Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Response to COVID 19Copyrighted
July 6, 2021
City of Dubuque Consent Items # 15.
City Council Meeting
ITEM TITLE: Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Response to COVID 19
SUMMARY: City Manager transmitting a summary of the response and activities of the
Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to COVI D-19, providing a
snapshot of the mechanics, accomplishments, and future
recommendations for operation of the EOC in response to COVI D-19.
SUGGESTED Suggested Disposition: Receive and File
DISPOSITION:
ATTACHMENTS:
Description Type
EOC Response to COVI D-19 - MVM Memo City Manager Memo
EOC Response to Covid 19 Memo Staff Memo
THE C
DUUB_-_*._TE
Masterpiece on the Mississippi
TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
SUBJECT: Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Response to COVID-19
DATE: June 30, 2021
Dubuque
*Amrin Cia
2007-2012.2013
2017*2019
Fire Chief Rick Steines is transmitting a summary of the response and activities of the
Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to the COVID-19, providing a snapshot of the
mechanics, accomplishments, and future recommendations for operation of the EOC in
response to COVID-19.
I have approved the recommendation for de-escalation of the operation from activated
to limited/monitoring related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic is far from being
over. The EOC will be ready to adapt to any spikes in cases or other requests from City
and County Departments should they become overwhelmed or need assistance. Staff
will continue to monitor the local, state and national reports and support our providers
as they continue to vaccinate our citizens. Emergency Support Functions will continue
to operate and the Incident Management Team will continue to navigate the pandemic
and request outside assistance as needed. Staff will continue to be vigilant and monitor
requests from the Incident Management Team, hospitals, cities or the county.
v
Mic ael C. Van Milligen
MCVM:jh
Attachment
cc: Crenna Brumwell, City Attorney
Cori Burbach, Assistant City Manager
Rick Steines, Fire Chief
* )01
� EMERGENCY
AkNA T GEMEN
DUBUQUE COUNTY
Thomas I. Berger, Coordinator
Mike Wuertzer, Chairperson
Dan Neenan, Vice -Chairperson
TO: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
14928 Public Safety Way
Dubuque, IA 52002-8216
Phone: 563-589-4170
Fax: 563-589-0015
E-Mail: tom.berger@dbecoema.com
FROM: Rick Steines, Fire Chief
Thomas I. Berger, Emergency Management Coordinator
SUBJECT: Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Response to COVID 19
DATE: June 23, 2021
INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this memo is to summarize the response and activities of the
Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to the COVID-19. This memo provides a snapshot of the
mechanics, accomplishments, and future recommendations for operation of the EOC in
response to COVID-19.
BACKGROUND:
CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19)
In late 2019 a coronavirus was detected and soon made its way to the United States. On
January 31, 2020, the United States Department of Health and Human Services declared a
national public health emergency. Information sharing through webinars and emails with the
Iowa Department of Public Health began in February. At that time, there were no cases
recorded in the United States. There were many unknowns about the virus at the time it was
first detected in the United States and subsequently in Iowa. On March 9, 2020, a proclamation
of disaster emergency was declared in the State of Iowa following the first detected cases in
Iowa on March 8', 2020. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared
the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic. On March 19, 2020, we had our first case in
Dubuque County and unfortunately on March 24, 2020, Dubuque County recorded the first
death of an Iowa resident.
EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CENTER (EOC) PREPAREDNESS
The City of Dubuque Management Team and EOC have a long history of disaster
preparedness, offering training and holding exercises to be ready for any type of an event.
Through the guidance from the City Manager and the support of the City of Dubuque Mayor and
City Council, we conduct training using the National Incident Management System (NIMS),
Incident Command System (ICS) and we have developed a Comprehensive Emergency
Management Plan. We include annual exercises to meet state and federal requirements and to
ensure we are ready for an emergency, natural or human made. The emphasis placed on
disaster preparedness, EOC operations, training and exercises successfully proved to be
important to our response to the pandemic.
