April 16 Kentland Rotary Ray Chambers Newton County EMA

Ray Chambers, Director of Newton County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) updated the Kentland Rotary Club on new aspects of emergency preparedness in Newton County.  He explained that many new services have been under the Emergency Management department.  Many of these changes have come since 911 and the incorporation of Federal Emergency Management (FEMA) since hurricane Katrina.  Basically NCEM is responsible for coordinating mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery for any disaster that might strike in Newton County. These risks could include weather, flooding, hazardous materials, transportation accidents, bio-hazard, epidemic, and earthquakes.  Recent improvements include making Newton County one of the first 14 counties in Indiana to be labeled a Storm Ready County.  This process required multiple warnings and brought about the use of Blackboard Connect to allow businesses and individuals to be notified of weather warnings, boil orders, and other emergency information via phone and or email.  You may have noticed the signs on the major entry points of the county.  When severe weather is probable trained spotters are deployed in strategic locations for visual reports.

Mr. Chambers also is working on improving the tornado sirens to be backed up with a system to notify EMA of sirens that do not work during tests and also to make additional attempts to signal a warning if the first attempt fails.  The only way EMA is notified now requires a phone call from someone in an area reporting the siren did not work. 

The EMA has also formed a District Task Force Emergency Response Team that shares responsibilities and equipment with other northwestern Indiana counties.  They have all trained at the Training Center in Southern Indiana and were deployed to Clark County during the recent tornado outbreak.  Ray Chambers was the guest of Steve Portteus.