Next week, Sun Valley-area elected officials and emergency services personnel will sit down to review the valley's response to the Christmas power outage, in which most of Blaine County was left in the dark for a night and a large part of the following day.
County and city officials are likely to do a very good job of analyzing the response of law enforcement, medical emergency and fire personnel. There will be a lot of talk about interagency radio frequencies, communication among professional responders and loads on the 911 emergency phone line.
However, if history repeats itself, officials are unlikely to recognize that the general public needs far more information early on in a major event like the blackout or previous events including the 2007 Castle Rock Fire, various weather events and emergency highway closures.
Even with today's burgeoning numbers of communication channels, widespread communication with the public at large repeatedly has proven to be an afterthought early in local emergency events—when it's most needed.
Elected officials have an opportunity to change that or to finally make it clear that they will not.
They should at least examine what's riding on their decision. A widespread emergency cries for information that is broadly accessible not only to valley residents, but to guests in rental homes and lodges because the valley's economy depends on how well we take care of guests, especially in emergencies.
Residents, businesses and guests need to know in advance when and where to find information beyond 911—for example, where to find warm shelter, food, water and gasoline and where to find frequently updated information on efforts to deal with the situation.
Blaine County has an emergency information plan on paper, put together at the behest of the federal Department of Homeland Security, but it's outdated and unworkable. The public needs information through every possible channel, from text messaging to carrier pigeons, in case some fail.
County and city elected officials should deliver more than lip service to the emergency information needs of the public. They need to devise a workable plan, make it well known to the public and put the proper people in place to execute it.
Otherwise, they should post large notices in every local hotel, condo and business, signed by our city mayors and county commissioners. The notices should read, "In a widespread emergency, don't ask us what's going on. You're on your own."
