Milton and Mane

When Nature Strikes: Managing Milton's Emergency Response

• Steve Krokoff and Christy Weeks

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In this episode, Division Chief Jason Baswell of Milton Fire-Rescue walks us through how the City of Milton prepares for emergency situations and what residents can do to stay safe. From the city's multi-layered alert systems, including tornado sirens and Everbridge notifications, to the coordinated efforts of the Emergency Operations Center, Jason explains how different departments come together when disaster strikes. He also shares insight into Milton’s unique risks, especially when it comes to severe weather and our heavily wooded landscape.

But emergency response isn’t just the city’s responsibility, it starts at home. Chief Baswell emphasizes the importance of personal readiness, from building a family emergency plan to packing a go bag that includes medical needs and pet supplies. There is no doubt that weather conditions can shift fast, but being prepared can make all the difference. Tune in to learn what you can do now to protect your home, your loved ones, and your community when it matters most.

Get connected!

Everbridge: www.miltonga.gov/notifications
SeeClickFix: Report a Problem | Milton, GA
Ready Georgia: Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency

With the community in mind, this podcast explores the stories, people, and initiatives that make our community unique. Each episode offers insights into local government, highlights Milton's history and future developments, and showcases the vibrant arts, culture, and sustainability efforts shaping our city. Join the conversation, celebrate our community, and discover how we're building a better Milton together.

Do you have an idea for an episode or would like to request a specific topic to be covered? Email Christy Weeks, christy.weeks@miltonga.gov

Learn more about the City of Milton at www.miltonga.gov.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Milton and Maine, the official podcast for the city of Milton. We want to bring you closer to the heart of our community through stories that inform, inspire and connect. Each episode offers a behind-the-scenes look at the people, projects and priorities shaping Milton, covering everything from local government and future development to arts, culture, sustainability and public safety. Whether you're a resident, a local business owner or just curious about our city, this is your front row seat to what makes Milton special. Hey everyone, welcome back to Milton in Maine. I'm your host, christy Weeks, the communications manager for the city of Milton.

Speaker 1:

Today we're talking about a topic that touches all of us, whether we realize it or not emergency management. From major storms and power outages to large public events and everything in between. A lot of behind-the-scenes planning goes into keeping our city safe, informed and prepared. So joining me today is Division Chief Jason Baswell of Milton Fire Rescue. He leads our emergency management and support services and he's here to break down what that really means, how it affects residents and what you should know in case disaster strikes. So let's get into it. How does Milton prepare for the unexpected? Because we see it quite a bit. Welcome, jason.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1:

You're welcome. Glad I could finally pin you down on a date. You're a busy man, busy man. So first of all, we want to know how you got here, how you got to Milton Fire Rescue, what your journey's been like. Give us a little history.

Speaker 2:

Well, I started out in the fire service in the mid-90s and started out at Fulton County Fire Department.

Speaker 1:

Oh, look at you out. Your age, just like me.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and time flew by. I was there for around 10 1⁄2 years and around 2006, sandy Springs voted to become a city and then Milton followed suit, sure. And so what happened was we Fulton County was not going to be providing the fire services to the North Fulton cities, so they did layoffs, which they called reduction in force, and unfortunately I was involved in that. But God blessed me and got me here, because I actually put application in and got hired here as an officer on the apparatus and worked my way up through the ranks and, uh, but started here in the very beginning, got that you've been here 18 years, then 18 years, yep, goodness.

