Denver unveils updated plans to "save the city" in the event of an emergency
Underneath Denver's City and County Building is a nuclear bunker that has become Denver's emergency operations center. It's staged to house city officials to "save the city" in the event of a worst-case scenario.
"Here we do logistics, planning, operations, and communications, along with finance and liaison," explained Loa Esquilin-Garcia, the communications manager for the Office of Emergency Management.
Denverites can rest assured that there's a plan in place for just about any type of emergency. The Office of Emergency Management recently published its Emergency Evacuation Plan inside its overall Emergency Management Plan, which went through several rounds of edits and includes an updated list of 18 potential threats to individuals in the city.
"We bring partner agencies from the city; some are state agencies that help us inform the writing of this plan," Esquilin-Garcia said.
For the first time, the department is looking through the lens of threats like wildfires, especially after our state has faced some of its driest conditions, and cyberattacks.
"We need to make sure our services are in place to deal with every kind of hazard."
And now that the plan is finalized, the next stage is practice making sure everyone is prepared.
"One of the ways we will use this plan is we need to alert people. How do we alert people? Where do we tell people to go? And it's a big component of this plan," Esquilin-Garcia said.
And those working to organize plans to "save the city" during emergencies want to reiterate -- there's also an element of personal responsibility to it all.
"Have a plan, build a kit, stay informed, and interesting enough, that's the same thing we do as a city. We have a plan, we practice our plan, and we stay informed. We review our plans to make sure we're up to date on what to do, what resources we have available for our residents."
Denver residents can sign up to receive alerts in the event of an emergency here.
