Tackling a disaster — be it a tornado, terrorist attack or biological event — takes teamwork, and Douglas County officials want to field a squad of as many as 80 players for an educational road trip next year in Maryland.

Officials hope to score a competitive grant to attend the weeklong Integrated Emergency Management Course, to be conducted at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s training camp in Emmitsburg, Md.

Up to 80 high-ranking police, fire, government and other associated personnel would be on the roster, learning from a common playbook and developing a game plan for succeeding when the community’s resources are tested in pressure-packed emergency situations.

“It’s to solidify our teamwork,” said Paula Phillips, the county’s director of emergency management.

The agency selects 10 teams a year to take part in the exercises, which provide a mock emergency — such as an earthquake, flood or any other pervasive problem requiring a communitywide response — to be addressed by the people in power, from the highest elected officials to the purchasing agents at City Hall.

The idea is to ensure that a community is ready to act when its government is needed most.

“It is required that we act together, that we understand who is responsible for what and what resources each of the agencies have,” Phillips said.

The federal government covers travel and other program costs for a community’s participants, leaving them responsible only for the purchase of food. Phillips said that a weeklong meal ticket, for food in the training area’s cafeteria, would cost less than $100 per person.

Lawrence and Douglas County governments support Phillips’ effort to get officials enrolled in the program. Phillips mailed in the application this week and expects to hear back by June 30.

Jere McElhaney, a Douglas County commissioner, said he was worried that having anywhere from 60 to 80 city and county officials on the East Coast for a week might cost too much.

A few thousand dollars for meals might not look like much, he said, but having top officials away for such a long time could cripple the community’s emergency response should a real disaster arise.

“Who’s going to be around if something happens here?” McElhaney said.

Phillips counters that sending top officials to another state actually would make the most sense. During existing training exercises in Lawrence, she said, officials typically are thinking more about tasks back at the office than the simulated emergency at hand.

Craig Weinaug, county administrator, can’t argue with that.

“During current drills, my attention is about 20 percent there and 80 percent here (at the office),” he said.

In their application letter, David Dunfield, the city’s past mayor, and Charles Jones, chairman of the County Commission, noted that the Lawrence area was among the fastest-growing in the state, and flanked by the state capital in Topeka and the Kansas City metropolitan area to the east.

“The proximity to the metro areas lends itself to possible disaster resources, but the jurisdictional issues of those metro areas also limits accessibility to those same resources,” they said.

Phillips said the county’s unique position could increase the chances of the application being granted.