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CASS LAKE - Cass County Board approved a new version of the county's Emergency Operations Plan Tuesday night.

Kerry Swenson, county emergency management director, informed the board he updates the plan every four years. This time, he completely rewrote the plan to make it shorter, easier to follow and simpler.

The plan would be implemented in the event of natural or man-made disaster or terrorism, which would pose a threat to citizens and visitors.

This ranges from tornados, fires and floods to explosions, hazardous materials spills, explosions and transportation disasters. It also would be implemented in the event of chemical, biological, radioactive, nuclear or explosive device detonation.

The board agreed Tuesday to include cities as well as rural areas in the plan.

County commissioners or city mayors will oversee command and control, with the sheriff assigned to head public information and oversee safety. The emergency management officer will be chief liaison officer, manage the emergency operations. A lead officer will be assigned to incident command.

Operations, depending on the incident type, will be assigned to the sheriff/police departments or fire departments or Minnesota DNR, ambulance services, county public health or highway department.

As the plan takes effect during an emergency, the sheriff will take over communications; the ambulance services will implement medical services; public health will provide food; county maintenance will oversee facilities and supplies; and the highway department will oversee transport.

Financial impact from the disaster will see the county engineer assessing damage to public property, the assessor determining damage to private property. Secondarily, the auditor, planning and zoning and the land department will make assessments, along with mayors, town supervisors. The emergency management director will coordinate these assessments.

The county auditor will oversee time, cost, procurement and compensation.

As a part of training for plan implementation, Swenson will hold a dry run this fall to test department heads' and municipal officials' knowledge about their role to implement the plan, so they will be prepared to take action should a disaster occur.

A complete copy of the Emergency Operations plan will be posted on the county website at www.co.cass.mn.us.

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