Emergency Plan

Level 5

City & region

In a real emergency, civil authorities are in charge and have primary legal responsibility for emergency response. Everything the ward and stake do is meant to assist them — and to cover the gap in a major disaster, when local civil resources will not be enough to help everyone at once.

Radio

When the phones are down

If telephones work, use them. If they don't, this is the structure. A fuller version fits on a card by the radio.

Springville City EOC
145.750 SIMPLEX (ham). Stake communications specialists reach the Emergency Operations Center here. Reserved exclusively for command and control between civil authorities and sector (stake) command posts.
Church headquarters
145.370 (ham) through the Lindon Bishop's Storehouse — duplex if the repeater is functional, simplex if it fails. All Church contact with higher authorities goes on this frequency.
Stake to wards
FRS, on the channel matching the stake's assigned sector number. Stakes may instead run their own ham network if licensed operators are available, on a frequency assigned by Springville City Emergency Management.
Block captains to ward
FRS channels 8–14, assigned by the stake. Our ward's channel to be confirmed
Emergency broadcast
KBYU 89.1 FM carries emergency information for this area, repeated on 89.5 to cover valley dead spots and north toward Salt Lake.
KSL 1160 AM
Utah’s statewide emergency broadcast. Named in the ward’s own preparedness notes rather than the regional plan — if one is silent, try the other.
Net schedule
Multi-region net roll call Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. Springville City roll call the first Thursday of each month at 9:00 p.m. Operators test systems at least monthly.

FRS channel plan

OrganizationSectorCommand postChannel
Spring Creek Stake1Near or at stake offices1
Spring Creek South Stake2Near or at stake offices2
Springville Stake3Near or at stake offices3
Hobblecreek Stake4Near or at stake offices4
Kolob Stake5Near or at stake offices5
Springville Dry Creek Stake6Near or at stake offices6
Hobblecreek West Stake7Near or at stake offices7
Sector 1–7 CERT1–7As directed1–7
Springville West Stake8Near or at stake offices4
Mapleton Utah North Stake9Near or at stake offices1
Mapleton Utah Stake10Near or at stake offices2
Sector 8–10 CERT8–10As directed1, 2, 4
Do not use privacy sub-tones. They blank the entire channel and stop the people who could help you from hearing your call. Also: don't use GMRS channels 15–22 except for licensed family traffic, and note that Sectors 1 and 8, and Sectors 2 and 9, share a channel.

Open the radio card

Marking maps and lists

So a marked ward map means the same thing citywide

On sector maps

  • No mark — home or building undamaged
  • A single diagonal line — damaged
  • An X across the building — severely damaged

On name lists

  • Circle the name — missing
  • Check mark, with the need noted in the margin — special needs
  • Double underline — trapped or severely injured
  • Underline and brackets — deceased

When a meetinghouse becomes a shelter

The Church has an agreement with the Red Cross allowing meetinghouses to be used as emergency shelters, but they are not a first choice — limited bathrooms, no bathing facilities. Each use is decided case by case, and may last a few hours or a few days.

Following the procedure is what establishes “official status,” which brings liability protection, possible government reimbursement for supplies and damage, and Red Cross personnel and supplies to run the shelter.

  1. The Red Cross Director of Emergency Services (or, sometimes, local civil authorities) contacts the Area Welfare Manager at Church headquarters to request use of a meetinghouse. If local Church leaders are contacted first, they refer the request to the Area Welfare Manager.
  2. The Area Welfare Manager contacts the stake president, requests permission, and reviews the policies for using the facility as a Red Cross shelter.
  3. The Area Welfare Manager and stake president together contact the Red Cross director, grant permission, and work out the arrangement.
  4. The stake president notifies the bishop of the meetinghouse and assigns members to help prepare and monitor the building.
  5. The Red Cross sends supplies and trained specialists, sets up cots and fixtures with volunteer help, and provides operational management.
  6. All rooms are available except the bishop's office, the clerk's office, and the chapel — those stay locked and watched over. The chapel may be opened at scheduled times for quiet prayer.
  7. The building operates as a shelter until civil authorities say it's no longer needed. The Red Cross returns it to the condition they found it in.
  8. The stake president may ask the Facilities Management Group to assess damage and supply usage, reported through the normal process to Church headquarters.
Home-prepared food cannot be served in a Red Cross shelter. The Red Cross is responsible for having food catered commercially.

CERT

Community Emergency Response Team training is run through the city and is open to anyone. CERT members are the first organized help in a neighborhood, they staff the CERT command post at the stake center, and the ward keeps a current list of who in the ward boundaries is certified. Members are encouraged to take the training; the ward reports the count to the stake quarterly.