Emergency Preparedness

Office of Emergency Management

The Kenai Peninsula Borough Office of Emergency Management (OEM) has the primary day-to-day area-wide responsibility for natural and human-caused disaster management, community preparedness and mitigation planning programs and activities.

The Office of Emergency Management (OEM) was established by ordinance for coordination of disaster management between the Borough, the State of Alaska, other municipalities, and response and recovery organizations. The OEM also provides administrative support to the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC).

The KPB has experienced earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, avalanches, floods, tsunami, fires and winter storms.  We hope you will familiarize yourself with emergency preparedness.

The KPB OEM has the primary responsibility for disaster management programs and activities. The overall objectives for OEM are disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery to all disaster incidents, whether natural or man-made. The KPB is an active location for natural disasters.

The Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) is made up of Borough citizens from all walks of life including industry, local government, police and fire representatives, and others concerned about emergency preparedness at all levels.

The OEM works in conjunction with the LEPC to keep the KPB Emergency Response Plan as a working document which provides a system to manage the preparation for, mitigation of, response to, and recovery from disaster emergencies.

The KPB, in cooperation with FEMA and the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, has completed installation of a all hazard warning siren system in Anchor Point, Homer, Seward, Nanwalek, Port Graham and Seldovia.

The KPB was the first government in the State of Alaska to offer the Community Alert Network (CAN), which was a computerized phone system to warn residents of important information.  With newer mobility technology, this system has been replaced with KPB Alerts. Residents should register their cell phone to associate it with a location for receiving local emergency notifications released by the Office of Emergency Management.

The OEM prepares and distributes emergency preparedness information to the public, informing them how to prepare for emergencies and the suitable actions that should be followed after emergency situations.