The Local Organizing Committee of Greenville saw a need to “check the temperature” of the community’s readiness if and when disaster strikes by hosting a Disaster Awareness Town Hall Meeting at the Elks Lodge, 1818 East Alexander St., Wednesday.
The meeting was held to ensure the Greenville community and surrounding areas had a plan in the event a natural disaster caused residents to have to evacuate their homes, seek shelter and otherwise rely on external assistance or resources for their wellbeing.
A panel discussion, moderated by the LOC’s Brother Kareem Muhammad, included Minister Larry Muhammad, Mayor Errick Simmons, Greenville Police Chief Marcus Turner, Greenville Fire Chief Ruben Brown and Mississippi State Extension Agent for Washington County, Lionell Hinds.
Brother Kareem broached the topic of mitigation in the event of a disaster.
Chief Brown highlighted recent reforms to the public safety sector’s system of communication around the state.
“The City of Greenville and the Greenville Fire Department applied for an assistance to firefighters grant probably four or five years ago and we were awarded more than $365,000 to upgrade our communications system. With the MSWIN system, there’s towers throughout the state of Mississippi that allow you to communicate from Greenville all the way up to the Mississippi Gulf Coast,” Brown said. “Also, consoles were given to install at the police department’s dispatch center along with radios given to the airport’s fire department.”
Brother Kareem reiterated Brown’s statement about the significance of handheld radios.
“That’s very important, these hand radios play a major role in communications during a disaster,” he said. “And what we found out in our last training is that we didn’t have any hand radios and I was very impressed that Chief Brown and a lot of his men wanted to make sure the fire department had hand radio communications as well.”
Another question posed by Brother Kareem for the panel was, “What can the community do to help themselves when there is a flood or another disaster of some sort?”
Chief Turner said he thinks the most important thing to remember in the event of a disaster is to remain calm.
“We have to remember when something like that happens, it’s not just you, but there are other people who need help as well. So we have to sometimes prioritize our calls and we want to make sure we take care of those who are elderly and the children,” he said. “However, as a homeowner, my first thing is to make sure that everybody in my house is prepared — everybody needs to know the evacuation route, everybody needs to know what’s the safest place in the house if there’s a threat of a tornado and things of that nature.”
Turner also alluded to the significance of being educated in the schools and at home on how to respond to earthquake emergencies given the January 2019 earthquake which measured at a magnitude of 3.7.
“It’s just a matter of when and so we all need to be prepared and it starts at home as far as being educated about earthquakes, floods or tornados,” he added.
One of the final topics discussed was the benefits of having a community emergency response team.
Brother Kareem recalled when the flood of 2019 occurred, the American Red Cross was unable to come to Greenville and assist, but he and members of the emergency response team he assembled were able to help some residents evacuate and occupy the Delta Towers building.
Brother Kareem said he was told by an agent of the American Red Cross that because his LOC team was trained by the organization, she was confident they would be able to utilize the Washington County Convention Center to set up a shelter.
“While they were setting up the shelter, Chief Brown, Minister Larry and other men were evacuating the people out,” he said.
Hinds asserted that one benefit of having a community emergency response team is a peace of mind.
“The benefit is knowing that you’ve got a resource in the community in place when you know the firefighters and the police are busy and there’s chaos all over. You have the benefit of knowing there are people in place that can come to your aid knowing what to do, how to do it, until emergency help can arrive,” he said further. “The key to that is knowing your neighbor who may live one block over or one block behind you and those who know how to direct traffic to keep the streets open, set up a triage unit in your neighborhood and direct you to a safe church — all of these are benefits that you would get through this training in our community.”
Hinds added, “And the good thing about it is we don’t all live in the same neighborhood, so it would be stretched out all over the city and surrounding communities.”
The panel was of the consensus that emergency response training should be offered to the community’s youth as they would equally benefit from it, which Hinds vouched for.
“All you need is a willing heart. If you take the course the course will teach you to take care of your family first and you’re taught in teams because you don’t want to do anything on your own when it comes to disasters,” he said.
Concerning shelters in the event of a disaster that may cause temporary displacement, Simmons pointed out the Mid Delta Regional Airport as the City of Greenville works with WWISCAA annually to set up a shelter for individuals to stay up to 30 days at a time.
“And we have it separated with individual folks and also family,” he noted. “We’re working with state and federal folks to address homelessnes and food insecurity as well.”
Simmons said anyone who is homeless can contact WWISCAA’s Delinda Robinson at 662-822-0598.
For more information on upcoming emergency and disaster preparedness courses, the Local Organizing Committee can be reached at 662-577-9343 or by emailing greenvillemsloc@gmail.com.
