FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, December 26,  2006

Contact: Dan Kulin, Public Information Officer
Phone: (702) 455-5534
Cell: (702) 376-3764

DHS Gives Local Emergency Plans Top Marks

With the biggest tourist weekend of the year just days away, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that it has given top marks to the Las Vegas community’s emergency plans. 

The federal agency reviewed the local written plans as well as a Sept. 13 emergency response exercise and gave the highest possible score in the areas of “standard operating procedures” and “governance” and the second-highest score in “usage” of communications.

 The federal reviewers noted the extensive collaboration among local emergency responders and governments as well as the ease with which various responders communicate despite operating on different radio systems.

 “There are a number of formal agreements among member agencies, and the area has been very effective in proactively including public support discipline, state, and federal agencies in the governance process,” according to the report.

Further, the report said, “Regional leaders …have made interoperable communications a priority and are actively engaged in all aspects of interoperability.”

Called the “Tactical Interoperable Communications Scorecard,” the report is being released as Las Vegas prepares for the anticipated arrival of 301,000 out-of-town visitors for the New Year’s Eve weekend. 

The local plans were developed by the Local Emergency Planning Committee, a group of local government, private-sector and emergency-response organizations. The committee chairman is Clark County Emergency Management & Homeland Security Director Jim O’Brien.

County Commission Chairman Rory Reid said the DHS evaluation is high praise for emergency planners and a comfort for county residents and visitors as the new year approaches.  

“This recognition is well-earned and well-deserved,” Reid said. “We are all fortunate to have such a group of dedicated professionals in Clark County. It is comforting to know that if there is an emergency, our government has an effective plan and top professionals to deal with it.” 

O’Brien agreed: “Everything always looks good on paper, so it was rewarding to see the plans in action (during the Sept. 13 exercise) and see them work so well. This evaluation from DHS is a great validation of our plans as well as the great cooperation and collaboration between the various agencies here.”

The Sept. 13 event, called Exercise Full House, involved representatives from the American Medical Response and Medic-West ambulance companies, the county Fire Department, the Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, the FBI, the Las Vegas Fire and Rescue Department, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the Nevada Highway Patrol, North Las Vegas, the UNLV Police Department, the Southern Nevada Area Communications Council, the Clark County Amateur Radio Emergency Service/Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service and the All Hazards Multi-Agency Operations and Response group, a local multi-agency hazardous response team. The exercise focused on operations during the first four to six hours of a mock emergency during the NBA All-Star Game weekend slated for February.

The high marks on the DHS evaluation ensure that Southern Nevada will be eligible to continue receiving federal money to improve communications systems. During the last fiscal year, $6.5 million in federal grants for interoperable communications were distributed throughout Nevada.

The Las Vegas Strip and many of the venues that tourists visit – such as McCarran International Airport, the Las Vegas Convention Center and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas – are located in unincorporated Clark County. Meanwhile, downtown Las Vegas falls within the jurisdiction of the city of Las Vegas.  If the unincorporated county were a city, it would be the largest in the state. The countywide population is 1.9 million, and 828,406 of them reside in the unincorporated county. The population for the city of Las Vegas is 591,536, representing just less than one-third of the residents of the Las Vegas valley.