TOGETHER WE CAN: A PRIMER FOR RECOVERY 9
department heads throughout the day to ensure
objectives were met, new objectives were identified,
and to ensure we were successful in meeting all
newly identified needs to prepare for potential future
requirements necessary to respond to the ongoing
emergency.
The City’s overall response to the COVID-19
Pandemic was effective and continues to create a
sense of unity and purpose during these challenging
times. The City has diligently worked to provide
guidance to employees and residents as we
prepared for the transition from our emergency
response to recovery. By updating our objectives
daily to coincide with any new developments, we are
confident the City’s efforts will play a major role in
minimizing the impacts experienced by our residents
and business community over the course of this
crisis.
Specif ic Actions Taken To-Date
On Sunday, March 15, 2020, the City’s EOC was
activated to a Level 1 response. During this
activation, Mayor Debra March officially declared a
State of Emergency to be in effect through April 30,
2020. Since the declaration, the City’s EOC has taken
the following actions:
Emergency Response Eff or ts
• Ensured appropriate staff ing levels to maintain
emergency information center operations,
continued to maintain premier level of public
safety services, implemented a procedure for City
personnel to socially separate for 15 days without
having to use annual leave or sick leave.
• Established procedures and distributed 50
thermometers for daily employee check-ins at
City facilities and developed employee return-to-
work guidelines considering evolving CDC
recommendations.
• Developed childcare services for city employees,
health care workers and first responders within
12 hours of activating the Emergency Operations
Center. The Center provided care for 3,985
attendees through May 24, 2020.3
• Completed limited in-field testing with “WebEx”
and “Microsoft Teams” on the Henderson Fire
Department’s (HFD) and the Henderson Police
Department’s (HPD) Mobile Data Terminal (MDT)
to allow for real-time mass field communications
between emergency responders and HPD. The
Communications Center contacted the City’s 911
provider to research the feasibility of remote 911
dispatching utilizing current technology.
• Partnered with Henderson-based company,
Polar Shades, to develop various pieces of PPE
for first responder use, including reusable N-95
Masks with replaceable filters, medical gowns,
and surgical masks. Manufacturing of these items
started the week of March 23rd.
• Ordered additional resources, including: 10,000
finger prick test kits and a few hundred nose swab
COVID-19 tests for employee use. 10,000 KN-95
masks have arrived from another vendor for first
responder use.
• Ordered 3,000 reusable masks for City employees.
• Partnered with Station Casinos to utilize the
Fiesta Henderson parking garage as a Point of
Distribution for COVID-19 Test Kits for the public
with drive through testing capability.
• Performed more than 1,400 COVID-19 tests for the
public over a two-day timeframe.
• Identified 4 hotels that could be utilized on an as
needed basis for quarantine of first responders
who may have become exposed.
• Participated in meetings with the Collecting and
Testing Branch of the Clark County Multi-Agency
Coordination Center (MACC) to support wide-scale
COVID-19 testing and contact tracing and
the Medical Surge Branch in the MACC completed
the development and table-top exercise of the
Clark County Medical Surge plan.
• Based the Battelle Critical Care Decontamination
System at the Henderson Armory. This system
can sterilize up to 80,000 N95 masks per day.
To prevent a shortage of personal protective
equipment, the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) offered Southern Nevada
healthcare providers with a way to decontaminate
and reuse their N95 respirator masks for no
charge.
• Due to the widespread and potentially long-lasting
effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Emergency
Support Function 14 (ESF-14) was activated by the
EOC. ESF-14 is responsible for long-term recovery
efforts. The Long-Term Recovery Team conducted
a variety of recovery-related action items during
the emergency response phase, including: