Whitney Downard / The Meridian StarJesse Murphree, with the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, taught mid- and upper-level city administration about managing resources during a crisis at a training session Wednesday in Meridian. 

Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, municipalities across Mississippi learned an important lesson in record-keeping. 

“Gov. Phil Bryant gives us that call and says, ‘We got that disaster declaration; FEMA’s coming,” said Jesse Murphree, EM Specialist 1 and training coordinator with the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. “Now, how do we show that (emergency responders, city officials) should get paid for all that overtime?”

While in the heat of an emergency, some agencies didn’t document the hours they worked and potentially lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funding, depending on the number of people working overtime. 

“It’s so much easier if we keep the records and keep the documentation from the beginning,” Murphree said. “You’ve got to have a system… if we don’t have managerial control, we lose money. We lose lives. We lose resources and we could lose our funding.”

This week, about a dozen city officials are taking a three-day course at the Meridian Public Safety Training Facility on managing emergencies, such as a natural disaster, active shooter situation or bomb threat. 

For Samuel Shipley, a Master at Arms who serves as a shift leader for security at the Naval Air Station in Meridian, the course served as a refresher.

“A lot of it ties into (previous courses), but it primarily focuses on establishing incident command, how to set up the chain of command and developing in-action plans,” Shipley said. “It’s a lot more of an in-depth process. As a civilian, it’s very easy to sit back and think, ‘Why aren’t they doing this? Why aren’t they going there?’ But there’s a lot more to it.”

Shipley, with nearly 11 years in the Navy, said the station holds its own exercises, such as active shooter exercises or emergency drills, to test their preparation. Having this training ensured that the Navy could practice these skills and learn from their mistakes.

“If not for the training, you’d be completely overwhelmed,” Shipley said. “It’s really important to know.”

In addition to keeping records for funding, Murphree described why people at the scene needed to be documented too, especially first responders who “self-deploy.”

Murphree said a dive team in Oklahoma was trying to retrieve the bodies of a family that had drowned in a lake. 

“One of the guys, who was off for the day, told his wife he felt like he had to go and self-deploy,” Murphree said. “It gets late, by this time most of the other guys have left and he gets into the water.

“Wife gives the chief a call that night and said, ‘He’s not home.’ And the chief had a sinking feeling in his stomach.”

Because the diver never told his colleagues he was on the scene, he drowned and rescuers had to recover his body, Murphree said. 

“As a resource leader, I took this very seriously,” Murphree said. “Because if something happens, I’m responsible.”

Doug Stephens, the director of the training facility, said that, often, volunteers fell into this category as well. 

“A lot of times you’ll get people who self-deploy… and you’ll have hundreds who are showing up for a good cause or the right reason,” Stephens said. “But keeping a record, having them sign in, helps hold those volunteers accountable, too… That way, when things go bad during an emergency we know who we’re looking for.”

Murphree couldn’t speak to media without first seeking approval from public affairs at MEMA, but Stephens gave an overview of the course and its importance to the City of Meridian, which had police officer, firefighters and representatives from Mayor Percy Bland’s office.

“So when you have multiple disciplines all running the same incident… you don’t have multiple opinions but just one voice coming from the group. One set of objectives,” Stephens said.

The system of establishing command taught by MEMA had two big advantages, according to Stephens: it had less duplication of efforts and it was cost effective. 

Laura Carmichael, the community development director for the City of Meridian, also attended the class.

Stephens said that Carmichael could play a potentially important role, should an emergency strike during a city-planned event such as Fourth of July celebrations, downtown concerts or the State Games of Mississippi. 

“Everyone understands that role… and by being in this three-day class together, it’s great because now they have those connections with other agencies,” Stephens said. “If you need support from the county for the city or NAS… you have that relationship.”