An entity in Adair and Guthrie Counties is put into action whenever there is a crisis situation, but people may not know everything this organization does.

Adair and Guthrie County Emergency Management Coordinator Jeremy Cooper says that his office in particular covers two counties with enough square mileage to be considered the largest county if it were a single county, including 14 cities with a total population of roughly 20,000. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio part of his job is to be the lead on lots of preparation in case different emergencies arise.

“There’s federal and state requirements that come down to the local levels to meet plan requirements. Also with education requirements and exercise requirements and all of these mandates that come down, (they) end up falling down onto our shoulders to manage, and handle, and ensure that we meet that, because then that helps us should a disaster happen. That allows for federal and state funding and assistance to come through at the local level which is huge.”

Cooper mentions that local EMA’s also help ease the financial burden on the counties they cover by keeping up with the requirements, and helping plan for emergencies and disasters. He adds that in the case of disasters like the Greenfield tornado last year, EMA Coordinators also help by coordinating recovery efforts between local, state and federal entities.