By Stephen Smoot
No one serving in an Office of Emergency Management capacity wants to see their place of work in the news, even during National Emergency Management Awareness Month, which was in August.
This year, they have appeared quite a bit. Snow and ice storms in winter, withering drought for most of the spring, then a summer of seemingly never-ending rain storms with high winds and fast-rising waters. In each instance, an office of emergency management team helps to coordinate on the local level and connect with other localities and also the state and federal government.
Like its counterparts statewide, the Harrison County Office and other local offices of emergency management operate along different tracks to help enhance the safety and security of residents and businesses as much as possible.
They do this by functioning in three time spaces. They analyze the past for data and the effectiveness of policies and measures in times of emergency. They coordinate emergency responders and link with local, state, and federal officials. Offices of Emergency Management also prepare and plan for future threats, both known and unknown.
Most people rarely see or engage with county OEM officials, but when disaster strikes they are by necessity at the center of the response.
West Virginia State Code 15-5-8 establishes local offices of emergency management. Original legislation for state emergency authority passed in 1951 with updates over the decades. This section of code reads that “each political subdivision of the state is hereby authorized and directed to establish a local organization for emergency services in accordance with the state plan and program for the provision of emergency services.”
Furthermore, the state directs that the organization “consist of a director and a local emergency services council” of five members.
Offices of Emergency Management came to the forefront during tragic and destructive flooding this summer in Lewis, Upshur, and other counties.
Upshur County refers to their OEM as Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. During the recent flooding, they and other affected counties first shared official National Weather Service warnings, then boil water advisories for public service districts overwhelmed by flood waters. After the waters receded came regular posts and updates. Some directed residents to immediate help while others informed of disaster response programs for which they could apply.
Officials used the Facebook page to help coordinate relief efforts from both inside and outside the area as well. They passed along requests from state agencies, such as the West Virginia Conservation Agency’s request to identify areas where debris had formed obstructions in streams
That all said, coordinating and communicating during disaster response is about one-third of the job.
According to the International Association of Emergency Managers, the role of OEM and its officials “is not the same profession it was 20 years ago and it won’t be the same profession 20 years from now.” It added that “the role continues to expand beyond response.” With “challenges facing communities changing” and the regular enhancement of technology and tactics, “preparing for what comes next will require emergency management to keep training.”
The organization added that “it’s the year round work of reducing risk, bringing partners together, coordinating resources, and helping people, organizations, and communities prepare for, respond to, recover from, and move forward after a disaster.”
As required by law, County emergency management officials coordinate quarterly with Local Emergency Planning Committees. These are generally composed of county and city/town representatives, members of local law enforcement, fire, and EMS, the area power company, and others whose fields touch emergency planning or response.
LEPCs gather data and strategize. For example, they use studies from state highway officials to determine the frequency of trucks carrying hazardous materials on the highways. Then they will put together drills to practice response if one of those vehicles has a catastrophic accident. In LEPCs come discussions about responses to floods, wildfires, wind disasters, and other challenges, as well as how better to plan for the future.
Keeping authority and decision-making local ensures that each county has the opportunity to tailor its actions and policies to its unique combinations of conditions.
OEM officials have the responsibility to anticipate future issues, even those that have no precedent. For example, Pendleton County Emergency Services Coordinator Rick Gillespie has in recent years worked with federal officials overseeing the National Radio Quiet Zone, successfully negotiating to reform rules that hamper modern emergency communications. He also secured county commission support to purchase additional gauges on local rivers to measure streamflow and provide early warnings of flooding.
Another initiative came after the discovery that the South Branch River in the county seat of Franklin had seen a rise in the riverbed level due to the accumulation of debris that federal laws and regulations make difficult to address, making flood zone maps potentially dangerously obsolete. Gillespie successfully spearheaded an effort to move county and state offices from a government building now threatened by floods to a decommissioned elementary school on higher ground.
Local OEMs and officials also will combine efforts to plan regional responses based on pooled resources or mutual aid.
The hard work undertaken and risks faced by first responders in a disaster should rightfully always earn them praise. Their success and efficiency, however, often relies on months or even years of planning by the team at the local Office of Emergency Management.
