CENTERVILLE—Windstorms, an earthquake, civil unrest, the pandemic. The events of the past year have left many people, including Centerville residents, wondering just how prepared they and their community are for the emergencies that could possibly impact them.

Many people assume that emergency services will be available to them in a crisis, and, while that may have been true in the situations faced in Centerville this past year, that is unlikely, at least initially in a more extensive or prolonged emergency.

In most communities, including Centerville, emergency operations plans have been developed for most situations. Centerville City’s Basic Emergency Operations Plan may be found at https://www.centervilleutah.gov/159/Emergency-Management. However, those plans are designed to ensure that physical infrastructure, such as water and power, and the chain of command are maintained. Residents should be aware that in a major incident, city and emergency services could be overwhelmed and they may need to rely on their own preparation or volunteer resources until the crisis passes.

Hazards specific to the Centerville community are identified in the plan. They include natural hazards, technological hazards and domestic security threats. Natural hazards include climate hazards, high winds, debris flows/mudslides, earthquakes, liquefaction/slope failure, rockfalls, fires, flooding and pandemic. Technological hazards listed are dam failure, fallen aircraft, hazardous material spills and transportation accidents, power outages and cyber-attacks. Domestic security threats include nuclear and terrorism/weapons of mass destruction. While it may have seemed inconceivable prior to 2020, Centerville has experienced several of these hazards or their possibility in the past year, although none have overwhelmed the city’s infrastructure.

Under Centerville’s Emergency Operations Plan, the city is divided into five Emergency Response Neighborhood Networks. ERNNs are organized to meet the needs of residents and businesses during disasters and emergencies until city services are restored. In such emergencies, led by district leaders and under the direction of the emergency manager they are organized to provide leadership and coordination of volunteer efforts, such as medical triage or evacuation, within their boundaries.

City Council member Bill Ince is chairman of the Centerville Citizen Corps which coordinates and provides training for local residents. (Ince is also the Canyon View ERNN district leader).

The CCC’s mission is “to engage the citizens of Centerville in collaboration with communities within the region, in activities to be safer, stronger, and better prepared in preventing, preparing for, responding to and recovering from emergencies and disasters of all types, including natural and technological disasters and acts of terrorism,” according to the city website.  Its purpose is “to strengthen Centerville’s emergency management abilities by giving residents living within their networks opportunities to engage in emergency preparedness activities.”

Under the CCC, there are four functional committees: Community Emergency Response Teams, Medical Reserve Corp, Be Ready Utah Committee and the Communications Committee (volunteer) which tests and practices Centerville’s Emergency Communications Network including amateur radio network.

Police Chief Paul Child is the city emergency manager. Under Child’s direction, the city plans annual tabletop and field exercises to test the Emergency Operations Plan. More information about specific committees may be obtained by calling the individual ERNN district leaders: South, David Gill, 801-292-5919; Center, Shane Tooler, 801-510-9738, North, John Durrant, 801-694-9988, Canyon View, Bill Ince, 801-298-3865 and West, Richard Rowe, 801-598-8750.