EOC ACTIVATION STATUS
The City of Dubuque has an Administrative Policy that details the level of EOC activation to
include monitoring, limited, partial, full, and advanced. The response status is upgraded or
scaled back depending on the response needed to the event. The EOC was in the monitoring
phase in February 2020, moving to the limited and partial phase in early March to full activation
from April 2020 through May 2021. In June 2021 we decreased back to limited activation and
continue to stand ready to ramp up our response if needed.
DUBUQUE COUNTY HEALTHCARE PREPAREDNESS COALITION
The Dubuque County Healthcare Preparedness Coalition Board includes the following
members:
• Mary Rose Corrigan, City of Dubuque Health Specialist
• Patrice Lambert, Dubuque County Health Director
• Stacey Killian, Visiting Nurse Association Director
• Karen Vaassen, Unity Point Health — Finley Hospital
• Tilly Frommelt, MercyOne Medical Center
• Tom Berger, Dubuque County Emergency Management Coordinator
This group was initiated and has been meeting for over fifteen years. The group works with
funding provided to Dubuque County from the Iowa Department of Public Health to prepare for,
respond to and recover from any Public Health Emergency. This group also prepares the
agenda and shares information with the entire Dubuque County Healthcare Preparedness
Coalition at quarterly meetings. The coalition is an all -encompassing group including health
care facilities, long term care facilities, hospitals, fire, EMS, City and County staff. The Coalition
has response plans and pre -identified appointments to fill in the Incident Command Structure for
a response to a Public Health Emergency.
The Coalition conducted an influenza tabletop exercise on December 12, 2019, that proved to
be very beneficial in our response since the start of the Pandemic. Lessons learned from the
exercise rolled into our response to the Pandemic and continue today.
INCIDENT MANAGEMENT TEAM
In early March 2020, the Incident Management Team (IMT) was activated and included Patrice
Lambert, Mary Rose Corrigan, Stacey Killian and Tom Berger. This committee coordinated the
local response to the Pandemic. Early on the IMT met multiple times per day and continued
daily through May 2020. In June 2020 the IMT began to meet daily Monday through Friday with
an occasional need to meet on the weekends. This continued until May of 2021 when we
scaled back to 3-4 times per week. The IMT continues to meet multiple times per week and will
do so for many months.
The Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan is designed to follow state and federal
response plans. The plan is broken down to Emergency Support Functions (ESFs). In
response to an event, an ESF is activated to assist the IMT to perform duties and functions.
The following ESFs were activated at some point during the pandemic and performed critical
work in our local response:
ESF 2 — Communications — led by 911 Communications Manager Mark Murphy
ESF 4 — Fire — led by Fire Chief Rick Steines and local county fire chiefs.
ESF 5 — Emergency Management led by EMA Coordinator Tom Berger
• ESF 6 — Mass Care, Emergency Assistance, Housing and Human Services led by
Housing and Community Development Director Alexis Steger and Human Rights
Director Kelly Larson
• ESF 7 — Resource Management led by EMA Coordinator Tom Berger
• ESF 8 — Health and Medical led by Incident Management Team
• ESF 15 — Public Information led by Public Information Officer Randy Gehl
The activation of the ESFs provide the framework for a coordinated response to an event. ESFs
serve as the lead to oversee project completion and they reach out to many partners to
complete the tasks assigned to them by the IMT or Planning Section. Some of the actions that
were performed by using the ESFs are below:
• Isolation Shelter development — ESF6
• Bi-Weekly and then monthly outreach meetings for fire and emergency medical services
agencies — ESF4 and ESF8
• Receipt and distribution of personal protective equipment — ESF7
• Request of state and federal support for incident response — ESF5
• Activation of EOC and coordination of incident action events — ESF5
• Operation of a Joint Information Center and conducting press releases — ESF15
• Law enforcement provided security and traffic direction at our vaccine Points of
Distribution (POD) — ESF13
• Public Works and Engineering worked with logistics to assist with traffic signage and
other design work related to PODs and Testing Sites.
This event required an "all hands-on deck" approach. Our efforts to exercise regularly with all
city departments to assist in an emergency proved to be successful. City departments were able
to fill response requests from the IMT or EOC and subsequently fill positions within the incident
command system structure.