Speaker 2:

So, uh, going through the pictures, uh, my girls were just babies when I started and it's crazy because they're graduate college and to think how long did I've been here yeah 18 years just flown by, and we were talking earlier at the station about Milton. Then we got into just how much Milton has developed over the years.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And we can remember back in 07 when we started. You know the population was around 15,000 and now it's up with around 45,000, and just the growth. But you know you drive through Milton and it's still beautiful even with all the growth. The tree ordinance has helped out because, we've got these beautiful hardwood trees. We talked about it earlier but unfortunately, you know, with those beautiful trees, when storms roll through here that brings most of our call volume.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and we're going to get into all of that. And it's funny that you were talking about the beginning days of fire rescue. I had Matt Marietta and JC on in the last episode two of the core originals, just like you, that have been around and they kind of talked about the culture and how things have changed and how Milton's grown and involved over the years. So these stories I love hearing about how y'all got to where you are and you've come a long way. I mean division chief is big deal.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and trust me everyone, he is a busy guy. I've been trying to get him on this podcast pretty much since the inception and he's so busy so let's just kind of get into it. Tell me what emergency management actually covers in a city like Milton, because in it we talked off mic a little bit earlier and my experiences and my previous residences in different states is a whole lot different than what we experience here in Georgia yeah, we work in conjunction with AFSEMA the Atlanta Fulton County Emergency Management Agency, also the Georgia Emergency Management Agency are outside and also the North Fulton cities.

Speaker 2:

You know some of the big things. When we look at most of our threats here in the city because we are predominantly residential and we don't have like industry or railroad tracks or airports or anything like that our biggest threat are when storms roll through. You know the possibility of tornadoes. So we looked at let me back up emergency management. Yeah, what that is is basically it involves mitigation, which is reducing risk. We got to figure out what our risks are. Then how do we prepare for that Right, then how do we respond to them and also how do we recover from them and also how do we recover from them. Part of that mitigation, reducing those risks is first identifying them and, like I said in our emergency operations plan in Milton, one of the things identified is storms that we worry about possibility of tornadoes.

Speaker 2:

So you know, over the years, matt Marietta, who's now the human resource director, was our emergency manager for years and early on. One of the things that we looked at due to the possibility of storms rolling through is like a tornado sirens, early warning sirens. But what I want to stress is is those sirens were really for people when they were outside. Those sirens are not really for people that are inside the home in the middle of the night during the storm, because the probability of you being able to hear that siren is very low unless you live close by.

Speaker 2:

That's why it's so important for things like Everbridge, which I'm sure we'll talk about.

Speaker 2:

Oh we are, you know, and also the alerts that Georgia and the National Weather Service send out over your phone. It's real important to sign up for those type of alerts because you're going to get notified by that phone, far sooner and greater than you ever would, of our tornado sirens. Unless you're outside or walking or whatever, you'll hear that tornado siren, but anyway, we've got about 11 of them around the city. We provide maintenance on them and when you, there's 11 in the city.

Speaker 1:

Is that what you said? Yeah, city.

Speaker 2:

I mean when you're thinking we're 39, almost 40 square miles, very large city, one of largest actually in north fulton. So 40 square miles that's a large area to cover. So I mean an engineering group come in early on.

Speaker 2:

They basically looked at the topography, looked at the square miles and they determined the best locations to put them sirens so that people would hear them. Fortunately for City Hall, the Crab Apple area, Alpharetta has sirens and so you know we got some close by here. But alpharetta, with theirs and ours together, milton's pretty much covered, funny story about sirens, tornado sirens.

Speaker 1:

I was living in michigan when my daughter was a baby and my husband traveled a lot. And I'm not from michigan, I'm from colorado. And yeah, we had tornadoes, but not really the siren thing. So the siren goes off. I have no idea what it is, no clue. I go about my day, sarah and I are chilling in the house. Tornado hit less than a mile from us and just destroyed a neighborhood and so all of a sudden I was like, oh, that's what that noise was. And the neighbors are filling me in because I was relatively new to the neighborhood.

