Over the past several months, working as an Emergency Manager in a small County has provided more time in the lime light than I think anyone ever imagined. After a winter that seemed to bring an endless amount of snow, to ice jam concerns, record breaking rainfall in the spring causing flash flooding, snow melt causing high water all the way into the middle of July, and now the heat setting in causing fire danger to increase drastically, emergency and disaster situations seem to have just melded together. Mix in an Oil Spill on the Yellowstone River, luckily not in my county, but we still responded with mutual aid on the original night, and I hope we begin to see that being an Emergency Manager or DES Coordinator as referred to here in Montana, is more than a part time position. If done right, there is plenty of work that needs to be done long before any of the disasters or emergencies happen.
Anyone that doesn't understand the amount of time an Emergency Manager puts into reading, researching, writing, testing, plans and procedures to make things run smoother during an actual incident, needs to just spend a couple days understanding what we do. Building relationships and "not exchanging business card over a disaster" takes a real commitment to make sure proper contacts are kept up to date, and current when they are needed. This is easy when danger is eminent, but people easily forget and its an after thought within a very short period of time. Keeping up to date with what is available, yet understanding budget restraints is a dilemma for any Emergency Manager.
Personally I have found real enjoyment in focusing on Training and Preparedness. I think we have overlooked so many opportunities in helping people help themselves. Why not put a focus on preventative actions and preparedness instead of response and recovery? Well of course the images are not as gripping as those of folks trapped on rooftops or in shelters, etc.
One of the great strengths of Montanan's is our independent nature. Most of us are somewhat of an outdoorsy type of person and already hunt, camp, fish. If you think of it this way, its amazing how prepared most of us are in this area. During our recent incidents, we have opened shelters with at best a handful of folks showing up. Now does this mean there is not a need or does it mean we haven't educated folks about where to find assistance? Again building relationships with your community comes to the forefront. I count myself lucky that I stepped into this role about the time social media became popular. As someone from a small county with only a weekly newspaper, and all other news information shared by regional media sources some 40 miles away or over coffee at the local cafe, it has become a life line into the community. Using social media has allowed me to interact with the citizens of the county like no one before me. As frequently as need be, I can share up-to-date information on a developing situation or concern, or more often, share preparedness information. It has allowed me to create a dialogue with the County never seen before. I look forward to using it even more as we go forward and as we hit September for Preparedness Month.
If you haven't caught onto my thought pattern yet, no worries, sometimes I don't either, but let me give you this little insight. I talk about all these things to prove my point, that Emergency Managers work more than "part-time" no matter how much time they are paid for their role. Being on call 24/7, even though I am only in the office for a couple days a week, it doesn't mean I am not thinking about what is going on; do I need to alert folks on some potential hazard; how do I help find assistance for those needing it; and how do I make sure what happened elsewhere, as shown on the news, doesn't happen here? I ponder these issues as I try to assist the people I work for. My grandfather always told me growing up, that we should try to leave the land better than we found it. I think this molded my passion of leaving things better in this world for the next generation. I got into Emergency Services to help people in their time of need, with the transition from a First Responder to an Emergency Manager, my approach may differ but the mission remains the same, even if its only considered on a Part-time Basis.
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