Natchitoches Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness are here to serve the citizens of the Parish through effective planning for natural and man-made disasters. Our goal is to save lives and to protect property through the coordination of an integrated emergency management system with all emergency response organizations, support services and volunteers.

• We will be an advocate for greater community efforts, including educating the general public to mitigate and prepare for potential emergencies.

• We will support efforts to train and exercise emergency responders in both the public and private sectors.

• We will manage and coordinate efforts toward a rapid recovery from disasters with an effective disaster response and recovery plan.

• This office will be the point of distribution of Homeland Security information and intelligence to agencies throughout the parish. We are committed to effective actions designed to prevent some disasters to reduce the impact of those over which we have not control.

Being prepared for unforeseen events allows the NPSO to adequately react, respond, support, and provide law and order during such an event.

The Natchitoches Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, which is administered by the NPSO, remains ready to deploy resources during emergencies and to provide information to citizens.

Emergency Notifications

During an emergency event, OHSEP communicates emergency information and notifications to the citizens of Natchitoches through local television and radio media as well as social media.

“Whenever we post emergency information on our social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, citizens immediately share the information with their social contacts, which enables the information to get out faster,” said Deputy Mary Jones.

In addition to utilizing media to communicate critical information to the citizens of Natchitoches Parish, the NPSO also provides immediate emergency alerts to citizens through CodeRed. CodeRed is a free service that provides instant emergency notifications via cell phone text, land line phone calls or emails.

“We now have nearly 12,000 citizens signed up to receive emergency notifications from CodeRed. We continue to promote the service at all civic meetings, schools and on our website,” said Dep. Jones

Outreach and Education

OHSEP also works closely with the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness in implementing the state disaster plan for action and evacuation. In this capacity, OHSEP provides outreach education by promoting “Get A Game Plan”, which is the official plan for emergency preparedness for citizens in Louisiana. For more information on “Get A Game Plan”, visit www.getagameplan.org OHSEP also provides informational workshops to the public and training to the citizens. The topics of the workshops offered go beyond preparing for natural disasters and include topics such as identifying and preventing school based threats, reacting to railroad accidents, neighborhood watch meetings, and responding to outbreaks of infectious diseases.

Additional Links

• 5 Tips to Keep Your Family Safe This Hurricane Season
• CodeRed Phone Alerts

Sign Up for CodeRed Alerts