Speaker 1:

So three weeks later, siren goes off. I'm ready. This time, man, I have a go bag. I just put Sarah down for a nap, I run up, I grab her, I grab my go bag, I'm downstairs in the basement, I'm ready. There's nothing, there's no communication. So I call my neighbor. I was like do you know anything about the tornado? And she's like Christy, that was the test siren, it happens every month. And I was like I'm looking at my kid, she's awake, she needed a nap, I needed a nap. Gone. So after that I kind of quit panicking, a little bit prepared, not panicked.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and, and you know, ours are tested, uh, monthly, yeah, uh, the first tuesday of every month but y'all, there's actually communication that goes out about that. People see that and we don't typically we don't sound our sirens because they are near some horse farms oh yeah.

Speaker 2:

So we just actually spin them and once they rotate and then we make sure that the signals are pinging back to dispatch. Because the way our sirens operate is it's great, because when a tornado warning comes in, if it's in Milton, alpharetta Dispatch who dispatches our 911, they actually get that. At the same time I would, or anybody else would and so they actually have the button and they actually hit the button for our warning sirens and actually sound our sirens off.

Speaker 1:

So it's automatic.

Speaker 2:

So there's no delay in me having to call up or dispatch or anything like that. They automatically do it from 911. That's awesome. Yeah, it is so. Like I said, they get the weather alerts from National Weather Service in whatever area in Milton, so it makes it easier and better. Like I said, we got automatic aid with Alpharetta, so you know they set their sirens off and they'll set our sirens off.

Speaker 1:

It cuts a few seconds down. Right Time matters.

Speaker 2:

So those few seconds will count and, like I said, it's when a tornado warning comes out that the sirens will operate All right.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's good to know.

Speaker 2:

Tornado season for us in Georgia is any time, or is it usually tied to kind of like— yeah, usually around April, May and then toward the end of the year, there in the spring and fall, yeah, but like you said, unfortunately it is georgia, as we found out yesterday, right, you know, and by yesterday we're talking, a couple weeks ago we had a storm pop up on.

Speaker 1:

Let's see, we're recording this early, so that was june 26th that this pop-up storm came out of nowhere. And tell us what y'all saw on your side, because we know what we saw is residents and employees and business owners.

Speaker 2:

All of a sudden calls started dropping. Our guys started responded to 911 calls with trees down, yeah, and the area seemed to be a majority on the south end there, crab apple, okay, because we were getting hit down here, alpharetta, and I talked to my counterparts in roswell same thing. So this area down in here was getting hit, yeah, with a bunch of trees down. And birmingham highway was a mess. Yeah, birmingham highway up around up fre Road, close to you know, going down Nix Road, birmingham Road had a few Cogburn.

Speaker 1:

Lots of closed roads.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it was sporadic around the city. The bulk of it was in the southern part of the city but it was a little sporadic, that you know where they were getting hit. But the past few weeks it has been hot this week and drying out, thank goodness. But the past few weeks have been a hot this week and drying out, thank goodness. But um, the past few weeks have been a lot of rain, so I mean that ground's probably still saturated, so it didn't help when these winds come in and but it did.

Speaker 1:

It popped out of nowhere, it did it was. It was crazy and that's something I'm still getting used to in georgia. But let's talk about that because the tree thing fascinates me, because I come out of the west, where the trees don't go down as easy as they do here. Let's talk about that, because you said earlier off mic that it was the hardwoods that we have the most. So tell me about the, the dynamics of that tree coming down, because the ground this and it's very basic when you look at it, but it's fascinating yeah, it's a.

Speaker 2:

What makes milton so beautiful when you're driving through are the hardwood trees that we have. Unfortunately, when these storms roll through, if you go to in south georgia where they have a bunch of pine trees, normally when those high winds straight line winds of tornadoes come through, it usually snaps the tree about halfway up so you're getting half the tree dropping and falling and it does cause damage. But when you have these big hardwoods like we have, you know when these winds come through the ground saturated, it's a heavy tree, it brings the whole entire tree down usually and their root systems aren't very deep.

