entennial, Colo. – Sept. 29, 2022 – Tuesday morning the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHSEM) deployed 13 public safety professionals from our state’s incident management teams and DHSEM to Florida. The 13 individuals will provide emergency operations center (EOC) support to the state of Florida as part of an Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) request for Hurricane Ian. On Monday, DHSEM also deployed a logistics specialist to the Florida State EOC to assist with EMAC resource requests. The 13-member team is assigned to a logistics staging area in Ocala, Florida where they will be responsible for receiving and distributing supplies. They will support Florida for the next 14 days.
EMAC, the Emergency Management Assistance Compact is an all hazards – all disciplines mutual aid compact that serves as the cornerstone of the nation’s mutual aid system. EMAC is the first national disaster–relief compact since the Civil Defense and Disaster Compact of 1950 to be ratified by the U.S. Congress. Since ratification and signing into law in 1996 (Public Law 104-321), 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have enacted legislation to become EMAC members.
DHSEM coordinates EMAC deployments on behalf of the State of Colorado. DHSEM maintains a map of current and past EMAC deployment on our DHSEM website. DHSEM also deployed a voluntary agency liaison to the State of Alaska following the impacts of a tropical storm. Last month three DHSEM staff members deployed under EMAC to Kentucky following their flooding and assisted New Mexico with their wildfires and flash flooding disaster.
Members of the 13-member team deployed from Colorado through the EMAC program to assist the State of Florida.