Benton County LEPC met at Birdsong

The morning of Tuesday, October 8th began on a cool, crisp note with temperatures dropping into the low 50's overnight. But at 10 a.m. when the members of the Benton County LEPC met at Birdsong in the warm sunshine, it didn't take long for interests in local emergency planning to warm up. It was the regular monthly meeting of the Local Emergency Planning Committee, but this time it took place at Birdsong Marina and Resort along with a meeting that was slated for TEMA. The two groups combined in the early session before lunch and it was a good time to get to know each other, and delve into the plans underway for Benton County.

John Smoot, the Chairman of the LEPC and a retired employee from DuPont (pictured on the right), began the meeting by having each person introduce themselves to others at the function. As each commented and introduced him or herself, it gave others in the room to 'see' the company they were in. This Committee officially kicked off back in July and has been taking small, but accurate steps ever since to insure the safety and protection of the cititzens of this county. Smoot egan his agenda by announcing that various committees within the LEPC would be in order to ensure the efficient 'workin' of the organization. He announced that there would be a Review committee which would consist of 5 or 6 persons, and that this committee would elect their own Chairperson. It would be their duty to review each communities disaster plan to make sure all were in 'sync' with each other.

Next would be an Audit Committee who's duties would be to check in every six months with the Review Committee to make sure programs were updated and implemented. The Training Committee would be responsible for bringing new ideas to each group involved and to see that the proper training was implemented, to keep the committees on top of new innovations. Two other committees which will be implemented within the next month will concern public relations and communications.

Jane Waldrop of TEMA explained that she had drawn up a basic plan for Benton County, taking into consideration the railways that ran through the county, the waterways, highways, etc. It's only a basic plan and things will be "plugged" into the plan as the program develops. She stated that the plan drew upon approximately 16 ESF's or Emergency Support Functions such as transportation, communication, firefighting and recovery. These functions include specific people being placed into exact positions in the 'team.'

Smoot went on to comment that an Emergency Plan for any community, organization or business is no good if it sits on a shelf. It is an EMERGENCY PLAN and should be updated and implemented as the situation arises. It must be constantly improved and updated.

From this point , Charlie Bryant of TEMA presented a slide show concerning a 'tanker truck' fire at the 47 mile marker on Interstate 40. He explained how when the call first came in, it was presented as a tanker truck on fire. At first the dispatcher relayed that it was a 'gas' truck, and then while the fire units were enroute, it was thought perhaps it was a 'propane' tank - and by the time the incident was fully revealed, it was a tanker truck that had been hauling nigrogen and sulfuric acid. The demonstration was quite remarkable in it's expertise and showed how TEMA and local emergency officials each reacted to the incident.

Following the slide show, members of the LEPC and TEMA broke for lunch, before the LEPC adjourned and allowed TEMA their privacy for their meeting. The next meeting for the LEPC will again be the second Tuesday of the month, in November, at the new City Hall.

The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency's role is very unique among state government agencies with them being literally the 9-1-1 of state government. It is when a situation escalates beyond a local government's capability to manage that TEMA is the first point of contact for obtaining state or federal assistance. Their normal day-to-day activites involve monitoring developing situations across the state such as weather, and small emergencies, providing timely notification to other state and federal agencies about local emergency situations, plan evelopment, exercise development, and response capability development. TEMA is responsible for ensuring the establishment and development of policies and programs for emergency management at the state and local levels. This responsibility includes the development of a statewide capability to mitigate against, prepare for, respond to, and recover from the full range of emergencies, both natural and technological. Their goal is to make Tennesseans safe from disaster; to reduce the physical harm and financial losses suffered from those events.

Originally created in March 5, 1951 as the Tennessee Civil Defense Agency (TCDA), after the passage of the Tennessee Civil Defense Act of 1951, they are now known as the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA). TCDA was organized to provide a statewide organization for nuclear civil protection during the Cold War. Beginning in 1955 and on several occasions since, this law has been modified until today it exists as Chapter 2, Title 58, Tennessee Code Annotated (TCA 58-2-101). The agency was known throughout much of the 60's and 70's as the Tennessee Office of Civil Defense and Emergency Preparedness.

Over the years the mission of Civil Defense has gradually expanded to include natural and man-made disasters. In 1977 a major disaster occurred in Rockwood, TN with abromine spill on Interstate 40, and in Waverly in 1978 with a rail accident and propane explosion that killed several emergency responders. The agency's current director, John White, was seriously injured in that very explosion. These accidents emphasized the need for an expanded role in response to hazardous materials accidents and events, and led to the creation of the Tenessee Hazardous Materials Institute. The TCDA-created training program developed an organized, delineated training program for hazardous materials responders, and was the first of its kind in the nation. Several states used Tennessee's program as a model for the development of their own hazmat training programs. The opening of the Sequoyah Nuclear Plan after the accident at Three Mile Island also expanded the need for emergency planning to deal with the threat of a nuclear power accident in the Tennessee River Valley. The name of the agency was changed in 1984 to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency to bring it in line with the newly-formed Federal Emergency Management Agency (1979).

A major turning point for TEMA occurred during the winter storms of 1993-94, which validated TEMA's multi-functional approach in dealing with large-scale disasters. They have successfully used this approach for management of tornadoes, floods, transportation accidents and a host of other disasters.

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