DISCUSSION
CITY OF DUBUQUE PLANNING SECTION
On Monday, March 2, 2020, a meeting was called to start the City of Dubuque response to the
pandemic. The initial meeting included the following members City Manager Mike Van Milligan,
Public Health Specialist Mary Rose Corrigan, EMA Coordinator Tom Berger, Fire Chief Rick
Steines, Police Chief Mark Dalsing, City Attorney Crenna Brumwell, Assistant City Manager Teri
Goodmann and Assistant City Manager Cori Burbach. As the response to the pandemic
changed, Information Services Manager Chris Kohlman, Assistant Fire Chief Greg Harris and
Public Information Officer Randy Gehl were added to the group. In the ICS structure this was
determined to be the Planning Section and Chief Steines was identified as the Planning Section
Chief.
The planning section met weekly to develop an incident action plan for City departments. Each
department was required to send a written report (ICS-201 Report) updating the Planning
Section of their current status and also any needs for their department. The information
received was processed and placed into an Incident Objectives Report (ICS-202) which
established the goals and objectives for the next operational period. The operational periods
were weekly from March 8, 2020, through June 12, 2020. From June 12, 2020, through
September 3, 2020, the operational period was two weeks. Starting September, 2020, through
June 2021, the Planning Section met monthly.
The planning section reports were developed by the team, approved by the City Manager, and
then distributed to City Department Heads for implementation of the goals and tasks for the next
operational period. The main areas addressed in the documents included continuity of
government to maintain critical services, information sharing and protect the public and
employees.
EOC ACTIVATION UPDATE FOR CITIES AND COUNTIES
In May 2020, the EOC started to have full activation meetings to update all partners, internal
and external. The information shared was collected through the IMT reports, City Planning
Section reports, IDPH and CDC Guidance as well as other external information. These
meetings were held on the same day and schedule as the Planning Section Meetings. All cities
in the County were invited as well as City Department Heads, County Department Heads,
Mayor Buol, Dubuque County Supervisors and other elected officials. We also had reports from
community partners to include the Greater Dubuque Development Corporation, Community
Foundation of Greater Dubuque, and United Way of Dubuque Area Tri-States.
The meetings provided information sharing to all entities and updates from the IMT on the
current status, incident priorities and future objectives. Cities were able to share information
about closings and how they are responding to the pandemic.
RECOMMENDATION
At this time, it is our recommendation to de-escalate the operation from activated to
limited/monitoring. The pandemic is far from being over. We will be ready to adapt to any
spikes in cases or other requests from City and County Departments should they become
overwhelmed or need assistance. We will continue to monitor the local, state and national
reports and support our providers as they continue to vaccinate our citizens. ESFs will continue
to operate and the IMT will continue to navigate the pandemic and request outside assistance
as needed. We will continue to be vigilant and monitor requests from the IMT, hospitals, cities
or the county.
Immediate Future priorities will include the following:
• Continue to promote vaccinations and assist in the delivery of vaccines as needed.
• Process information received from the CDC, IDPH or any source in relation to variant
strains and outbreaks in other areas of the country or world.
• Continue the recovery process and complete the needed paperwork and requirements
for FEMA reimbursement.
• Develop an After -Action Plan (AAR) to gain insight, comments, criticisms and
compliments on what worked and where we can improve for not only the next pandemic
but future responses that require EOC activation.
• Support the IMT for any assignments or projects as needed.
Long Term Goals for the EOC
• Incorporate and/or develop any needed plans, training, or exercises to address shortfalls
in the AAR.
• Continue to explore grants and funding opportunities as they are made available for
follow up from the state or federal governments.
We have dedicated many years planning, training, and exercising for an extended activation of
the EOC. With the resources provided through grants and financial assistance offered by local
governments, we were able to accomplish the goals and objectives to address the constantly
changing issues with response to a pandemic. The EOC was able to complete projects and
aided the IMT allowing them to focus on response operations.
As the IMT continues to work on vaccination plans and other pandemic related problems, the
EOC will continue to monitor and be ready to activate again if needed.
We thank you for your continued support of the Dubuque County Emergency Management
Agency and appreciate your consideration of our request to move to an incident monitoring
activation level of the EOC.