When a storm blows up, members of the Goodman Emergency Management team are on duty.
Last night, volunteers arrived at the group’s headquarters beside the Goodman Police Department at about 8:30 p.m. They had an intuition about the storm. It passed with no damage, but not before a hook echo formed on the radar screen and the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning.
Firefighters, police, volunteers and city government work together to make the operation a success.
“The main aspect of emergency management is to balance everyone else,” said Goodman Emergency Management Director Denis Kolb. “We kind of bring everyone together as one body.”
The room is a mini command center for the city. The office is furnished with computers and equipment Kolb and Assistant Director Keith Kohley purchased themselves. There’s a second-hand gold couch, chair, three desks and computers alongside an assortment of radios. The radios connect them to other departments in the region, and they monitor CB traffic. Weather equipment and online radar keep them appraised of the weather situation and they hope to find a grant for an infrared-style camera so they are better equipped for search and rescue. The town pays for utilities and gives them the room in the police station where they operate.
“We pretty much operate on a skeleton budget,” Kohley said.
During a storm, they communicate with spotters and keep local operations notified of conditions and out of the path of the storm.
“If we see something coming,” Kolb said. “We’re going to request that the fire department be placed outside the affected area.”
But it isn’t just storms. They’ve been called out to clear Missouri Highway 59 during an ice storm. When a microburst downed power lines and threw a tree and the lines into an elderly couple’s home, they were able to awaken them and get them out of the danger zone.
There are hours of training that go into their efforts. The walls of the office are lined with FEMA / Homeland Security certificates from training they have completed, sometimes online, sometime in person. They have completed training modules in case of fire, ice storm, terrorist action, chemical spills, nuclear disaster, earthquake, and, of course, tornadoes.
“Denis [Kolb] and I’ll go anywhere we’re needed,” Kohley said. “If they call us, we’ll go.”
“When they ask for volunteers, my team will usually volunteer,” Kolb said.
Both are former firefighters and police officers and say they are there not to intercept those local agencies but to supply support.
“It is our mission to provide the very best service we can to protect the life and property of our town,” Kohley said.
