Local emergency plan addresses natural, man-made disasters

The Local Public Health Emergency Plan is not for routine emergencies or local disasters that can be handled by firefighters, police and ambulance crews. Nor is it intended for those situations where people can take care of themselves.

The emergency plan is for a disaster of catastrophic proportions.

Local planners, with guidance from the State Emergency Management Association (SEMA), have identified several hazards in Daviess County, natural and man-made.

Natural hazards for our area include Tornado; Winter Storm; Floods; Earthquake; and Other (drought and wildfire).

With its many rivers, creeks, and branches, Daviess county is considered a "Special Flood Hazard."

The citizens of Pattonsburg know this very well. Pattonsburg suffered terribly from the 1993 flood. The entire town was flooded twice in a three week period. The damage was so bad that the whole town was rebuilt three miles away.

Area residents don’t need to be reminded of the damage a tornado can do. Sixteen tornadoes have been reported in Daviess County between 1950 and 2006, according to The Tornado History Project. A tornado near Santa Rosa in May of 2005 is still fresh in the minds of many. That tornado caused three deaths, six injuries, and $300,000 in damage.

Most won’t remember the twister that wrecked havoc some 58 years ago. At least 15 farm homes were demolished in May of 1937 as a twister ripped its way through southeastern Daviess County causing thousands of dollars in damage and leaving one fatality in its wake.

Ben Cox, grandfather of North Missourian sports writer Dennis Cox, was found unconscious on the bank of Grand River in Jackson Township, where he had been fishing around 4:30 that Tuesday afternoon. It is thought that he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage caused by the shock of being aware of the approaching storm. He was taken to a hospital in St. Joseph in critical condition. Mr. Cox died Friday, while still in the hospital.

The greatest losses from that 1937 storm were to the homes of Roy Holmes, Harve Goodman, M.M. Bruner, James Reagin, William Love, Harley Holcomb, Harry Gillilan, Earl Orten and E.G. Knight.

As for winter storms, the ice storm in December of last year caused power outages all over the county. For the area’s hearty citizens, going without electricity was a mere inconvenience.

Daviess County Presiding Commissioner Lance Critten said people he talked to at the time didn’t want to go to a temporary shelter even when it was offered. They preferred to stay home and tough it out.

"People didn’t want to leave their house," he said. "They said they’d just cover up with another blanket. Some people have a pet they don’t want to leave behind. If the ice storm had lasted more than two or three days they might have had a different outlook."

He added that for those dot-and-dash power outages, people usually have friends or relatives in an unaffected area that they can stay with.

Any power outage can potentially be a disaster for people with special health and medical needs. Lance said he’d been looking into purchasing two or three generators and trailers to haul them on. The schools agreed to be the place to set up a stand-by power station for the elderly or ill.

Jodi Frazier, administrator at Lake Viking Health Care Center, said a new generator was put in this spring that would insure that the heating and cooling and kitchen services were fully functional at the facility in case of a power outage.

"We’re equipped to take care of our own people in the event of a power outage," she said. "And could probably make room for seniors from the area temporarily."

How many people the center could take in would depend on its own population at the time.

The bump in the night from the New Madrid earthquake on April 18, 2008, reminded people of Daviess County that they lived pretty close to a sleeping giant that if awakened could turn fearsome. A repeat today of the earthquakes of 1811-12 would cause widespread loss of life and billions of dollars in property damage, according to a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) fact sheet.

Is it possible that if New Madrid ever rattled and rolled, Daviess County might be looking into a gaping fissure and the mouth of fiery lava?

Probably not. The county’s emergency plan states that in the event of an earthquake, everyone in Daviess County would feel movement, poorly constructed buildings would collapse, dishes would break, pictures would fall off the walls, plaster would crack, and church bells would ring. This is for a 7.6 magnitude earthquake whose epicenter could be anywhere along the length of the New Madrid seismic zone.

At least 35 shocks of intensity V or greater have been recorded in Missouri since 1811, according to the USGS.

Also covered in the plan are technological hazards. Those include hazardous materials; transportation; dams; fire; power failure; and man-made disasters caused by civil disobedience and terrorism.

Hazardous materials include materials at fixed containment sites within the county. Present levels of inventories at that small number of fixed sites pose a relatively small threat to the general population, according to the report.

A greater threat is from hazardous materials being spilled or leaked after a wreck on the county’s many highways or on the one railroad that goes through it.

Resources in Daviess County for response to a major incident involving hazardous materials are limited. A Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT) team would need to be called in.

As for an incident involving terrorism, there are 28 Homeland Security Response Teams and Forward Regional Response Teams in Missouri. Their aim is to have at least one team no more than 50 miles from any location in the state.

It should be noted that Missouri’s Homeland Security is not without its kinks. According to the State Auditor Susan Montee, Missouri has lagged behind neighboring states in establishing an intelligence fusion center and progress has been slow toward achieving the goal of communications interoperability.

