A conversation with Jim Polk, Senior Emergency Coordinator, St. Charles Parish.
In southeast Louisiana, critical infrastructure is a daily operational reality. Along the Mississippi River corridor, major oil refineries, petrochemical facilities, and a nuclear power plant operate within a landscape shaped by hurricanes, flooding, and complex technological hazards. Preparedness here demands constant vigilance, close coordination with industry, and the ability to respond instantly, whether the threat comes from extreme weather or emerging technologies such as drones.
Ahead of CIPRNA 2026, we spoke with Jim Polk, Senior Emergency Coordinator for St. Charles Parish Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, about operating the only 24/7 Emergency Operations Center in Louisiana, managing industrial partnerships, responding to hurricanes, and confronting new risks to critical infrastructure.
Ben Lane: Jim, thank you for joining us. To begin, could you introduce yourself and outline your current role and responsibilities?
Jim Polk: Thank you and good to be here. I serve as the Senior Emergency Coordinator for St. Charles Parish Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. I’m in my 29th year working in parish government. I began my emergency services career in 1993 with the fire department, where I served as a volunteer firefighter for 20 years.
Today, my responsibilities focus on hazardous materials, technological hazards, and homeland security. I’m also a commissioned deputy sheriff assigned to the Homeland Security Unit within the Sheriff’s Office. That means I handle homeland security investigations and any matters involving our critical infrastructure.
And critical infrastructure is a major part of our jurisdiction. We have 25 major facilities here, including a nuclear power plant and two large oil refineries. The Mississippi River divides our parish down the middle, so we operate on both banks, and much of our responsibility involves coordinating closely with our industrial partners.
Living in southeast Louisiana also means hurricanes are a constant factor. Since I started in 1993, we’ve experienced 42 federally declared presidential disasters in our jurisdiction alone.
Ben Lane: Let’s talk about your Emergency Operations Center. How does it prepare and ready the parish against natural and man-made incidents? And how do you ensure seamless coordination during major events?
Jim Polk: We’re fortunate in several ways. First, we have 11 full-time emergency managers working at our Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and we are the only jurisdiction in Louisiana that operates a 24/7 staffed EOC.
That means we have a dedicated emergency coordinator on duty at all times, above and beyond the 911 center, which is operated separately by the Sheriff’s Office. In many jurisdictions, if something happens at two in the morning, the 911 center has to wake up an emergency manager and tell them something went wrong. Here, we already have someone on duty who can immediately begin coordination and public warning.
That constant presence makes a significant difference. If there’s an incident at one of our industrial facilities, or if we need to issue a public warning, we can act immediately. There’s no delay in response time.
During major emergencies, our Emergency Support Functions report directly to the EOC. That includes fire services, EMS, the Sheriff’s Office, public works, public information officers, and an industrial representative. Everyone is physically present and represented.
We sit down together and assess: What is the incident? Where is it happening? What are we expecting next? Who needs what resources? Who is responsible for each action?
It creates a unified decision-making environment. We’re not passing information back and forth across agencies, we’re all in the same room, looking at the same situation in real time.
Ben Lane: Your parish includes a high concentration of industrial facilities. How does your department work with local partners and industry stakeholders to identify and mitigate chemical and industrial risks?
Jim Polk: We are the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) for our jurisdiction, which gives us a central coordinating role. That helps tremendously in maintaining consistency and oversight.
I also served on the Louisiana Emergency Response Commission, the state-level equivalent of the LEPC, for about 15 years, appointed by two separate governors. Currently, our director serves on that commission, so we maintain strong state-level alignment.
We also host Industrial Mutual Aid meetings here at our facility every other month. I serve as vice chair of that group. These meetings bring together all of our industrial partners to discuss operational concerns, planned plant activities, and lessons learned from recent incidents.
For example, if a facility is planning a major turnaround and will have 5,000 additional workers onsite, we discuss traffic impacts, security considerations, and emergency planning implications. These aren’t abstract conversations, they’re practical, operational discussions.
We also review incidents: what happened, how it was handled, and how we can improve? The president of the Industrial Mutual Aid group is represented on our LEPC, and industry members are always welcome at our LEPC meetings. That continuous information sharing strengthens both prevention and response.
