BROOKINGS – Should a coordinated local response be needed to address the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, two key local emergency management officers are ready: Brookings County Emergency Manager Bob Hill, with the Brookings County Local Emergency Operations Plan, and Bob McGrath, chairman of the Pandemic Planning Coordination Committee. 

At this point all actions would be driven by Gov. Kristi Noem via the South Dakota Department of Health and flow through the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) here in Brookings. 

“All emergency management is a supporting agency at this time,” Hill said. “Everything going on is based off of the South Dakota Department of Health requirements. That’s where we get our marching orders.” The “trigger pull” needed to set up the EOC would come from the DOH.

“They would be working with our health officials, such as the hospital, the hospital administrator,” Hill further explained. “We think that’s going to be the big trigger, when the hospital starts to get that surge that people are talking about on the news. So far, we haven’t seen the surge anywhere in South Dakota yet.” However, meetings of the agencies that would staff the EOC are ongoing.

Hill added that the EOC is set up at the Brookings Fire Department East Station: “Phones, charts, graphs, we’re ready to rock and roll at a moment’s notice, if we’re required to set up.”

Joint EOC possible

Additionally, the EOC could co-locate with the Pandemic Planning Coordination Committee. 

“We’d be supporting the medical side,” Hill said. “We don’t speak medical. We can co-locate with the medical people, but they have to have their expertise, their public information officer.”

“The pandemic EOC is the medical side of the house,” Hill explained. On my side, I can inform the public on road conditions, where to go for help, but I can’t talk medical. These people can talk medical.”

“We could (co-locate with the Brookings County EOC),” McGrath said; however, it would be in its own EOC. “We get triggered by when the hospital reaches its capacity, is overwhelmed; then we set up an alternate care site out at the Swiftel Center.

“That’s more beds and materials. This would be for either less serious COVID-19 patients or it could even be other illnesses, so patients that need more intensive care could be kept at the hospital.”

However, McGrath did note that while the pandemic committee would have its own EOC, the county’s EOC could assist it if its own operational pace allowed. In that instance, a joint EOC could be set up. 

McGrath has about 80 to 90 volunteers on his coordination committee roster. About 45 of them are active.

“There are plenty of places to get volunteers,” he added. “We can pick up additional staff from industries that are close.

“In our plan, we think that it takes generally about 30 people in all positions to take care of 50 patients. If that goes on for several weeks and you have 12-hour shifts, that involves a lot – a lot – of people.”

“The last time we had an EOC running was probably 2001, when Sinai got hit by a tornado,” said Hill, speaking for Brookings County. “We didn’t have a trailer at the time, so Gov. (Bill) Janklow went out and rented an RV-type trailer. They put it up in Sinai; and we sat there from about 6 a.m. until midnight every day during that cleanup operation. So we anticipate this wouldn’t be any worse than that.”

If there was a need for a “call-in center,” it would be overseen by the EOC, but it would need a spokesperson, “nurse or some medical authority to assist in that call-in center.” Staffing would require about 10 people, with an “incident commander” from the city or county, e.g., the county department director or city manager and personnel to address planning, operation, logistics and finance. Brookings Health System would likely provide a public affairs spokesperson, with the DOH as a clearinghouse for all information released.

Governor, commander-in-chief 

“We have enough materials, stockpiles of medical supplies and equipment, to start with anyway, to set up 96-bed hospital (at the Swiftel Center),” McGrath said. “We have the gowns, the gloves, surgical masks, N-95 masks (respirators), beds (cots).” 

There are no ventilators, he added. And there is a “question mark.”

“All of our supplies are considered ours,” McGrath explained. “But they’re also considered part of the state’s stockpile. If before we got set up the state would come in and use some of our supplies for places that needed them worse, Beadle County or someplace like that, we would have reduced supplies going in. We would always have some.”

He noted that Swiftel Center personnel are aware that the above scenario could come “on short notice.” 

Hill’s and McGrath’s actions follow a chain of command not unlike that used in military operations: the governor is the commander in chief, and they are subordinate commanders.

The geographic area of responsibility for the above plans includes Brookings County and its rural area and smaller communities, with a total population of about 40,000 people.

For an omnibus view of how Brookings County could respond to a disaster preparedness scenario, such as might be applicable to the coronavirus, log on to: bereadybrookings.com.

Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.