Leon County Updates Emergency Management Mutual Aid Agreements

At the last Board meeting, the Leon County Board of County Commissioners voted to approve the renewal and update of the Florida Division of Emergency Management’s Statewide Mutual Aid Agreement. The agreement is between local governments in the state of Florida which will enable reciprocal emergency aid during disasters. Currently, disasters where aid is given are emergencies judged too great to be dealt with by the county independently.

Leon County has participated in the agreement since 1995 and has been aided by other counties during disasters such as hurricane Hermine in 2016, Hurricane Irma in 2017, and Hurricane Michael in 2018. Equally, Leon County has assisted other counties during those storms and many others.    

The Florida Division of Emergency Management has made updates to the Mutual Aid Agreement to include a wider range of coverage for aid. The updates for the Statewide Mutual Aid Agreement are to include the ability to activate the agreement without any declaration of a state of emergency. This will include smaller incidents as well.

Furthermore, the update will require all requesting entities to agree to reimburse the supporting parties per the terms agreed upon prior to any aid being provided. These updates will replace the current version of the agreement that was executed in 2001.