Speaker 2:

These hardwoods right no, um, I mean some of them. You'll drive by and the whole root system will be up. It'll look like it's six foot old there. Oh my gosh, they're huge yeah, but it brings the whole tree down, so you can only imagine a bigger tree in the roadway. It's going to take a lot longer. Usually public works has to come out with some heavy equipment, you know, or they got limbs on some of these trees that are the size of some other trees right and so they'll come down and uh yeah, unfortunately.

Speaker 2:

You know it's beautiful when you drive through Milton, but unfortunately the hardwoods usually cause more damage. Takes a little bit more time to get up.

Speaker 1:

When those come down, the power lines come down and it's kind of a ripple effect all the way through the city.

Speaker 2:

And that's the biggest thing is because if a tree is on a power line, there's nothing we can do. We have to wait for the power company. So you can only imagine a storm rolls through and is hitting Cherokee and it's hitting all the North Fulton area and Forsyth County. It could take a while. Part of mitigation and reducing the risk would be citizens reporting trees close to the roadway that maybe looks like they're leaning or maybe looks like they're dead. We could send people out to check it out.

Speaker 1:

What's the best way for citizens to report things like that? Is it the SeeClickFix app? Seeclickfix app yes, perfect. App, yes, perfect. I'll put a link with the information in the show notes so y'all have access to that, because that's a very handy, quick way to report issues throughout the city I mean, if you think about it, the power company.

Speaker 2:

I mean you watch them and they come out yearly, about every two years, and what are they doing? They're trimming trees and they're trimming tree limbs back from the power lines. They're mitigating the possibility or the risk of those tree limbs coming out and taking the power lines down. Unfortunately for them, these trees are tall and they can't cut them back that far, so, but you know, that's mitigation, that's reducing the risk.

Speaker 1:

I gotcha I gotcha I love that. So it's important I for everybody to know what preparedness looks like. And coming from outside of government and coming in especially into the communications department, I've had the opportunity to really learn what that means and what communications part is in, like the EOC, the Emergency Operations Center, which I got to be a part of a few times now, and I want people to understand how much effort and coordination and the plans you guys have in place already for when these situations happen, because it's not just by chance that y'all know exactly where to go, who to contact, who shows up where and all that kind of stuff, if that makes sense.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it does.

Speaker 1:

It does, doesn't it? But for an outsider, somebody who hasn't seen it, I'd have no clue.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and there is a lot of behind the scenes that people don't see. Even people that work within the city don't even see it, don't understand all of it and how complex it could get, you know. But simplified, it's preparation. As far as from the city's perspective, as you know, it entails, first and foremost, training, obviously for police, fire, public works and other city officials. Because you were mentioning the Emergency Operations Center, what we normally call the EOC, there's preparation and part of that is what we call the National Incident Management System. Obviously, when a storm rolls through, you're dealing with multiple departments. You also might be dealing with a private sector or nonprofits during these events. And so what the National Incident Management System does? It allows all those to come together and work and that's basically what I do. You know I don't run the emergency. What I do is I coordinate everybody else. Fire department runs the calls and they run the emergency on the scene.

Speaker 1:

Pd runs it if it's in their realm.

Speaker 2:

Public works Does their job, does their job, and so, basically, everybody's doing what they do, what they're trained to do and what we, you know.

Speaker 1:

Like a football team. Exactly the message is do your job.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and they got a game plan Right. We have a game plan too. We have an emergency operations plan for the city of Milton, and then the EOC is just a place where we bring all that together and we coordinate, because 911 is going to get overwhelmed obviously.

Speaker 1:

Correct.

Speaker 2:

With a whole bunch of 911 calls, people phoning in, and so what we do there at the EOC is we kind of take that off them and we just coordinate them calls, as long as it's trees down. That way they can handle your cardiac arrest, your possible structure fire calls. But anyway, we go into preparation. The national instant management system, uh, matter of fact, uh, all our personnel are recertified in the instant command system which is I'm in the process we've actually involved.