The state distributed almost 19,000 individual Personal Protective Equipment suits to emergency medical services and law enforcement agencies statewide. Auditors visited 43 agencies and noted several different levels of effective use of the equipment. Some of the equipment remained unopened and stored in their original boxes.

As for disaster involving transportation — the county has no passenger rail lines and no airports.

The county has 17 dams. Damage from failure at those dams is considered significant for three – Woodworth Lake Dam; Lake Viking; Continental Grain Company #1 Dam.

Damage is considered high for one – Grindstone-Lost-Muddy Creek Dam.

Fire is the primary cause of accidental death in the United States. Fire is the most frequent hazard that poses a threat for Daviess County.

The overall goal of the LEOP (Local Emergency Operations Plans) is to prevent loss of life and damage to property. The plan is four-fold and includes mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.

"Davies County is looking toward the future," said Lance Rains of Green Hills Regional Planning Commission. "GHRPC and SEMA are working on producing a hazard mitigation plan."

The mitigation plan will have to be approved by the state and by the federal agency, FEMA.

The chief elected official in a jurisdiction, for Daviess County that is the county commissioner, is responsible for implementing the plan within Daviess County. Mayors are responsible for emergency action within their own communities.

Daviess County would control emergency operations from the courthouse.

The report mentions that the county needs a mobile communication base.

The LEOP also includes an evacuation plan for the general population and for special facilities, such as schools, nursing homes, the jail, and senior housing.

Debby Heldenbrand with the Division of Family Services said her agency has been mandated by the governor to provide mass sheltering for the community.

A training session for the staff was held in May in cooperation and assistance from the Red Cross.

"The training was to make the staff aware of what we could be asked to do," said Debby. "We also need to make sure our families are prepared, in case we need to be gone to take care of the needs of the community."

The five county schools, several churches, and the Lake Viking Clubhouse all have kitchens and bathrooms in the event people need to be sheltered and fed.

She said their training for emergencies is not only in case of a disaster in this county.

"We may be asked to go to other counties to help out, as we did in December during the ice storm."

Each community has their own local emergency plan and makes their own decisions, she added.

She said the county has always had a local emergency operating plan, but it is being fine-tuned lately.

"It picked up after what happened in Louisiana with Katrina. We saw a little before then, and definitely a lot since then."

Schools would be used as staging areas for people who need transportation and for assembling equipment and supplies.

Mutual aid agreements are already in place among many of the county’s emergency response units. Their function during an emergency would parallel their day to day functions.

The Emergency Management Director will initiate an annual review of the plan by all parties involved, according to the report.

Emergency Management is the name now given to what was once called Civil Defense. The focus of Emergency Management is to protect society during times of peace as well as times of war, from natural disasters as well as man-made disasters.

Civil Defense was a common term during the cold war (1945 to 1991).

The focus of Civil Defense was to protect civilians from military attack. Students took classes in civil defense and schools held air-raid drills and people built bomb shelters in their back yards.

Americans have lived under the specter of a nuclear attack ever since the development of the atomic bomb. Consider the following article culled from the back pages of the Gallatin North Missouri, April 14, 1955. It’s about an evacuation map apparently drawn up by the Missouri Civil Defense.

County figures in evacuation plan for K.C.

Daviess County figures prominently in the evacuation plan for Kansas City in the event of an atomic attack there.

A map issued by the Missouri Civil Defense agency now in circulation shows routes of evacuation in Missouri from both Kansas City and St. Louis. On the reverse side are listed the number of evacuees to be received in the various counties, the number who would presently leave for relocation, and the number who would remain for an undetermined period.

According to the data, Daviess County would be expected to provide for 27,000 persons, of whom 15,000 would remain. This is four thousand more than the county’s population.

Persons fleeing Kansas City during an attack would go east from Kansas City and tun north on highway 13. Most of the Kansas City population would be evacuated to the south down highway 71 and branching off it.

Harrison county would be expected to care for 15,000 persons; Livingston county would receive 37,000 of whom 17,000 would stay; Caldwell county would at first receive 27,000 and retain 10,000; Grundy would get 28,000 and keep 19,000.

The map does not show counties west of Daviess receiving any evacuees from Kansas City. It is possible that these counties would be reserved for persons from St. Joseph and Omaha.

Recommended Items to Include in a Basic Emergency Supply Kit:

Water, one gallon of water per person per day for at least three days, for drinking and sanitation

Food, at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food

Battery-powered or hand crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert and extra batteries for both

Flashlight and extra batteries

First aid kit

Whistle to signal for help

Dust mask, to help filter contaminated air and plastic sheeting and duct tape to shelter-in-place

Moist towelettes, garbage bags and plastic ties for personal sanitation

Wrench or pliers to turn off utilities

Can opener for food (if kit contains canned food)

Local maps

For more information go to www.ready.gov.

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