The Blue Cell Completes Emergency Phase on North Sioux City Flood Event

Denver— August 13th, 2024 —

On June 28th, members of The Blue Cell Technical Assistance Team mobilized and headed to North Sioux City South Dakota to provide managerial assistance to the city and those affected by devastating and unprecedented flooding in the area.  The team consisted of key Incident Command System positions and several Technical Specialists.

The seasoned Blue Cell Team directly assisted with accurate and timely public information, maintained key relationships between County and State officials and organizations collaborating on the disaster, planned for both immediate and long-term operational needs, developed Incident Action Planning elements, decision support products, and technical incident support needs.

Upon The Blue Cell LLC’s arrival on 6/29/2024 the following operational objectives were established:

1. Provide for the safety of personnel and public.
2. Continue infrastructure restoration.
3. Continue law enforcement control patrolling and create relief plan.
4. Assess donation and volunteer management.
5. Begin planning for debris management.
6. Provide timely and accurate information to the public/news media and other agencies providing help.

During the early part of the week of 08/05/2024 the Emergency Phase of the Incident concluded.

The Blue Cell LLC established the following recovery objectives on 08/07/2024:

1. Provide for the safety of workers and residences in the construction zone area.
2. Maintain the security and protection of the project area.
3. Continue the process of communicating with the public on the processes and operations.
4. Follow the FEMA processes related to the recovery missions moving forward.

The Blue Cell, LLC created a number of legacy products for the City of North Sioux City benefit to include a draft of a new local Comprehensive All Hazard Emergency Operations Plan with multiple annexes addressing hazards identified in an updated City Threat Hazards Identification and Risk Assessment (T.H.I.R.A.), a number of emergency management policy change recommendations, recommendations on a review of the emergency notification system and processes, and a briefing on future training and exercise programming.

The Blue Cell Technical Services Team back in Colorado, additionally analyzed, and made useful ten thousand lines of data from the Salamander System that was used for the security of the incident operation. This effort was also critical in accounting for hours that were both worked by professionals and contractors and donated by volunteers.

To conclude this phase of the operation The Blue Cell, LLC facilitated a hotwash with the management team that was established with the goal of producing an executive summary of the incident response in 30 days and a full after-action report in 90 days.

The Blue Cell, now in its 16^th year continues to bring a renewed focus to the understanding and application of the Incident Command System and its usage as a true System of Management thru in-person, virtual and hybrid training, and exercise missions, with high-profile Federal, Local, and Private Sector clients.

For more information contact Jill Filer, Sales and Marketing Manager. Find us at www.thebluecell.com, www.thenimsstore.com or at 800-866-0840 x 3.