Speaker 2:

You know specific city personnel who might operate within the eoc, yep, and what those are is those are basic classes that the Federal Emergency Management Agency put out and it just gets everybody on the same page, helps them to understand and, like I said, during an emergency I want people to understand is there's nothing really different? That we do in our job? Right, that we do in our job, it's just coordinating all the different responsibilities and departments together in one cohesive Everybody's understanding who's in charge the upline, the language is all coordinated, so everybody's talking the same language.

Speaker 1:

because that was the one thing I picked up from the classes I've taken so far is that in different areas they could have different terminology and these classes and this training that you have, the EOC teams take breaks that down, so then everybody knows and everybody's on the same page. So we're all not like sitting there Googling what this guy's talking about or asking questions that we should already know. So I find it terribly fascinating and informative.

Speaker 2:

so I'm working my way through. Like I said, even going through it, sometimes it seems overwhelming and sometimes I have to bring people off the cliff and say it's okay, Just calm down, it's going to be all right.

Speaker 1:

Well, it is a little bit of an intense situation. I mean, cut us a little slack.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

We don't do that every day.

Speaker 2:

And it's difficult and I try to tell people look, even if you come to the EOC, you're just there and you're just going to do your job. It just makes it easier that you're in the room with me and other people so I communicate back and forth and fire may communicate with you. That way all the information flows through one channel and then it comes out as one cohesive message from the city as a whole. So that's what the EOC is and hopefully we'll never have to utilize it for this. But it's recovery. You know EOCs are important in recovery, yeah. But yeah, preparedness is a lot of. It is training from our side.

Speaker 2:

Logistical support, which I'm also in charge of I'm the division chief over support services here which it kind of goes with emergency management. You know I'm over chief over support services here, which it kind of goes with emergency management. You know I'm over all our apparatus, all our equipment, our stations and Captain Womack he's great, he helps me manage all that. Yeah, preparing, making sure we got the tools and equipment and also, from the emergency management perspective, making sure even like you you know you're our communications person that's going to be getting the information out Do you have what you need? We talked about Everbridge, which I'm sure will get in as an important part of preparation, because we send messages out before the storms.

Speaker 1:

As long as we know, yeah, when we know, which was not the case on June 26th, it just kind of arrived. Good news is is that I news is that there was trees down and some damage and whatnot no injuries, nothing catastrophic off the chain, so hindsight 2020. Anyway, let's talk Everbridge. You brought it up. Let's go there because it is such an effective tool and every county, every city has some sort of an emergency notification system that goes out, or any of them that I've been in Talk to me about Everbridge.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, everbridge is a great program. It allows us to send messages out in real time. It requires our citizens to sign up, which I highly encourage. We actually utilize it for non-emergency things too, which is also nice because it gets people used to receiving those messages and understanding the program. But Everbridge is great because, like I said, we have the tornado sirens and you have the emergency alerts. But we also, from the city perspective, can send emergency alerts out and we also can send updates. Know right, like on june 26 when that storm wrote through, you know we put some, may put some things out. This road's closed. Well, if that road's closed, you've got to find a different route, maybe to work, pick your kids up or whatever. We also can utilize that program to let them know that those roads are back open, because a lot of people you know they they don't have time to log on to social media or are Internet.

Speaker 1:

You know they just want a quick alert to let them know, most people have their phones on them at any given point. It is literally the most direct way for us to connect.

Speaker 2:

And that's why it's important too. That I want people to understand is to make sure those alerts are on your phone. And you know some people they cut them alerts off because sometimes, which the alerts don't go out a whole lot, you'll get an Amber alert or whatever. But you really need to make sure that those alerts are on your phone. I think our communications department sent something out showing people.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so in the last storm that we had, the June 26th, one, pd has access to everbridge as well. So, coming from the communications department, yes, and and I do head up the everbridge effort, trying to get it all the messages out as needed, but pd and fire both have access to it as well, because y'all see things that we don't and some, and there's no reason for us to be the that middleman in between when you guys are running alerts and whatnot. I, like jason said, I highly, highly encourage everybody to sign up for the everbridge notifications and you can find that information on our website at wwwmiltongagov forward slash notifications and there's an entire description as to what it does and how to do it. It's very, very efficient and you can select the different notifications you want, whether it's road closures, city news, parks and rec, weather updates and emergencies, which, of course, is our biggest bucket. But it's vital in keeping the communication lines open for everybody.

