Don’t Panic over the Scioto County decision to declare a state of emergency. That’s the message county officials want you to hear loud and clear. What does the Scioto County’s State of Emergency mean to you? County Commissioners have warned that it was on the way for the past couple of weeks. They finally made it official on Tuesday by issuing a declaration.
The official text contains lots of Whereas and Herebys and ends by saying:
“Now then, we the Board of Scioto County Commissioners do hereby declare a Local Emergency in effect until further notice and urge all local citizens to monitor social media and news outlets for the latest in public information. We urge all citizens to learn ways to help sustain social isolation in their households with important information on actions to take to prevent further spread of disease. We also urge all citizens to monitor measures of support to be made available by the Emergency Operation Center including Emergency Public Information.”
I asked County Commissioner Bryan Davis if he could explain what the order means to everyday life in Scioto County.
Davis said, “We do not want to incite panic. The declaration is important as it assures that no stone of preparation is unturned. We have been preparing for weeks for this.”
The Commissioner says Federal and State declarations of emergency have covered a lot of needs, but not all. “What this does is allow EMA, Health, First Responders, and others the leverage needed to go over and above and beyond if necessary in the coming days to keep people safe. It assures that IF funding or materials do come available that does require a local declaration, we are covered.”
Davis says the county likes to be proactive instead of reactive. “Everyone should feel very confident that we are ready for what may come. Many good people are on the front lines, working on the problem 24/7 to prepare. We also hope that the declaration will remind people that we all have a responsibility to help ‘flatten the curve’.”
The order shouldn’t affect your day-to-day life any more than it’s already been changed by the Coronavirus shutdown.
For more stories on what’s happening during the COVID-19 crisis, you can click here.