Community Profile

Standard Operating Guideline- West Des Moines
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Standard Operating Guideline- West Des Moines
West Des Moines is a small city in Polk, Dallas. The community in West Des Moines is a small group of people that constitutes 25,261 households. This number of households is quite small compared to the total households in the US which sum up to an estimate of slightly above 300,000,000. Children that are below the age of 18 years and are living with their parents make up a percentage of 79.2%. The household proportion is 2.35, and the family proportion is 2.99. Couples that are living together make up a total of 49.2% while women who did not live with their husbands within the households total to 8.1%. The percentage of children that are below the age of 18 is 23.3%, those that are between the age of 18 to 24 years make up 7.6%, those that are between the age of 25 to 44 years make up 33.1%,those that are between the age of 45-64 years make up 23.5% and those that are above the age of 65 years make up 11%. The median age of individuals is 33.1% which means that the majority of the population are young adults. The median income of the individuals in the community is 70,882 and the income per capita for the city is 39,353. Among the population, 7% of people are living with a disability. People who are estimated to be below the poverty level are estimated to make up 5.7% of the population. Among the old (above 65 years old),4.9% of them are below the poverty level.

Within the community, there are various emergency measures that have been put in place. The emergency services include the Emergency Medical Services, the police department, fire services and Westcom Dispatch Centre. The Emergency Medical Services operate ambulances that provide medical care and transportation away from the hospital. They respond to the urgent need of medical care that is caused by diseases and injury. The West Des Moines Police Department strive to maintain peace and enforce the law. The department has hotlines that are used by the public to report crimes and security issues and the police respond to the distress calls. The fire department is responsible for responding to emergencies where the fire is involved. Fire can as a result of chemical, natural or electrical causes. When a fire is accidentally started, it may lead to loss of lives and the release of harmful gasses into the air and should, therefore, be put off. The Westcom Dispatch Centre is also another center that offers emergency services. It is a center where the public can contact in case of an emergency despite its nature. Therefore, very useful to the people of West Des Moines. It is important to note that these emergency services are available around the clock which enables the public to access its services in case of an emergency.
The community of West Des Moines also has potential hazards. A hazard is defined as a situation that is likely to cause harm or adverse effects to human beings. It can be from a wide range of sources. Some of the hazards that affect the community as classified by the Polk County (2014) report on Multi-Jurisdiction Hazard Mitigation Plan, include the diseases, Hazardous Materials incidents, failure in communication, windstorm, failures in dam, drought, expansive soils, floods, structural fire, tornado, winter storm, thunderstorm, transportation incidents, grass fire and extreme heat. These hazards are from both natural and unnatural sources. Some of the hazards can be avoided by safe practices while others’ effects can only be mitigated. In a previous report by Municipal Emergency Management Plan (2003), the hazards are given different priorities. These priorities are dependent on the hazard’s likelihood to cause harm and to occur. In this report, some of the high priority hazards include diseases, harmful substances, and floods while the second priority has been given to fire, transportation incidences and structural failure. The least priority is given to drought and earthquakes.
The Municipal Emergency Management Plan report also gave some basic principles on how the hazards are analyzed first of principle is the analysis of hazards in accordance to those that are likely to cause harm and loss of life. The second principle is based on the potential impact that the hazard has on the community. Also, there are six aspects of the hazards that are to be considered for its selection. These aspects include: frequency of occurrence, the likelihood of the event reoccurring in the future, the predisposition of the community, the extent of harm that the hazard can cause, the extent of harm that can be caused and the amount time that is required to give warning.
For instance, the release of hazardous material into the environment can cause great harm to the environment depending on it toxicity and corrosiveness. The release of these materials normally affects a specific location and it’s warning time is between 1 and 6 hours depending on how it is transported. Reports reveal that there have been approximately 1738 cases of material release. There is also a high possibility of such events occurring in the future. Hence hazardous materials are considered to be priority hazards and paper mitigation methods have to be used to prevent it.
The mitigation procedure for these hazards vary. Mitigation procedure is a process where the harmfulness of the hazard is reduced. Within the community, several mitigation procedures have been adopted for different hazards. However, before the mitigation process begins, the profiling of the community is necessary so as to give an overall picture of the area. The community profile of West Des Moines recorded by the Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division (2010). The community profile includes of the land of the region, infrastructure, public utilities and pipelines, communication media, water sources, sewerage system, hospitals and individual socioeconomic characteristics. Before the mitigation plan is implemented, it has to be assessed against its the Social, Technical, Administrative, Political, Legal, Economic and Environmental Values(STAPLEE).
Some of the mitigation plans include development of infrastructure to control floods, establishment of safe rooms, sanitary sewer capacity improvements, stabilization of banks, installation of backup generators, land in high-risk areas have been purchased from the owners, installation of outdoor warning, establishment of communications systems and proper renovations and maintenance of the existing public utilities.
In the community, these mitigation plans have been adopted with support from the administrative arms in the region. The weather forecast department works together with the community through early prediction of bad weather. When the community is aware of the weather conditions, then, they can take plan in advance and seek alternative options. The alarm system also works as a warning system so as to give an alarm in case a hazard is an experience. There are also some specific shelters that have been built. They act as safe points of meeting in case a hazard is noted. Public utilities such as hospitals and police stations have power generators just in case there is a blackout. The Westcom Dispatch Centre also acts as a point where emergencies can be reported.
In conclusion, it is noted that the household population of West Des Moines is small. However, they have appropriate mitigation plans for the unexpected hazards.
References
Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division (2010).Iowa Hazard Mitigation Plan. Retrieved from http://homelandsecurity.iowa.gov/documents/hazard_mitigation/HM_StatePlan_Intro_PlanOrg&CommunProfile.pdf
Municipal Emergency Management Plan. (2003). Hazard Analysis Overview. Retrieved from http://memp.wdm-ia.com/Hazard_Analysis_Overview.htm
Polk County (2014). Multi-jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan. Retrieved from https://www.polkcountyiowa.gov/media/103918/3%20Risk%20Assessment.pdf
Polk County, Iowa (2014). Multi-jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan. Retrieved from http://www.dmgov.org/government/CityCouncil/Resolutions/20140728/25.pdf