Emergency Management Director Wears Many Hats
McDonald County Emergency Management Director Gregg Sweeten has many responsibilities that fall under his jurisdiction. He deals with everything from homeland security to severe weather events and federally declared disasters.
He is the county’s floodplain administrator. Any time 911 gives out an address for new construction, he has to make sure it is not in the floodplain, or, if it is, make sure the owners comply with the floodplain ordinance.
He is a member of the regional homeland security oversight committee, which meets quarterly to determine where the homeland security funds in southwest Missouri should go. The committee is starting to ramp up on cybersecurity, he said. FEMA is now under homeland security, and part of the funding for the emergency management office comes from homeland security through the state and then to the county.
As for weather events, emergency management sends out weather alerts. More than 5,000 residents are now registered for text alerts for emergencies. These alerts can be used not only for the weather but for other emergencies, such as a manhunt, Sweeten said. The office also alerts the teams that open the three FEMA shelters and advises dispatch to set off the outdoor warning sirens, he said.
The office does an annual storm spotter training. Normally 60 to 70 people attend the training each year, which is held in late winter or early spring. Also, emergency management maintains the community emergency response team (CERT) program. Sweeten said well over 100 people have gone through the training. They are trained in disaster response, putting out small fires, basic first aid and disaster psychology. There is a CERT team in each McDonald County R-1 school that is equipped to respond to an incident, he said.
Sweeten also deals with the Local Emergency Planning Committee, which deals with hazardous materials and provides training to first responders. By federal law, every facility in the county that has any hazardous materials on site has to report them to his office so that, in the event of a leak, emergency management knows what the materials are.
Additionally, the office partners with the National Weather Service. Sweeten said, in the last 10 years, there have been many improvements in forecasts and in the partnership between emergency management and the National Weather Service. When severe weather is in the forecast, he sends out Facebook alerts that have reached up to 20,000 people through being shared.
“It’s pretty amazing that we have such a reach through our emergency management Facebook page,” he said.
The office also received a grant this year for $20,200 to install a new outdoor warning siren by Crowder College in Jane.