Baldwin EMC Hosts Emergency Preparedness Meeting
July 19, 2010
Bruce Freeman from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management addresses the crowd as part of the meeting's panel of speakers.
On Friday, July 16, Baldwin EMC hosted a meeting for local emergency response agencies to discuss our area's hurricane preparedness with special attention to the oil crisis in the Gulf of Mexico. The meeting served as a forum for local city, county and utility officials to ask questions of emergency management agencies.
"We're very concerned how the presence of hazardous oil in the water will affect our power restoration efforts should a hurricane hit the Gulf Coast this season," said Bucky Jakins, Baldwin EMC CEO. He explained how both overhead and underground power lines and transformers were buried in mounds of sand following Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina in 2004 and 2005 and substations were flooded with gulf water. "We need to know how to prepare our crews to deal with contaminated equipment, and how to prepare the hundreds of crews who come in from other states to assist following a major storm." said Jakins.
Questions for emergency management officials included who would make decisions regarding entry into contaminated areas, and what special requirements, if any, would apply to disposal of contaminated equipment. Jakins said while the utility did not receive answers to all of their questions, agencies assured them plans are being developed to deal with the issues.
Among the 150 attendees participating in the meeting were representatives from BP, as well as the Emergency Management Agencies of Mobile and Baldwin County and the State of Alabama, the National Guard, the Forestry service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the US Coast Guard, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Alabama Department of Transportation. Also in attendance were several elected officials, members of local law enforcement agencies and several representatives from local utility companies including Baldwin EMC.