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Office of Emergency Management





Kemper County Emergency Management Agency

Title 33, Chapter 15 of the MS Code of 1972 directs the state and local jurisdictions to establish emergency management organizations. The Kemper County Emergency Management Agency, staffed by a part-time director, is responsible for maintaining the county's Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP) that can be found under the Local Ordinances page on this website. EMA is a coordinating agency that strives to bring all the players of emergency response together for a cohesive response to local disasters. The work of emergency management is to look at the disasters to which Kemper County is vulnerable. Then work with other response agencies to prepare for, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of the various disasters that may strike the residents of Kemper County. KC EMA is the liaison between the local governmental jurisdictions and the MS Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) during disasters.

The Director of KC's EMA wears several other hats. He is the E911 Coordinator for the incorporated and unincorporated areas of Kemper County. In the fall of 2003, Kemper County began its E911 addressing project. All residents, buildings, and most other structures have an E911 address assigned to them. You must secure a valid E911 address prior to establishing utility services to a structure. You will need to contact the E911 Coordinator to have a valid E911 address assigned to a structure. Your local Post Office cannot assign an E911 address. Kemper County's E911 Addressing Ordinance can be located on this website at the Loc al Ordinances page.

In September of 2007, Kemper County, the Town of DeKalb, and the Town of Scooba joined the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The KC EMA Director is the local floodplain manager for the three political jurisdictions in Kemper County. The program makes flood insurance available to residents whose homes are located in a Special Flood Hazard Area. The local ordinance places guidelines on structures that are built in Special Flood Hazard Areas. The local NFIP Ordinance for the various jurisdictions can be found on the Local Ordinances page on this website.

In 2003 the KC EMA Director was appointed as the Homeland Security Coordinator for Kemper County and the two municipalities. "The goal of Homeland Security is Preparedness. Preparedness is reached through performance of four mission areas: Prevent, Protect, Respond, and Recover. Preparedness is not solely owned by the professional community - it is everyone's business." (MS State HS Strategy document)

For more information on any of the areas listed above, you can contact Ben Dudley, KC EMA Director, at (601) 527-2393 or at kemperema@arczip.com. You can follow KC Emergency Management on Twitter by searching for ‘kemperema'.

 

 

Additional Information
FEMA
MS Emergency Management Agency
MS Office of Homeland Security
MS State Department of Health
NIMS Training

KC EMA Director, Ben Dudley

 

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