Emergency managers earn national award for helping each other

NEBRASKA CITY -  Emergency managers told Otoe County commissioners Tuesday it seemed only natural for them to help each other in times of local disasters, so they were shocked when they received a national award.

Renee Critser, a 17-year emergency manager, said individuals in the 14 counties of southeast Nebraska routinely coordinate services, schedule training and assist disaster recovery, but to have the ability to work together provides a tremendous boost.

Critser: “To be able to walk in to another county and help them, when it’s literally hitting the fan, and do what needs to be done, has been an amazing thing.”

Jeff Rowell, emergency management specialist in Lancaster County, said incident management teams are typically formed in response to disasters where local resources are likely to be run out beyond operational periods of eight to 10 hours.

Rowell: “We come in. We don’t take over. There’s no command in charge. We’re not incident commanders. That team is there to specifically assist that incident commander, usually a local fire department chief.”

While this type of response is seen on state and national levels, emergency managers realized it would also benefit the 14-county exercise and training area of southeast Nebraska.

Rowell: “What’s next for us is to grow the team more. Get the understanding out to the local officials -- the local agencies and stakeholders throughout southeast Nebraska – of what the team is and what their capabilities are.”

Emergency Manager Jean Engle said people notice when incident response runs smoothly.

Engle: “I think that is due to a lot of the ‘behind the scenes’ of the team when they are out there helping the local emergency manager. Because, like you said, we can’t do it alone. We all need help sometime.”

Critser said the team was shocked to receive the award on the first day of the Incident Management Teams Association conference in Tacoma, Wash.

Critser: “It’s a great honor to get it. Again, the New Jersey Incident Management Assistant Team are the ones who had it the previous year. They presented it to us and they are a group of 90 agencies that they can pull their people from, so for us, in the southeast corner of Nebraska to get it is a big honor.”

The team is the first regional all-hazards team recognized in Nebraska.