Speaker 2:

And, like I said, as far as preparation, with Everbridge fire department, police, in conjunction with communications, we put messages out for our citizens to help prepare Correct. You know, hey, we've got a storm coming. Here's what we're expecting, here's what you can do to prepare, and we send little tips out for people. So, like you said, I highly encourage you to sign up.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So that way you know what to do during an emergency.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, I'll have that information in the show notes as well to help people find their way to the Everbridge notification system. Um, very handy, so let's kind of look at. You've already touched a little bit on community risk and reduction and prevention and you identified storms as being kind of our main issue, our main threat. I'm still working on my classes, jason, I haven't got all the lingo yet. Does all this preparedness, emergency management and whatnot also apply to any large-scale events that would happen? I mean, maybe not so much here in Milton, but if you were to look at an emergency management from a 30,000 feet overview, is it kind of the same? This is just kind of a one-off question that popped in my head.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it is, like I said, the the national incident management system. It come about because of large-scale incidents out of the west and yes, it's. The thing about the instant command system is it can expand and you can contract, and it's supposed to help everything flow real, smooth and easy and it allows you to run an incident. If the incident starts out small and then all of a sudden that incident ramps up, you can expand your instant command system to handle that and then as time goes, you can retract it back down.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

Because you don't need all the other you know it might be planning logistics finance. There might not ever be a time where you need it, or there might be a time you need it and then, all of a sudden, you know after a week or two you don't need this no more Now you can take it away.

Speaker 2:

So that's the great thing about it. So, yeah, it can you know. I'm not saying we wouldn't have no other large scale event. Take, for instance I don't know if people knew on June 26. Also, there was a meteor shower that happened, and you know a meteor.

Speaker 1:

No, I did not know that.

Speaker 2:

And a meteor went through somebody's roof in their living room. A piece of the meteorite.

Speaker 1:

You're kidding.

Speaker 2:

No, and they said it sounded like thunder and everything else. And yeah, I've been hearing it all on the news. So so you know we were getting storms and somebody else was getting meteorite and it was just in henry county. That's crazy. Yeah, it was never know, you don't?

Speaker 1:

you don't because I mean just in the areas that we've used it. We used everbridge and the eoc for the hurricane helene last fall, which was my first time in the EOC, but we also had it for some of these snowstorms that we've had, which, by the way, it was not in the Georgia brochure when I moved here that we got as much snow as we have had. Not going to lie, my kids had more snow days here than we did in Colorado. Very, very odd to me, but super impressed by the way our emergency management system worked in those situations yeah, the great thing about like the snow events or ice events down here we call them um.

Speaker 2:

In georgia we most of the time we're, we're prepared for them. You know, we know correct in advance, so we've got our equipment in place. Extra, extra personnel, I'm telling you.

Speaker 2:

Unfortunately, when storms roll through, you could have a severe thunderstorm, kind of like on June 26th Right. That storm just popped out of nowhere and so I mean we didn't have extra staff or anything. Thank goodness we didn't need them. All our personnel did what they do. They went out and they did what they're trained to do was clear the roadways, the ones that they could so they're trained to do was clear the roadways the ones that they could so they could respond to.

