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Indiana County More Coordinated, Better Prepared for Emergency Due to Training, Tech

One of the biggest changes in Decatur County, Ind., has been the Emergency Operations Center expansion and the establishment of a center for coordinated emergency efforts.

(Tribune News Service) – As the last days of winter pummel the Hoosier State with snow, ice and below average temperatures, Decatur County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) Director Rob Duckworth keeps one eye on that situation and the other on the forthcoming storm season.

In nearly three and a half years of work with the EMA, Duckworth has had plenty of time to experience the best and the worst Mother Nature has to offer in Indiana, but he believes the county is well-prepared for whatever may come.

Some of the worst Mother Nature had to offer in 2011 helped bring about many of the changes to the EMA that ensued in the years that followed. That May, a tornado struck Greensburg, causing significant damage to many homes and elements of city infrastructure.

At the time, Duckworth worked in Investigations with the Decatur County Sheriff’s Department, and he had a close-up view of emergency response to the essentially city-wide damage sustained by the severe storm.

A former volunteer firefighter with EMT training, what Duckworth saw was an agency that had some strong components, but certainly had room to grow on the way to becoming more effective at handling local emergencies.

“We had a strong base, but I don’t think we were in a position to maximize our full potential,” Duckworth said of the state of the EMA in mid-2011. “But we’ve been fortunate to have some opportunities to be able to improve that.”

Duckworth, who was eventually promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the DCSD, took on the role of EMA director on a part-time interim basis that August, with the hopes of helping foster better organization among local emergency response agencies. Working closely with the EMA Advisory Council --which is composed of local police, fire officials, city and township officials, and private citizens – Duckworth sought to improve coordination efforts of local emergency agencies by acquiring new technology and making new or expanded use of existing facilities and equipment.

One of the biggest changes in the last few years has been the expansion of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), located behind the Decatur County Sheriff’s Department. The gymnasium of what was once Washington Elementary School is now the center of coordinated emergency efforts in Decatur County as well as the meeting location of the EMA Advisory Council and other local agencies.

A Sharp Smart Board, one of the most advanced pieces of technology at the disposal of emergency responders -- and a vital recent addition, -- helps coordinate efforts through the use of a high definition touchscreen. The screen is capable of bringing up a Geographic Information System that can be manipulated to coordinate emergency response efforts simply by marking pertinent locations on the screen. The EMA director said the image can be used to show road closings or other areas of interest depending on the task at hand.

The image displayed can be viewed by any responder with a tablet computer or other electronic device, and real-time changes can be seen so everyone is, quite literally, “on the same page.”

“We could have folks working on iPads, tablets or other computers view the same presentation,” Duckworth noted. “It gives us the ability to do real-time tracking [of emergency situations].” The Smart Board has the capability of using multiple windows to display changes to response efforts at any given moment and can be used to differentiate where responders from varying agencies should be concentrating efforts.

“I think things are a lot better in terms of communication and resources and getting a ‘big picture’ of the incident,” Duckworth said.

Even the facility itself has been revamped, thanks to a grant acquired by the Decatur County Commissioners, and is now capable of sheltering people displaced during a large-scale emergency event.

Having access to an emergency response vehicle, which is loaded up with the same Smart Board and other technology as is located in the EOC, has been another boon to the organization, the EMA director said.

The EMA acquired the Greensburg-Decatur County Public Library’s former bookmobile and converted it into a Mobile Command Unit (MCU) about two years ago, allowing responders to set up a command center on-site during an emergency.

The MCU has made the rounds over the past couple of years, appearing at the county 4-H fair and other functions. It’s another “just in case” addition that Duckworth feels adds another layer of security for the people of Decatur County.

“What do you do when parts of critical infrastructure normally used to respond to an emergency get damaged in the event itself?” Duckworth asked rhetorically in a 2013 interview with the Daily News. “That’s what happened with the May 2011 tornado. An MCU in such cases becomes critical to timely, effective response.”

No technology, however, can replace the necessity of human involvement during an emergency, and the addition of the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) has helped bring more trained hands to the ready should a disaster occur locally.

The goal of CERT is to provide training to local citizens so they can lend assistance in an emergency until help from professional responders arrives. The process includes training involving fire safety, search and rescue, disaster medical operations and team organization. The project began locally in 2013, and team members have contributed by distributing smoke detectors, handing out disaster educational materials and helping out at community functions.

Rick Johnson heads the local CERT initiative, serving as CERT coordinator.

Duckworth described the impact of CERT as “tremendous” and said it’s another way people can be utilized to the best of their individual abilities when the need arises.

Duckworth became EMA director in 2012 and later took on the role of School Resource Officer for the Decatur County Community School Corporation. An on-site Sheriff’s Department officer for county schools, Duckworth helped train two dozen students last summer who became certified to act as student emergency responders in the event of a disaster at school.

Information accessibility is another important advancement made by the EMA in recent years.

Since Duckworth’s tenure began, Decatur County adopted the Nixle alert system, allowing for text messages regarding emergency situations, rapidly changing weather conditions, school closings and other events to be sent to subscribers. Text “decaturco” to 888777 to be enrolled in that free service.

The EMA’s Facebook page also posts Nixle alerts and other safety information nearly every day.

Rob Duckworth believes the growth of the EMA over the past four years will ensure the county is far better prepared to deal with large-scale emergencies than it was in May 2011.

“I think that our technology resources have improved and inter-agency coordination between the city and the county has improved greatly,” Duckworth said. “But it’s the people that make it work. When people work together, great things are able to happen a lot quicker than when people are not working together.”

©2015 the Greensburg Daily News (Greensburg, Ind.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC