Boone County Office of Emergency Management to participate in national training course

County officials held a news conference at 1 p.m. Wednesday to announce their acceptance into a training course taught at the Emergency Management Institute in Maryland.

The course is a four-day exercise-based training that simulates crisis situations in a structured learning environment, focusing on the community’s specific hazard and learning objectives.

Terry Cassil, director of Boone County OEM, said he is excited the county was accepted because the course will focus on disasters that are relevant to Boone County.

He said the courses employees usually take are generalized and include scenarios such as flooded subways or tsunamis, which don’t occur in the county.

The Boone County Office of Emergency Management was chosen from applicants all across the country. It’s one of 11 communities across the country to be selected for the course for fiscal year 2018, and only one of three to be invited to take the course at EMI.

To watch the recorded live stream of the news conference, click here.

The federal government will pay for the trip, with the exception of meals.

A group of 75 government employees from all over the county will take part in the November training.