By Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


The Howell City Council recently approved a plan designed to help provide guidance in an emergency or a disaster.

The City now has a population of over 10,000, so a Support Emergency Operations Plan was required. The City’s plan is an all-hazards plan supporting the Livingston County Emergency Operations Plan and Emergency Action Guidelines for use in the event of disaster or severe emergency of natural, human, wartime, technological or terrorism origin.

The plan was developed with the assistance of Livingston County Emergency Manager Therese Cremonte as a supplemental plan that corresponds with the current county plan. A memo states that the current shared service model approach makes sense as assorted services are regionalized such as Central Dispatch, the Howell Area Fire Authority and Livingston County EMS.

City Manager Erv Suida told WHMI the City worked in cooperation with Livingston County Emergency Management and actually did a plan did five years ago in anticipation that the City population would be over 10,000. He said they’ve been working with the County team to develop the plan. Suida noted that it’s a really good program that works across jurisdictional lines with the county, city and surrounding townships in case of an emergency and it’s also just good planning.

The Livingston County Emergency Operations Plan has already been adopted by many surrounding communities. The support plans serve to enhance the local emergency response capability and when used properly and updated, assist local government officials to accomplish their primary responsibilities of protecting lives and property in their community.