Emergency manager’s aim to ensure ‘life is good here’
The thought of power outages sometimes keeps Jerry Casebolt up at night.
“Power is pretty dependable in our area, but a lot of our residents depend on it because they shop for food daily,” Casebolt said. “A power outage for an extended period could be a serious problem for them.”
Casebolt is the Logan County Emergency Manager, responsible for coordinating responses to disasters, both natural and human-caused. In the six years he’s been in that position, he’s worked hard to build relationships with other agencies in Logan County and across Colorado.
“I love what I do because we’ve worked very hard to make sure life is good here,” he said. “Being involved in helping other (counties) with their incidents makes me more skilled to help my community.”
Disasters rarely recognize state and county boundaries, so Casebolt usually ends up coordinating with multiple agencies as blizzards develop, tornadoes march across the countryside or floodwaters surge downriver. Although he missed the floods of 2013 and 2015, Casebolt knows how destructive they can be. In the spring of 2023, his constant updates on the South Platte River kept residents well-informed and prevented panic as the river stabilized just below major flood stage.
“We provide as much information as we can on our website and on Facebook,” he said. “Social media can be an important tool for keeping people informed.”
Casebolt came into emergency response management via his experience as a volunteer firefighter. His father came from the family farm in Pritchett, Colo, but was in the military so the family moved around. Casebolt said he did most of his growing up in Fort Collins and, at the age of 21, moved to Greeley to manage a bowling center. That led to a stint as the operations manager for the U.S. Bowling Congress. Because he was able to work remotely, Casebolt moved back to the family farm in Pritchett, where he joined the volunteer fire department and, in 2011, was named fire chief.
Casebolt began doing emergency management in Baca County while in Pritchett and, in 2016, attended the Colorado Emergency Management Academy. There he met Kyle Moulton, then Logan County’s emergency manager. Moulton said his position would soon be open and then-logan County Commissioner Dave Donaldson contacted Casebolt and urged him to apply for the position.
He came to Logan County in 2018 and began building on what Moulton already had started. Casebolt’s office is housed in the former Logan County Sheriff’s Posse quarters at the Logan County Fairgrounds, in a space that can be used as a disaster response command post, if needed.
If there is a frustration in Casebolt’s work it is in trying to find adequate tornado sheltering in Sterling. A church that had been used for years recently told the county it could no longer serve as a shelter, mostly because of pets that people brought with them.
Otherwise, Casebolt said, he finds the job quite satisfying, especially when he can help people prepare for the unexpected. Rural folks tend to be better prepared, he said, because their remoteness makes them more self-sufficient. Preparedness is important, he said, insofar as stockpiling batteries, flashlights, consumables, water and, for those who need it, oxygen. The most important part, however is the simplest.
“Have a plan that someone else always knows where you are,” he said.