OFFICE OF PREPAREDNESS
The Office of Preparedness is divided into three Bureaus which has daily oversight for Plans, Training and Exercise.

The Plans Bureau is responsible for providing emergency planning assistance to state agencies and local governments to include the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, as well as regional and national emergency planning initiatives.

Additionally, the bureau manages all program requirements for the Hazardous Materials Program, Local Emergency Planning Committees, Waste Isolation Pilot Program, Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program, Earthquake Program, Hurricane Program and Continuity of Operations and Continuity of Government planning assistance for state agencies.

All of these efforts are directed at preparing local communities with effective planning tools utilizing an all hazards approach. For more information, visit: http://www.msema.org/plans/assistance.html

The Training Bureau offers a wide range of emergency management and first responder training for all levels of government, private industry and volunteer organizations. Courses are offered state wide by a team of training coordinators in a field-delivered environment.

Course instruction may be offered in the following categories: emergency planning, basic emergency management, mitigation and preparedness, incident command, response and recovery, radiological, community emergency response teams, hazardous materials incident response and hazardous materials incident response.

The Training Bureau also oversees student enrollment from Mississippi to the Emergency Management Institute in Emmitsburg, Md. where more than 400 courses in emergency management are offered. Additional information about training policies and the training application can be found on this website. For more information, visit: http://www.msema.org/training/

The Exercise Bureau helps communities with emergency management exercises as required for those counties receiving matching federal funds.This includes offering exercise design and evaluation courses, assisting with scenario development and providing on scene evaluators, controllers or simulators during the exercise.

These exercises are activities that simulate emergency management operations for specific purposes that correlate with a natural, man-made or terrorist event. During a four – year period, local government will be required to conduct three functional exercises and one full-scale exercise.

For specific requirements under the Exercise program, please contact the exercise bureau director. For more information, visit: http://www.msema.org/training/

For additional information about the Office of Preparedness, contact the Office Director, James Barlow at (601) -933-6346.