The Sokaogon Chippewa Community is developing a plan to prepare for natural disasters or other emergency scenarios near Mole Lake.
The tribe has received a $45,000 grant from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to put together a task force…which met for the first time this week.
Environmental Director and task force member Tina Van Zile says the tribe doesn’t have much in place in terms of emergency management, and the plan will help coordinate existing agencies.
“Let’s say a tornado did hit the community. With this plan and task force members, we would know what to do, what we’re each responsible to do.”
Van Zile thinks the plan could identify weak areas in the tribe’s potential response…and could be the basis for future grant applications to improve programs or infrastructure.
“Like if we want to get more EMTs or first responders – we hardly have any in the community. So that’s something we already addressed that, wow we don’t have enough trained people to even be first responders.”
The task force is consulting with community members as well as the North Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission for input on the plan.
The task force will meet three more times, and hopes to have a draft of the All Hazards Mitigation Plan by April.
