"Every disaster is come as you are. If you're not ready right now, don't tell me what you're going to be doing a month from now, don't tell me what's on order, don't tell me who's coming on board, don't tell me what training course you're going to have. What are you ready to do right now?"
- Craig Fugate, FEMA Director
A free-standing law, the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA) is commonly known as SARA Title III. Its purpose is to encourage and support emergency planning efforts at the state and local levels and to provide the public and local governments with information concerning potential chemical hazards present in their communities. To comply with SARA Title III, a Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) was formed by an Accomack Board of Supervisors resolution in 1988. This committee was made up of local officials, citizens, and industry representatives charged with development and maintenance of emergency response plans for the county. Planning procedures included hazardous materials inventories, plans, hazardous material response training, and assessment of local response capabilities.
In 2003, the committee responsibilities were expanded by taking an all-hazards approach to emergency response and becoming regionalized by merging with Northampton County’s LEPC. This expanded and merged group is the Eastern Shore Disaster Preparedness Coalition (ESDPC). With the Coalition’s scope expanded, so too did its range and number of members. The Coalition is open to any entity – private, government, or volunteer – that has a role in Eastern Shore emergency response. In addition to being an outlet for information exchange among members, the Coalition oversee preparedness information dissemination to the public, promote required emergency response training for its members, and collaborate on emergency response exercises.
More information on the Coalition can be found in the Partnerships section of this website.
From the Eastern Shore Post, August 13, 2010
Disaster Preparedness
Coalition Lauded
Pictured (from left) is Ellen Archer, Eastern Shore MRC Coordinator; Linda Rubin, Virginia Citizen Corps Program Manager; and J.J. Justis, Eastern Shore CERT Coordinator.
Virginia Citizen Corps recently recognized outstanding volunteers as part of its new SuperStar Awards program. The Eastern Shore Disaster Preparedness Coalition (ESDPC) won the Superstar award for the Most Effective Citizen Corps Local Emergency Planning Committee. The ESDPC acts as an all-hazard local emergency planning committee for Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Members represent more than 45 entities, both public and private, creating some unique partnerships among Citizen Corps programs and the community. The ESDPC has helped plan for Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) and Medical Reserve Corp (MRC) volunteers to assist with and/or operate mass dispensing programs, commodities distribution sites, and emergency communications after a disaster.