Ben Lane: St. Charles Parish faces significant hurricane and flooding risks. How has your preparedness strategy evolved to address climate-related threats and changing weather patterns?
Jim Polk: Hurricanes are one of our greatest concerns. We have conducted mandatory evacuations of the entire parish five times. Events like Katrina and Ida were devastating.
To put it into perspective, after Ida, about 95 percent of our power poles, lines, and communications infrastructure were on the ground. Roads were blocked. Utilities were severely disrupted. Recovery takes time, and the scale is enormous.
Water is the biggest threat in tropical events. Nine out of ten hurricane-related deaths involve water. So, flooding and storm surge are major priorities for us.
We’ve addressed these risks through levee systems and pump stations designed to manage both storm surge and everyday rainfall. Because our parish is divided by the Mississippi River, we manage both east and west bank systems.
On the east bank, we have an established levee protection system. On the west bank, we are in the process of completing additional levee protections in coordination with a neighboring jurisdiction to ensure comprehensive flood defense.
Infrastructure mitigation takes time and investment, but it’s critical. Preparedness is not just response; it’s building systems that reduce vulnerability before the storm arrives.
Ben Lane: Communication with residents is critical during emergencies. How do you structure your public alerting systems, and how do you measure their effectiveness?
Jim Polk: We describe our public warning system as an onion because it has numerous layers.
The first layer is our outdoor warning siren system. These sirens are designed to alert people who are outdoors that something is wrong. If the sirens sound outside of our scheduled monthly test, the first Thursday at noon, residents know to go indoors and seek further information.
The next layer is our telephone alerting system, which residents can sign up for. We can issue targeted geographic alerts, drawing boundaries on a map and notifying only the affected population.
We also use the Wireless Emergency Alert system, which sends notifications through cell towers. If you’re connected to a tower in the affected area, you’ll receive the message, even if you’re just passing through from another country.
Beyond that, we rely on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, managed by our public information officers. We also operate a 1-800 hotline that provides up-to-date recorded information 24/7 during emergencies.
By layering these systems, we increase the likelihood that residents will receive and understand emergency information.
Ben Lane: Looking ahead, what emerging threats are you most focused on, and how are you preparing to address them?
Jim Polk: Right now, the biggest emerging concern for us is drones.
We’ve been actively addressing drone-related issues since 2017. I currently serve as the parish’s Counter-Drone Program Director. We deployed a monitoring system in 2020 and have been operating it since.
Drone regulations are complex because federal and state authorities overlap. We’ve worked at the state level to adjust laws that support enforcement related to critical infrastructure protection.
We’ve made approximately 14 arrests for unauthorized drone activity over critical infrastructure, including cases involving foreign nationals.
We closely monitor what’s happening internationally, particularly in conflict zones where drones are being used in new ways. We want to understand emerging tactics before they appear here.
Drones represent both innovation and vulnerability. For jurisdictions like ours, with concentrated critical infrastructure, counter-drone strategy is now a core part of homeland security planning.
Ben Lane: Finally, as you prepare to participate in CPR 2026, what message would you share with fellow critical infrastructure professionals?
Jim Polk: Preparedness is about relationships and readiness.
You can build infrastructure, deploy technology, and write plans but ultimately response depends on people working together in real time.
Operating a 24/7 Emergency Operations Center, maintaining strong industry partnerships, layering communication systems, and anticipating emerging threats such as drones — all of that reflects a commitment to staying ahead of risk.
In a parish like ours, where hurricanes, industrial hazards, and critical infrastructure intersect daily, we don’t have the luxury of reacting slowly. Preparedness is constant.
I’m looking forward to sharing experiences at CIPRNA 2026 and learning from others who are facing similar challenges across North America.
Ben Lane: Thank you for your time and we look forward to seeing you in Baton Rouge March 10-12, 2026.
Jim Polk: Thank you.
Jim Polk will join leaders from across the critical infrastructure community at CIPRNA 2026 to discuss operational resilience, emergency coordination, and emerging threat mitigation in high-risk environments.