Local leaders participate in disaster preparedness workshop

Bloomington City Manager Tim Gleason (right) and Tazewell County EMA Director Dawn Cook (left) spoke Tuesday at the workshop hosted at Illinois Wesleyan University. (Neil Doyle/WJBC)

 

By Neil Doyle

BLOOMINGTON – Just over six years ago a tornado rolled through central Illinois and damaged the city of Washington. To learn from that experience, several elected leaders and officials from the Twin-Cities participated in a disaster preparedness and response workshop.

Bloomington City Manager Tim Gleason was at the time the city manager of Washington when the tornado hit in November 2013. Gleason and Tazewell County Emergency Management Agency Director Dawn Cook spoke about the disaster response and recovery efforts in the wake of the storm.

Some key points were building a communications team, working with different agencies to restore the area and establishing a local 501(c)(3) for donations.

“If you look in this room there are some very influential and high profile individuals so it’s critical these people have a level of understanding of what is going to occur when any type of disaster happens,” said Gleason.

IEMA Deputy Director Scott Swinford

Illinois Emergency Management Agency Deputy Director Scott Swinford attended the event.

“IEMA constantly works with local emergency managers, so today is a special opportunity because these local leaders and officials get to learn the challenges emergency managers face,” Swinford said.

The workshop included FEMA’s class on incident management for senior officials and a tornado tabletop exercise.

Neil Doyle can be reached at [email protected]

 

 

Blogs

Labor Day – Expanding voting rights for all

By Mike Matejka Because of COVID, there is no Labor Day Parade this year.  It’s always a great event for our everyday workers to march proudly down the street and enjoys the festive crowd. If there had been a parade, this year’s Labor Day theme was to be “150 years of struggle: your right to vote.” …

Is federal mobilization the answer?

By Mike Matejka As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal marshals into Chicago, over the objections of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, recall another Illinois Governor who protested the incursion of armed federal personnel into the city.   Those federal troops, rather than calming, escalated the situation, leading to deaths and violence. Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay…

In these troubled times, to my fellow white Americans

By Mike Matejka Our nation is at a unique watershed in human relations. African-Americans have been killed too many times in the past before George Floyd, but the response to this man’s death is international and all-encompassing. I was a grade-schooler during the Civil Rights 1960s. I watched Birmingham demonstrators hosed and the Selma – Montgomery…

Workers’ Memorial Day – Remember those whose job took their life

Looking around our community, when we say employer, most will respond to State Farm, Country, or Illinois State University.   We too often forget those who are building our roads, serving our food, or our public employees. COVID-19 has made us more aware of the risk.  Going to work every day for some people means…