material incident occurs.