The aftermath of the EF-3 tornado that damaged much of Menasha has raised questions of what would happen if a similar catastrophe hit closer to home.
No one can be fully prepared for the magnitude of such an event, according to Shawano City Administrator Eddie Sheppard. However, he said one way to mitigate the damage is to make sure there are good working relationships with other entities like neighboring municipalities, counties and even states.
“There are times when we’re sending people out (of the city), and some wonder, ‘Why are you doing that?’” Sheppard said. “It’s the right thing to do, because lives are in danger, but you want to show up so people remember if something like this happens to you.”
Sheppard noted the city does have plans in place for minor emergencies, but the EF-3 tornado entering an urban area is rare. He said standard processes tend to go out the window in such instances.
“We have what we believe are very strong protocols and communications that we have set up for things like snowstorms and minor storms where trees are coming across the road with PD (police department) and public works. Those are things we can plan for and have people who are on-call,” Sheppard said. “We make sure everyone knows who they’re connected with and informed. I feel like we do a good job of that.”
When major catastrophes occur, what Sheppard described as a city administrator’s “worst nightmare,” the important thing is for leaders to figure out priorities and determine who to contact right away for assistance, he said.
“You don’t staff for anything like that,” Sheppard said. “You’re going to depend on other agencies. For the Menasha thing, as soon as we saw how bad it was, we were working with them, sending down the fire department and clearing gas leaks. Our linemen went down there, because you can’t get public safety people in if they can’t get down the roads if there’s power lines there.”
Developing mutual aid agreements is key to provide aid to others who need it, but it’s also a vital tool for when you become the one who needs rescuing, according to Sheppard.
“It’s a horrible situation, but it’s a reminder to communities that these things are not in our everyday lives, but they are things we need to be thinking about and preparing for,” he said.
Sheppard noted that having department heads join together, know all the protocols and practice them on a regular basis helps to make sure disaster recovery goes as smoothly as possible. Such measures should never be done after the crisis has occurred, he said.
“That’s not the time to start,” Sheppard said. “Us interacting daily and communicating is so important.”
Sheppard added that what happened in Menasha is providing learning opportunities for other municipalities. He said Shawano will look at what took place during the recovery, both good and bad, to see what can be done locally to streamline services so that utilities are restored, families are reunited and the community is returned to a semblance of normalcy as quickly as possible.
The League of Municipalities has sessions at their conferences regarding various tragedies to help Shawano and others to keep procedures in mind. One of the things is to make sure that first responders like the police and fire departments have priority service cell phones. Sheppard said that’s to make sure that if cell service goes down, emergency responders can still communicate in times of emergency.
“What happened in Menasha could have easily happened here,” he said. “I’m so thankful it didn’t happen in Shawano, but you’re never out of the woods. It could happen tomorrow. You just have to keep a cool head and make sure you have good people who know what to do.”
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