Speaker 2:

No panic, no big hubbub, you all just went out and did what you were supposed to do. You know, they just did a lot more of it than they normally do, but they did a great job.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, so one particular thing I could remember was back in 2020, was the covid emergency response to covid. So I could think about that, because we we did a lot of coordinating with AFSEMA, the Atlanta Fort County Emergency Management Agency, then also GEMA. Then you've got to throw FEMA in the mix and that was an important thing with declarations such as those, or major weather events, when Hurricane Helene come through, is the possibility of reimbursement for whatever damages that may occur. So the preparation part with training and things like that is you know, we got to make sure our personnel are trained to the proper levels in accordance with FEMA and GEMA, because during a large-scale event, if there is a declaration, we want to make sure our citizens get their money recouped back to them. Unfortunately for us, we've been able to do that the past few times. Unfortunately, during Hurricane Helene, we didn't get that declaration.

Speaker 1:

I think citizens were able to put in for it or we put something out about it, but as far as a city, we wasn't able to well, if I remember correctly, with hurricane helene, we were like in the line of fire for a long time prepping for that and the amount of effort and organization that I was able to see was incredible. Not gonna lie and I would never tell everybody that to their face because that's y'all's job but as a new person at the time it was great it was. It was really cool to watch everybody do what they do. Now, the good part about Helene is that we were oh goodness, y'all were ready. I mean things placed in the proper places around the city, crews ready, everybody on standby. And the proper places around the city, crews ready, everybody on standby.

Speaker 1:

And that hurricane shifted overnight and unfortunately it hit a lot of people that were not prepared for it because it had not been predicted to go those directions. And I know a handful of families personally that were affected by that, because I have some friends up in Tennessee and whatnot so awful on that side. So how I don't know what the right way to ask this question is. Is that in that instance, I mean, they're just assuming that it's not coming their way, so they're not putting all their resources in place? And yet we we pre did everything and shifted, and for us it was okay, but for others it was so catastrophic.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, like I said, weather's finicky in Georgia.

Speaker 1:

Finicky is a solid word.

Speaker 2:

And what I would want to say to our citizens is that we are prepared. Yeah, a perfect example is June 26. I mean, there was no weather alert, there was nothing. There was just. It's like this thing just popped out of nowhere and then our personnel, they handled it. Because that's what we do we train year-round for not only fires and EMS, but for those type of emergencies.

Speaker 2:

From the emergency management side. I want to make sure our personnel are prepared Now. Obviously, with a storm like on June 26, you would like to have just a few more personnel on hand, but our personnel they weren't able to win, or a little notice would have been nice, yeah, a little notice.

Speaker 1:

Mother nature take no.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and so you know when a storm's coming, and we know. I tell you that when we know storms are coming, we make sure our personnel have what they need on our trucks, Because we already know we're going to run trees down.

Speaker 2:

We don't know to what extent Our biggest thing is do we bring people in early or do we wait? That's the biggest thing. But as far as training and knowing what to do and being able to handle the emergencies, I have no doubt we got some of the best people you know around. I agree, Police, fire, public works. Hey, we step back and we're just like what do y'all need? Because we just let them do what they do and they do their job and they do a great job at it, Right, but anyway, yes, we're prepared and like specifically like Colleen, you know, when something like that comes in and there's a possibility, even if we're not going to get hit, if they're saying it's shifting too far left or maybe it's going further right and, as you know, the right side of the storm is always the worst.

Speaker 1:

I did not know that, but thank you. Did that just help me with one of my classes?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, very interesting. But yeah, the right side of the storm is where the worst winds and the tornadoes usually spawn off from.

Speaker 1:

Didn't I know that?

Speaker 2:

So that's why, when it come, we got Helene but the eye kind of shifted just right, just a little bit. But the people on the outside of that band was what got hit really really bad, so heartbreaking hit really, really bad. Oh so heartbreaking, but anyway, the when we know a storm like that's coming and they're talking about maybe it's a tropical depression by the time it gets here.

Speaker 1:

We still make sure that we are prepared because we know we talked about that storm for how many days prior?

