Tuesday, March 13, 2007 • Casino employees are FEMA trained in case of an emergency

Publisher’s note: This story originally appeared in the Tuesday, March 13, 2007 edition of the Lassen County Times.

During the Feb. 26 power outage, many of the residents of Lassen County sought refuge from the winter cold at the Diamond Mountain Casino.

The casino and its Mini-Mart, both of which were powered by their own diesel-fueled generators, provided gas, propane, food and other necessities to local residents.

If conditions from the snow and the power outage had gotten worse, however, the casino would still be in a state of readiness, as several of its employees have been trained in courses made available from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

FEMA is an agency that usually responds under circumstances relating to a natural disaster or large-scale catastrophe. A violent tornado in the Midwest or a major earthquake in Southern California — anything involving a large number of medical emergencies or people in need is where FEMA would take over.

Fortunately, Diamond Mountain General Manager Campbell Jamieson said employees at the casino have never had to use their training, and added hopefully they will never have to.

“The tribe and the casino have offered the casino’s facilities to be one of the emergency sectors, should it be required,” Jamieson said. “We do have a lot of what’s needed of one of those facilities, with respect to the power, the backup generator, computer outlets that we’d use should there be any large-scale emergency.”

While it may seem like an added benefit, Diamond Mountain Casino’s Human Resources Manager Bonnie Myers explained the training is actually mandatory in order to not only help manage people from around Lassen County, but particularly the tribal members in the Susanville Indian Rancheria, in the event of a widespread emergency.

Since Sept. 1998, FEMA has had an agreement for a final agency policy for government-to-government relations with both Native American and Alaska Native Tribal governments. This basically means in order for FEMA to give aid to any sovereign nations, they can already have the emergency training made available.

At the casino, about seven employees have received FEMA training in the form of a 3- to 4-hour course taught by Rosellen Bonnie, resource development specialist for SIR.

“For small counties, we’re ahead of the curve,” Bonnie said. “In regards to getting our people trained in compliance with the guidelines for the federal government.”

The employees at the casino have been trained for a little over a year, and in the event a disaster does happen in Lassen County, they are ready to respond wherever needed.