The Stoddard County Emergency Management Agency has a new director. Andrew Bohnert is the new director and floodplain manager. Bohnert came to Stoddard County from Perry County where he held the same position.
He was raised in Perry County in a town called Frohna, where he also attended elementary school. Bohnert graduated from Saxony Lutheran High School in Jackson. From there he attended Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau. There he majored in emergency management and minored in geographic information systems.
Bohnart then moved to Crosstown, Missouri, to his family’s farm.
“I had the opportunity to serve as the Perry County Emergency Management Director in an interim role,” said Bohnert. “I am now very blessed to have the opportunity to come here for Stoddard County and serve the communities down here.”
Bohnert first became familiar with Stoddard County while playing baseball in school. His years playing for his high school team as well as summer ball brought him to Stoddard County and he became familiar with the area.
Additionally, Bohnart was floodplain administrator and 911 administrator in Perry County. He served in these capacities as well as emergency management director for a year and a half.
Bohnert said the Stoddard County Emergency Management office provides planning initiatives across the county for different situations that might arise.
“Whether it is for severe weather, hazardous materials, any sort of non-normal emergency operations,” said Bohnert. “So we would create emergency operations plans for those events and work with all of our stakeholders to ensure those plans involve the right people to respond in times of need.”
Bohnert also said his office would assist is coordination efforts should a large-scale emergency occur.
“If a big emergency happens right now, I would be assisting to bring the right stakeholders in to help respond and help direct and help out in any sort of way to ensure a proper response,” said Bohnert. “Also setting off tornado sirens in case of severe weather.”
Bohnert said his office sets off most of the sirens in the county. However, some communities such as Dexter and Bernie set off their own sirens in an emergency. Bohnert’s office is located in the Stoddard County Ambulance Dictrict (SCAD) office in Dexter. He can activate the sirens in the communities on the Stoddard County EMA system remotely from the dispatch center at the SCAD office in Dexter.
This building is also the emergency operations center for the county. From here Bohnert can coordinate with county law enforcement, fire departments, SCAD, elected officials, state and other agencies to assist residents of the county in an emergency situation.
Bohnert can step across the hall from his office and into a large conference room where he can meet with elected officials and various emergency response agencies to coordinate response efforts. Bohnert explained that the meetings would be very linear. This means that depending on the emergency, representatives from the whole county may not be involved. He said for example should a tornado go through the county, the meeting would involve representatives from the affected areas.
Should more room be needed, he can expand operations into an adjacent large training room. This training room is generally used for various training courses and drills but can be put into use as part of the emergency operations center.
Preparation
Severe weather is not uncommon in this area during the spring and Bohnert explained how he keeps the county informed. He said he starts putting information out on the Stoddard County EMA Facebook page prior to the arrival of the storms. In the recent severe weather threats to the county, he posted messages on the Facebook page reminding residents to keep their weather radios on and that they can subscribe to the county’s Nixle text alerts. Bohnert will use Nixle to send texts and emails with emergency information to residents. Bohnert said to text the word STODDARDEMA to 888777 and they will be automatically enrolled. There is no charge to the public for this service. He will also send information through local media.
Bohnert said he will activate storm spotters if needed. He also will ask residents to monitor media and local news outlets for information.
Bohnert said he will monitor the weather system with radar technology. If the situation worsens he will help dispatchers and coordinate the dispatch of firefighters, law enforcement and ambulance to the impacted area.
Bohnert said residents can call in and tell his office what is going on. He said during recent heavy rains residents called in to report flooded roads. Bohnert can then input this data into the Zuercher 911 and Suite system. Emergency personnel then instantly have this information sent to the computers in their vehicle and to their cell phones via the Active 911 app.
Bohnert said in the county mapping system there are already grid lines mapped out with the 911 mapping system. This means in the event of a tornado or other disaster that would require search and rescue Bohnert can assign different departments specific grids to search as part of the search and rescue effort.
He will also coordinate the recovery effort such as setting up shelters and dispersing food and water. He said the Stoddard County EMA keeps enough bottled water on hand to give each family in the affected area at least a couple of cases of water in the impacted area for short-term relief. Bohnert explained that in the case of a widespread disaster help would come from the SEMO Food Bank, Red Cross and other agencies.
Future plans
Bohnert said he would like to start some of the same initiatives he used in Perry County. Two of those are monthly or quarterly meetings with the fire chiefs and assistant fire chiefs in the county. Also he would like to have the same meetings with the police chiefs and assistant chiefs from across the county.
In these meetings he said they would discuss different initiatives they could take across the county, funding paths they could pursue as a county or discuss various problems and have better networking going on. He hopes to start these meetings in April.
“Just the networking, relationship building and communication you have with those routine meetings just help out relief efforts a lot,” said Bohnert. “In Perry County there were a lot of emergencies I would go to and you would meet someone for the very first time on scene, which is fine and dandy. But it is easier working with someone in an actual emergency when you know them prior to an event just to have that working relationship in blue sky times rather getting to know someone in the heat of the battle so speak.”
Bohnert said the actionable item he is working on is going to city council meetings to introduce himself to everyone and let them know that he and his office are here to help. He is also working on meeting the county fire and police departments.
He is also looking to start a network across the county to bring stakeholders from other organizations together. Bohnert said he will be forming a group consisting of elected officials and business owners across the area that could assist in disaster relief. This would include businesses that sell bottled water or caterers that could provide food for people in a shelter. Bohnert said he will start this network in April or May. He explained that in Perry County they have people from stores that sold farm goods and could provide tarps and chainsaws along with other items for recovery. Bohnert had contractors with construction companies to remove debris in the network.
Bohnert said as floodplain manager he will assist anyone who is building a business or home in a floodplain zone with the application process and go over the maps with them. This would include building in a floodplain zone or floodplain fringe.
Bohnert said he is required to live in the county to hold the positions of EMA director and floodplain manager. Bohnert has chosen to live in Advance due to it be being about halfway between Dexter and Cape Girardeau where his fiancee works.
Although he has only been on the job a few weeks, he is thankful to be in Stoddard County.
“I love Stoddard County a lot. I grew up in a very rural area in Perry County, too,” said Bohnert. “I definitely relate very well to small-town rural life. Before I took the job, I drove around to a lot of the county. I just fell in love. I love all the people down here and all the area. I just feel like I fit right in.
“I am very blessed to be able to be part of this facility and be able to network and work with everyone in this building,” said Bohnert. “It is just phenomenal.”