A photo posted by County Commissioners Vice Chairwoman Sue Lee shows county department heads reviewing storm updates in the Emergency Operations Center last week during Tropical Storm Debby. City officials were not immediately included in discussions on the weather event.
City officials express concern over county’s failure to include them in early weather talks
As Tropical Storm Debby drenched Sampson County, and most of the Carolinas, last week, the communication between county government and Clinton officials seemed to dry up.
A lack of communication by the county with city officials — including the mayor’s office, police chief, and the Clinton school district — as it related to early storm preparation has left city officials wringing their hands and wondering what was actually going on in terms of planning..
“We were not invited into these conversations,” said Clinton Schools Superintendent Dr. Wesley Johnson, something, he said, had not happened during past storm planning.
Clinton Police Chief and Public Safety Director Anthony Davis was also left in the dark, having received no emails or phone calls by the time Debby began to lurk over southeastern North Carolina.
Davis said during past storms a group email from the Emergency Management office would be sent to stakeholders and possibly a video call would be held. Then the county would communicate with the city about roads, shelters, and any other updates as it was occurring. He stressed that if the county wants to use facilities then it is critical that they contact the school system and the city, something that didn’t readily happen last week.
Davis also noted his disappointment in the total lack of communication from the county to the city. “We need to be involved,” he asserted.
On Aug. 7, Johnson reached out to the county via email stating his aggravation in the lack of communication, noting he was aware of the possibility of shelters opening, but had no concrete information on anything definitive. “As the school superintendent who is making plans and preparations for over 400 employees and 3000 students, I need to be part of these discussions or at least receive a phone call/email/text from someone from Emergency Management,” he wrote in an email to county officials.
That email continued: “How am I to make preparations and decisions about the safety of my students, families and staff without any knowledge or contact with our experts? As of this email, I have had absolutely zero communication with anyone from Emergency Management.”
In the further email exchange between county, school, and city officials, county Emergency Management coordinator Jared Rouse replied: “The decision to open shelters rests on our control group as outlined by the County Emergency Operations Plan which is approved and was updated and adopted by the county commissioners in 2019.”
The members of the Emergency Management control group are all county departments, which include the county manager, Department of Social Services director, the health department director, the county public information officer, Emergency Services director, finance director, and the public works director.
No city or school officials are included on this team.
County Manager Ed Causey said the county administration will always add the city to the communications, but the control group is for the entire county, not just the city. But, he added that including them (the city) in the future, “is a reasonable situation,” when involving large disasters such as tropical storms and hurricanes.
“We will do everything we can to minimize future challenges.” Causey added.
Everyone agreed that in previous emergency storm situations the county and the city communicated very well, acting efficiently to handle previous natural disasters.
But the lack of communication during Debby caused pause for city officials.
“It was very concerning,” said Clinton Mayor Lew Starling. “We take pride being ready for these weather events. We’ve always had a very open line of communications with the county. This particular time that didn’t occur as it elates to the city — and we were ready — but there was a communication breakdown.”
Starling continued, “We’re going to see where the problem exists, but there was a significant breakdown in my judgement, and thankfully it worked out.”
With Clinton having the largest water supply and the hospital within its city limits, the mayor said he hopes the county will rethink that situation when it concerns the control group.
In a continued email exchange on Aug. 7 between city officials, the city school system and the county administration, Rouse acknowledged a lack of communication, saying, “We will endeavor to communicate with everyone even when it doesn’t seem like much will happen. I understand that a lack of communication can create a vacuum in decision making.”
Rouse continued, “Moving forward I will ensure that we are keeping open lines of communication. We certainly understand it requires a group effort to accomplish this operation.”
Yet, according to city officials, when it was brought to their attention, the county still had a control group meeting and excluded city officials.
“We were surprised that they had these meetings and didn’t notify us.” Starling added.
But County Manager Ed Causey said there was no intent to cause problems.
“I really appreciate everyone’s concern.” Causey said. “There was no slight towards anyone.”
Causey said in hindsight, “It would have been a good idea to send out an email.
“We will do everything we can to minimize future challenges,” he added.
County Commissioner Chairman Jerol Kivett defended the actions of the county control group, explaining, “There is written protocol that they follow, and one thing they were trying to determine was how severe this was going to be and once they got the preliminaries of it completed they would call others in, and begin opening shelters.”
Kivett, who was out of town for a county commissioners’ conference during the weather event said from what he was told the county personnel followed the protocol very well and the outcome worked out well for everyone in the end.
Starling spoke very highly of Kivett, and said several calls were made between the two of them since the situation, reiterating they would work on solving the communication issue
“I hope they will reconsider that control group to include police and fire in Clinton,” the mayor asserted.
A state of emergency was declared in 28 counties, including Sampson, as a result of Tropical Storm Debby, which resulted in a tornado in Harrells and over 100 road closures in North Carolina.
Chuck Thompson can be reached at cthompson@www.clintonnc.com or on the Sampson Independent’s Facebook page.