Response Organizations

Over the course of the next year, JCEMHS will be coordinating the update of the County Emergency Operations Plan (CEOP). To do this, JCEMHS will be developing 15 multi-disciplinary/jurisdictional planning workgroups to address each of the Emergency Support Functions (ESFs).

If you represent an organization that is involved in disaster response in Johnson County and have an interest in participating in the development of the CEOP, we encourage you to participate in any of the planning workgroups.

To receive notifications for planning workgroup meetings, please fill out the form found here, indicating which planning workgroup(s) you would like to participate in.

Citizen Participation

JCEMHS believes that, to be effective, emergency response planning must be directly linked to the risks and needs of the community it serves. While a great deal of data collection and analysis has taken place to better understand the risks and needs of Johnson County, additional work is needed to ensure our community-wide disaster planning is as accurate and comprehensive as it needs to be. As such, JCEMHS would like to encourage Johnson County citizens to become involved with the planning process. To help facilitate this, JCEMHS has developed the following ways for the public to become more involved in emergency planning.

Public CEOP Planning Meetings: JCEMHS will be holding public CEOP planning meetings every three months until the plan is promulgated. Each meeting will consist of an overview of the current status of the planning update process, a review of any significant changes to the CEOP, and an open discussion regarding any emergency planning issues participants would like to discuss. Please RSVP for the meetings here.

Planning Blog: This blog will highlight planning status reports, working drafts of the CEOP, and provide a forum to discuss elements of the plan. You can also sign up to receive emails each time a new post is added to the blog.

Open Invitation for Feedback: While JCEMHS is always interested in hearing from and working with the community in emergency planning, we are particularly interested in getting a chance to hear your thoughts during the 2009 update of the CEOP. Please feel free to contact the planning department staff at anytime with questions, comments, or suggestions. Contact Chris Brantley, Emergency Management Planner (and CEOP update coordinator) at 913-715-1014 or cbrantley@jocogov.org or Dan Robeson, Assistant Director, Planning, at 913-715-1013 or drobeson@jocogov.org.

The Update of the CEOP

The County's Emergency Operations Plan defines the policies, coordination, and roles and responsibilities required to meet the needs generated by a disaster in Johnson County. It also describes the concepts of operations and emergency processes needed to successfully manage such an event.

While the County's plan is reviewed annually, an intensive update of the plan is performed every four to five years. The last comprehensive update of the plan was performed in 2005 and the current update is rolling out in the summer of 2009. While Johnson County Emergency Management & Homeland Security coordinates the development and maintenance of the the all-hazard emergency operations plan for the County (KSA 48-92 and JC Resolution 64-95 & 23-03), the plan is the product of the combined effort of hundreds of stakeholders that participate in the planning process. To ensure that that the County's plan is as accurate and comprehensive as possible, the 2005 update of the plan involved the development of 17 functional workgroups, each addressing a specific annex of the plan. The membership of these workgroups totaled over 100 representatives from various disciplines and professions representing the private, public, and non-profit sectors and the city, county, regional, state, and federal levels. An even broader process will be used for the 2009 update of the plan.

Find additional information at www.jocoem.org/planning/ceop.shtml.

New JCEMHS Planning Blog

Following in the footsteps of our ever popular Johnson County - A Community Prepared Blog, we have created a new blog that will capture the activities of Johnson County Emergency Management & Homeland Security's (JCEMHS) planning activities.

This blog will be utilized heavily during the next year to share information on the progress of the Johnson County Emergency Operations Plan (CEOP) update. The blog postings will include planning status reports, working drafts of the CEOP, and will provide a forum to discuss elements of the plan.

You can sign up to recieve blog postings via email by entering your email address in the "Subscribe via email" box on the right side of the blog's main page.