Coordinating response to major emergency situations can be a daunting task for even the most highly-trained individuals, so Dallas County Emergency Management Coordinator A.J. Seely is seeking some help.

Seely recently presented a proposal to the Board of Supervisors that would staff an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to aid him during the larger emergency events. He says his job entails 11 statutory responsibilities that span a wide range of tasks, and one in particular has consistently proven difficult for him to handle alone. “One of the big components of it that usually taxes an agency pretty hard is the response component, because it’s things that are happening more rapid than I can usually handle them and coordinate them. So one of the things that I’m looking to do is set up a staffing arrangement with the Board of Supervisors, so that as we grow the emergency management program it effectively calls upon some of those other agencies to provide one or two or a handful of people to help in this center. And what that does is it helps to kind of force-multiply my duties and effectively give support to the communities that might be facing a disaster or having impact.”

Seely points out that the volunteer staff would include current public officials or County representatives who have worked in a similar capacity in the past. He says the frequency of calling in the volunteers to help would be low, but at the same time he emphasizes that it would help him be much more effective in his work. To learn more about this and other Dallas County Emergency Management topics, click the links below to listen to the recent two-part Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program with Seely.

https://www.raccoonvalleyradio.com/2019/07/30/lets-talk-dallas-county-7-30-2019-a-j-seely-part-one/
https://www.raccoonvalleyradio.com/2019/07/31/lets-talk-dallas-county-7-31-2019-a-j-seely-part-two/