Public health emergency preparedness helps ensure our community is ready to prevent, respond to, and recover from emergencies that affect the health and well-being of residents. Working in coordination with the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), Kanabec County Community Health plays a key role in planning for a wide range of public health threats — from disease outbreaks and natural disasters to other unforeseen events.
National Preparedness Cycle
Our efforts focus on building community resilience by implementing the National Preparedness Cycle:
- Plan – Draft operational outlines and identify the specific community health resources needed to navigate potential public health emergencies.
- Organize – Identify response team members and procure necessary safety tools, medical materials, and communication equipment.
- Train – Provide local public health staff, community partners, and volunteers with the exact skills and knowledge required to execute response efforts. These activities help staff and community partners understand their roles and how they relate to one another.
- Exercise – Conduct realistic drills, table-top exercises, functional, or full-scale simulations to practice response procedures, test our communication systems, emergency plans, improve coordination.
- Evaluate and Improve – After an exercise, or emergency response, partners hold a hotwash or debriefing to review and analyze community response capabilities to identify strengths and areas for improvement. Lessons learned are used to update plans, improve training, and better prepare for future emergencies.
Partner collaboration is key in this cycle and connecting residents and organizations with the resources they need before, during, and after a public health emergency. We work alongside local emergency management, health care partners, and community organizations to ensure a coordinated response when it matters most.
Lead Roles
The following are a few examples of key functions in which Public Health Emergency Preparedness takes the lead role:
Health Alert Network (HAN) Advisories
When an event threatens the health of Minnesotans, fast, efficient, and reliable communication to those responding to the event can prevent illness and save lives. Minnesota’s Health Alert Network (HAN) enables public health staff, tribal governments, health care providers, emergency workers, and others working to protect the public to exchange information during a disease outbreak, environmental threat, natural disaster, or act of terrorism.
Infectious Disease Outbreak
An infectious disease outbreak happens when more people than expected become sick from the same or related illness. Outbreaks can occur in the community or in settings such as schools, childcare programs, workplaces, long-term care facilities, and health care settings.
Kanabec County Community Health works with state and local partners to help prevent, investigate, and respond to outbreaks. This may include sharing prevention guidance, monitoring illness activity, supporting testing or vaccination efforts, and helping organizations develop strategies to reduce the spread of disease.
Community Emergency Preparedness Advisory Committee
The Emergency Preparedness Advisory Committee (EPAC) brings together representatives from public health, emergency management, health care, law enforcement, fire/EMS, schools, community organizations, local government, and other partners to support emergency planning and coordination. The committee helps identify local hazards and risks, review emergency plans, ways to improve communication, support training and exercises, and ultimately strengthen the county’s ability to respond to public health emergencies and disasters.
This committee meets quarterly, in-person at the Kanabec County Jail Training Room. If you or your organization are interested in joining this committee, please reach out to, Kate Mestnik at kate.mestnik@kanabeccountymn.gov.
Supportive Roles
The following are a few examples of key functions in which Public Health Emergency Preparedness has a supportive role to broader Emergency Management:
Hazard Vulnerability Assessments
A Hazard Vulnerability Assessment helps Kanabec County identify the risk that could have the greatest impact to the health and safety of residents. The assessment looks at how likely different hazards are to occur, how severe their impact could be, against how prepared the county and community partners are to respond by evaluating the tools and strategies currently in place. This assessment is completed at least once in a five-year cycle.
Severe Weather/Natural Disasters that Affect Health and Wellness
Severe weather and natural disasters can affect health and safety by causing injuries, power outages, unsafe food or water, transportation barriers, poor air quality, and stress. These events may include tornadoes, flooding, winter storms, extreme heat or cold, and other emergencies.
Kanabec County Community Health shares critical information about the hazards and risks they pose in an attempt to educate the community to prevent poor health outcomes.
Chemical Spills and Radiological Releases
Chemical spills or radiological releases may occur because of transportation accidents, industrial incidents, fires, or other emergencies. These events can create health risks by affecting air, water, soil, food, or nearby buildings.
Kanabec County Community Health works with local and state partners to help protect residents during these incidents. Public Health may help share safety information, support response coordination, provide guidance about exposure concerns, action steps for when to seek treatment, and recovery efforts.
Kate Mestnik
Public Health Emergency Preparedness
kate.mestnik@kanabeccountymn.gov