Monticello Live

This semester, university police at the University of Arkansas at Monticello (UAM) have been engaging in emergency preparedness training for everything from campus incidents to the total solar eclipse.

UAM hosted Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) training in February for local emergency response units, including members from the UAM Police Department, the Arkansas National Guard, the Lake Hamilton and McGehee fire departments and representatives from state parks. This was the third time in the last year that UAM had hosted FEMA training.

John Minard, Emergency Management Training Coordinator at the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management, instructed the FEMA courses taught on UAM’s campus. Minard stated, “By having a diverse demographic in these classes, we end up with the most important aspect: interoperability, meaning multiple agencies and jurisdictions working together, even if they never have before. This allows FEMA to integrate our resources into the community a lot quicker.”

During the February FEMA training, attendees completed two courses: “Advanced Incident Command System for Complex Incidents, ICS 400” and “Intermediate Incident Command System for Expanding Incidents, ICS 300.” These courses gave attendees tools and management training to prepare them for unexpected and infrequent emergency situations.

Another subject of discussion at the training was the total solar eclipse on April 8. The population of Arkansas was estimated to double in the path of totality during the solar eclipse. Attendees were informed that when an unusually large influx of people is anticipated to concentrate in an area, FEMA helps the cities organize and redistribute emergency personnel and equipment from nearby towns. FEMA also reminded the emergency personnel in attendance of their responsibility to communicate with their local businesses in preparation for the eclipse; grocery stores, hospitals and gas stations need to have more products and employees available to accomodate the influx of visitors.

Chief John Kidwell, director of the University Police Department at UAM, stated, “Prompted by our FEMA training and in preparation for the solar eclipse, our police department ensured all UAM emergency vehicles were full of gas to prevent the officers from being grounded if there was a gas shortage. FEMA classes are helping our local city, county and government agencies prepare for emergency situations like this that we may not have thought about before.”

FEMA classes are free to all residents of Arkansas. They are funded by a federal grant program called the Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG). EMPG funding allows these classes to be held in the community every few weeks. Volunteer, private and faith-based organizations often attend and benefit from interaction with the state’s first responders.

FEMA plans to hold more courses in southeast Arkansas over the next year, including in Jefferson County, Arkansas County and on UAM’s Monticello campus. Topics range from auxiliary communications to emergency management and have options of single-day, two-consecutive-week and five-week courses.

Arkansas first responders are continually in FEMA training and benefit from FEMA resources.

For more information about upcoming FEMA courses at UAM, contact John Minard at john.minard@adem.arkansas.gov or call 501-683-6755.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 13th, 2024 at 12:35 am and is filed under UAM News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.