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HARTINGTON – Cedar County Emergency Management is busy updating various plans and preparing for severe weather season.
Kevin Garvin, the county’s emergency manager and 911 communications coordinator, presented the board of commissioners on Feb. 27 with a renewal of the support contract with Motorola for the county’s 911 system.
“Each year, Motorola sends us a renewal notice, and each year, it goes before the board,” Garvin said in a follow-up interview. “The agreement covers technical support via telephone, and software updates to help keep the system running.”
He also shared what his department has been up to lately, including updates to the county’s Local Emergency Operations Plan.
“This is the county disaster plan,” Garvin said. “As information and people listed in the plan change, we are required to keep it up-to-date. We are going through the entire plan to make sure that everything is still up-to-date.”
He noted the Federal Emergency Management Agency requires each county to have a hazard mitigation plan.
“Hazard mitigation is identification of problems that could cause damage to property or loss of life during a disaster and fixing them before a disaster happens,” Garvin said.
“In years past, the plans were split along the geographic boundaries of the natural resources districts,” he said.
“That resulted in Cedar and Dixon counties being part of two different plans, as we are split by two different NRD agencies.”
He explained the counties, the state of Nebraska, FEMA and the two NRDs involved – Lewis & Clark and Lower Elkhorn – agreed it would better serve the needs of all involved if the two hazard mitigation plans were combined into one.
“This is the year that the Lower Elkhorn NRD from Norfolk was due to update their plan and they were awarded a FEMA BRIC grant to do the plan updates,” Garvin said. “As a result, we are working on combining those plans and doing updates.”
BRIC (Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities) grants support states, local communities, tribes and territories as they undertake hazard mitigation projects, reducing the risks they face from disasters and natural hazards.
With 2024’s severe weather season approaching for northeast Nebraska, Garvin noted annual storm spotter training has been set for 7 p.m. March 19 at the Hartington fire station.
In addition, March 25 will kick off Severe Weather Awareness Week this year in the state of Nebraska.
“Weather permitting March 27, around 10 a.m., we will test all of the storm alert systems and outdoor warning sirens within Cedar County during the mock statewide tornado drill,” Garvin said.
