NATCHEZ &8212; The private company hired to review the Natchez-Adams County Emergency Operations Plan has labeled it &8220;incompatible&8221; with federal and state plans.

IEM &8212; hired by the local United Way &8212; presented their findings to the Adams County Board of Supervisors Monday morning. The Baton Rouge-based company worked with 75 states and urban areas on the nationwide plan review after Hurricane Katrina, and has worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state governments in the past.

&8220;You get an A+ for having a plan in place already,&8221; Emergency Management Specialist Jessica Diez said. &8220;You have a good foundation for a plan, it just needs to be updated to reflect the changes since the last revision.&8221;

Diez told the supervisors that the local plan doesn&8217;t align with the September 1996 State and Local Guide 101, a 1999 state revision or a 2004 national plan.

In some cases the wording is different &8212;one says &8220;agricultural and natural resources,&8221; the other says &8220;food,&8221; &8212; she said. In other cases the organizational command structure is wrong.

The local plan also doesn&8217;t list responsibilities for support agencies and volunteer groups like it should, Diez said.

The area needs training in the most up-to-date emergency response terminology and a fully functional Emergency Operations Center, she said.

And the community needs emergency response training, she said.

The representatives from IEM offered recommendations on each of their findings, most of which included developing a plan and operating procedures to fix each problem.

Board of Supervisors President Darryl Grennell said he thought the next step in the process was to arrange a board meeting with Emergency Management Director George Souderes. Souderes was not present at Monday&8217;s meeting and could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.

&8220;I think we need to look at it and see, compare it to what we have,&8221; Grennell said. &8220;I was somewhat dumbfounded by some of the things, according to them, that we were deficient in.&8221;

Grennell said he appreciated the donation of the study by the United Way, and said it is definitely worth reviewing the county&8217;s current plan. He did say the county had been waiting on a revised Mississippi Emergency Management Agency plan that was in the works before changing the local one.

&8220;After Katrina there had to be a whole lot of modifications in both the state and local plans,&8221; Grennell said. &8220;Katrina was a learning experience for everyone.&8221;

Supervisor Spanky Felter said he felt the local plan was probably a good one until Katrina, but may need work now.

&8220;Katrina woke everyone up and now it&8217;s time to do something,&8221; Felter said.

The United Way has plans to present the study to the Natchez Board of Aldermen at their next meeting, but Grennell said he thought the county had to make the first move. The Emergency Management office is a county-run department.

Supervisor Sammy Cauthen said he wasn&8217;t entirely ready to jump on board with a new plan.

&8220;I don&8217;t think we need to abort any plan to start a new one,&8221; he said. &8220;I believe what they say, but I don&8217;t believe our plan is as bad as they think. I think we have to compare both plans and come back with the best of both.&8221;

The United Way of the Miss-Lou spent $49,000 on the IEM review. The money came from local chapter funds, specific donations, grants and donations through a national United Way program, Operation Caring Communities, Director Kathy Stephens said.

&8220;The reason we chose this community impact project was from three community meetings, locals all voted that (a plan) would be top priority,&8221; Stephens said.

&8220;It is well worth the money in our view.&8221;

Stephens said an appropriate plan helps not only save lives but ensure that local charities will receive full reimbursement after the fact, which can help local agencies stay afloat financially.

The next step for IEM will be to lead a &8220;tabletop&8221; exercise with local officials in August, Diez said. The group will work through several emergency scenarios, applying necessary responses.

IEM began work on Monday&8217;s presentation in April. Their findings are not an emergency plan, Diez said, but only a study of the current plan.