Mission

Oakland County Emergency Management, through coordination with all county, city, village, township, and private stakeholders, will ensure that Oakland County is prepared to respond to and recover from all natural and human-caused disasters.  We will provide the leadership and support to reduce the impact on life, property, and the environment through an equitable program of prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery.

Vision

Oakland County Emergency Management in cooperation with our public, private, and volunteer organizations, will maintain and improve our capacity to successfully mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies and disasters. We will achieve our goals through effective planning, resource management, and a rigorous training and exercise program.

• Identify and assist in the mitigation of natural and human-caused hazards.
• Maintain Oakland County’s Emergency Operations Plan to build on and complement the existing operational policies and procedures of local emergency response agencies, ensuring plans are inclusive of the whole community.
• Maintain a five-year training program that develops and maintains necessary emergency management skills, including frequent local and federal training and conducting exercises to test county emergency response plans and procedures.
• Gather and disseminate information to the public, media and local government agencies to assist in the preparation, response and recovery from major emergencies and disasters, ensuring that the delivery of all public information is equitable and inclusive.
• Provide direction and coordination to identify and manage resources and activities between local, state and federal government required to assist local authorities during emergency and disaster responses.
• Comply with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Michigan State Police Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division (MSP-EMHSD), and Urban Area Strategic Initiative (UASI) requirements for receipt of program funds.
• Work with volunteer agencies within the community to promote and enhance their response capabilities, ensuring that they are diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

Emergency Management Phases

Prevention – includes actions taken to avoid an incident, stopping an incident from occurring and deterrence operations.

Preparedness – includes plans or preparations made to save lives and to help response and rescue operations.

Mitigation – includes any activities, either before or after an emergency, that prevent an emergency, reduce the chance of an emergency happening, or reduce the damaging effects of unavoidable emergencies.

Response – includes actions taken to save lives and prevent further property damage in an emergency. Response is putting plans into action.

Recovery – includes actions taken after an emergency to return to a normal or an even safer situation following an emergency.

Operation W.O.W. in Downtown Rochester

On Sept. 17, 2024, Oakland County Emergency Management hosted Operation W.O.W. – a regional full-scale disaster exercise in downtown Rochester.

The exercise, which was held at the Rochester Fire Department Training Center, lasted about 12 hours and included about 175 people from various agencies, including Western Wayne Urban Search And Rescue, MI MABAS, MI Task Force 1, Oakland County IMT, Livingston County Incident Management Team, Oakland County North and South Technical Rescue Teams, MI MABAS Red Center (Dispatch), and Detroit Fire Department.

The scenario for the exercise was an explosion on the lower level of an apartment building, including the collapse of a portion of the main tower of the building. The exercise was motivated by the incidents that occurred in the 2021 Surfside Condo Collapse in Miami, Florida. 

The exercise was significant for many reasons. It allowed many first responder teams from across Southeast Michigan, who don’t frequently train together, the opportunity to work on a large-scale disaster. This also allowed the teams to train on unique situations set up in an expanded time period under simulated real incident conditions.

Andrew Zaccagnini, from Oakland County Emergency Management, was one of the Incident commanders for the exercise, “While Oakland County has an abundance of resources, major incidents can quickly deplete those,” he said. “In that event, Oakland will be requesting resources from outside our county to assist. Meeting these teams and building relationships during blue-skies days, allows us to integrate and respond more efficiently during a disaster.”

This exercise was also important for Oakland County’s Incident Management Team (IMT). The team has been increasing in membership and working on honing their skills to help be deployed during disasters. The full-scale exercise focused on the IMT’s resource management and how to prepare for and transfer command to incoming teams for additional operational periods working on a disaster.

When asked what difficulties arose during the exercise, Zaccagnini said, “Different teams handle different scenarios in various ways. Understanding that there is more than one way to approach different topics is vital to success.”

Oakland County was incredibly thankful to all the partners who participated as well as the exercise sponsors that donated materials, food, supplies, and their time, including Dillman & Upton, Hungry Howies in Downtown Rochester, Doran Excavating, and Peklo Portables. Without their help, this exercise would not have been possible.