GET AHEAD - STAY AHEAD

Ukiah, CA, is a relatively small town and the county seat in Mendocino, CA. The town is home to just over 16,000 people and has been repeatedly subject to devastating floods and wildland fires. The town has also experienced significant drought, earthquake, power outages and a number of less frequent but serious emergencies and disasters.

For years, Ukiah attempted to assign emergency management as collateral duty for a police chief or community services administrator, with guidance to spend an hour or two a week on achieving emergency management objectives. Two years ago, Ukiah subscribed to Complete EM. Since then, the city has updated it's emergency management code, received city council approval for an emergency operations plan with incident and functional annexes, organized an emergency operations center team of over 30 department representatives, re-established it's emergency operations center, conducted numerous trainings and began a series of functional exercises to practice response. Perhaps most notable of Ukiah's EM success is the very evident support of its city manager and department directors who look forward to challenging functional exercises and both the capacity-building and after-action ideas they provide. In July 2021, Ukiah's Emergency Operations Center participated in another functional exercise to practice communication, information management, decision-making, and coordination needed to order and facilitate the simulated evacuation of thousands to address the city's perennial and serious wildland fire threat.

Each year, Complete EM attempts to check in with every county and major city emergency management organization in the United States. Judging from these calls, we estimate less than 10% of communities in the U.S. have been able to achieve and maintain a level of preparedness that the City of Ukiah does with a part time emergency manager who attributes much of her success to Complete EM software and the program development support we provide. Congratulations, Ukiah, on your noteworthy accomplishments and willingness to demonstrate what a town of 16,000 can accomplish with the proper mindset, tools and approach.