The Office of Preparedness is comprised of Planning, Training, Exercise, and Radiological. The office operates with a regional concept offering preparedness efforts in the Northern, Central, and Southern regions. Each region is responsible for providing emergency planning assistance, instructing State and Federal level courses, develop and facilitating exercises, and provide training to assist with responding to a release of radiological material.
The Regional Offices provide emergency planning assistance to state agencies and local governments to include the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, as well as regional and national emergency planning initiatives. All these efforts are directed at preparing local communities with effective planning tools utilizing an all hazards approach. Each office provides guidance for the following specific plans:
- Northern Region: Focus on Earthquakes
- Central Region: Focus on Radiological
- Southern Region: Focus on Hurricanes
- Preparedness Division: Focus on Major Plans (Comprehensive Emergency Management Plans-CEMP)
The Office of Preparedness offers a wide range of emergency management and first responder training for all levels of government, private industry and volunteer organizations as well as the whole community. Courses are offered state-wide by a team of preparedness officers instructing in a field environment or a virtual platform.
Course instruction may be offered in the following categories:
- Emergency Planning
- Basic Emergency Management
- Mitigation
- Preparedness
- Incident Command
- Response and Recovery
- Radiological Response and Recovery
- Community Emergency Response Teams
- Hazardous Materials Incident Response
Information on the Certified Instructor Program can be found here.
The Office of Preparedness also provides opportunities to test and validate core capabilities and address areas of improvement. All exercises are HSEEP compliant as this is a part of preparedness. Exercises strengthen the whole community to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from all hazards.
This Office of Preparedness also provides radiological emergency response training to state, tribal, and local agencies through the Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program, Waste Isolation Pilot Program and Modular Emergency Response Radiological Transportation Training Program.
Bureau Directors’ Contact Information:
Northern Region Director – Susan Hardy:
- Phone: 601-933-6364
- Email: shardy@mema.ms.gov
Central Region Director – Charles Lewis:
- Phone: 601-933-6355
- Email: clewis@mema.ms.gov
Southern Region Director – Ramous Austin:
- Phone: 601-933-6360
- Email: raustin@mema.ms.gov
Preparedness Branch Division Director – Katrina McLin
- Phone: 601-933-6348
- Email: kmclin@mema.ms.gov
Administrative Support – Latunya Thedford
- Phone: 601-933-6887
- Email: lthedford@mema.ms.gov
For more information about the Office of Preparedness, please contact Office Director, Loretta Thorpe at 601-933-6601 or lthorpe@mema.ms.gov.