COVID-19 recovery may take years; Phillips County activates ESF 14

When Phillips County Office of Emergency Management is faced with an emergency and activates the Emergency Operations Center, there are a number of emergency support functions that can be activated to support response activities.

Phillips County's Emergency Manager Bob Heldenbrand activated the EOC at noon on March 11 and it has remained active since. Several ESFs have also been activated, including ESF 14 for long-term recovery.

Just this week, the State EOC began encouraging communities to start their recovery processes, Heldenbrand said, so Phillips County is ahead of the game as ESF 14 has been activated for several weeks now.

The long-term recovery team is led by Trisha Herman, Director of Phillips County Economic Development. She is joined by chamber directors Holly Ferguson of Holyoke and Jenny Oberle-Molina of Haxtun. The team also has representatives from Phillips County Board of Commissioners, City of Holyoke, Town of Haxtun and Eastern Colorado Community Fund.

Folks are already being warned that getting through the coronavirus pandemic itself will be a long process and Heldenbrand pointed out that recovery will take even longer. Government agencies, businesses, organizations and residents may be dealing with the fallout of COVID-19 for years to come.

Every business in county should complete business impact form

One of the duties of the recovery team is to determine priorities based on needs and the availability of resources. In order to help determine Phillips County's needs, business owners are asked to complete a business economic impact survey at https://bit.ly/PC_Business_Impact.

After collecting data, the recovery team will report back to the office of emergency management so that it can coordinate requests for assistance from the state and federal government if local resources aren't sufficient.

"The more data we collect, the more help we can get," Herman said.

Phillips County businesses also have the opportunity to provide information about changes to their hours and services due to the coronavirus for a public directory. Restaurants can report at https://bit.ly/2xqZ5TP. Other retail or service businesses can report at https://bit.ly/3e1qP2b.

Find COVID-19 recovery details specific to Phillips County

In reviewing incoming data from the economic impact survey, Herman was struck by one response in particular. Most people indicated that they felt they were being "somewhat" informed about available resources and information.

Herman saw that as a red flag and is working to provide resources and information so that Phillips County residents are informed about what's available to them.

The one-stop location for information specific to Phillips County's COVID-19 recovery is https://bit.ly/PCED_COVID_resources.

Those who are interested in seeing the lists of modified business hours and services can visit https://bit.ly/PC_Restaurants and https://bit.ly/PC_Retail-Service.

This is, of course, a time of information overload for many people. There are seemingly endless details about loans, insurance, grants, schools, rules, guidelines, applications and orders. Herman encourages anyone who has a question to reach out. She, Ferguson and Oberle-Molina are ready and waiting to help pair locals with the resources they need to keep businesses open through the pandemic and beyond.