Speaker 2:

yeah, and so at any point in time, and we didn't even know, I mean, as the night progressed, if you remember, it kept moving. I remember very clearly it's not like it moved that afternoon or that morning it was late in that evening and it just kept going a little bit further right and it moved just enough right that we actually skated through, thank goodness but it didn't start that way, and so there was.

Speaker 1:

There was a handful of days there prior to and even the day of where we're watching. We're like okay, and you know I'm sweating, I'm like this is coming, this is happening, and then it just kept going. So with that type of a situation, or any of these storms for that matter, what do our citizens need to have on hand for their own emergency plans? Because we know the city's planning for it, we know you all know your job and train for it on the daily. What do we need to tell our citizens to have ready to go? I mean, what's our best piece of advice?

Speaker 2:

We send things out. Our communications department is great. Y'all do a great job about sending things out and we try to do that year round, before the storm season and things like that. But the biggest thing is making sure you and your family have a plan, right? You know, obviously with the storm we want you to stay in the house. It's basically after the fact. So obviously one of the biggest things is we want to make sure you're prepared with water and food, maybe for a few days, because we just don't.

Speaker 2:

I said, if it's a big impact you, it could be a few days before the power gets cut back on. Maybe some hand tools that you might put in a little bag just in case if you got some damage on your house or whatever. And then on top of that, with the water and the food, a little first aid kit. Yep, make sure your cell phone's charged, your medications yeah, medications. I highly encourage you to actually have like some type of charging system for your phones. If you don't have a home generator Because one of the biggest things for our elderly population if they're on home oxygen make sure you have a plan. If you have an elderly mom, dad, right and uncle, help them. Come up with a plan just in case that power goes out and they're dependent on home oxygen. The fire department of city will do what we can, but unfortunately if we have a lot of citizens, there's not a whole lot we can do outside of.

Speaker 1:

We will respond and obviously transport an individual, but we got to be able to get to them so and you know that just brought to mind the fact that we have fire cares and I know that they also reach out to their patients to make sure, because they have a pretty decent size list of people that they check on right, and they do that every storm.

Speaker 2:

Yep, whoever is on the current list that they have, they do reach out. We have them reach out and, you know, talk to them and see if they have any needs. They talk to their family members. So, like I said, preparation is not only for you and your family, but also neighbors, your community, right, you know, lending assistance to them and helping them.

Speaker 1:

You know, a handful of years ago I guess it was like 2013. I was still in Colorado. We had a flood. I lived in Estes Park and Estes Park has four ways in and out One up over the Rocky Mountain National Park. One's a little two laner kind of not very well-traveled road that comes in from the south, and then there's the two main entrances, highway 36 and Highway 34. We had a flood that washed out 34, 36, and Highway 7, three of our four entrances in and out of that town. I believe they called it the thousand-year flood and it was months, months and months and in some cases years for them to repair the roadways in and out.

Speaker 1:

And we're like we weren't allowed to go up over the top to get out of town because that was reserved for emergency services, gas, food, all the things. But I remember my friend calling me at like four o'clock in the morning. We had no idea this was even a thing at the time. Yeah, we'd had a lot of rain, it was that time of year. And then my friend called and goes are you okay? And I'm like, well, yeah, I'm fine. And she goes turn your news on.

Speaker 1:

And that's when I saw all the flooding and then realized that we were stuck. We could not get in and out of town. For a handful of days we had no internet. The town it was like a movie, jason. It was a movie where just you're shut off from everything and you can't, there's nothing you can do. I couldn't get a hold of my husband to tell him not to come home because he was in California at the time. It was just spooky and I know our town utilized the state of Colorado, the counties, everybody deployed, and we had Apache choppers coming in and pulling people out of stranded areas because they had no way in and out. Everything was washed out. My girlfriend, she lives in a little small town on your way down highway 36 and the chopper landed in her yard and her kids were little enough. They're like they're coming to get us. She's like no, we're good they stayed.

Speaker 2:

They were prepared enough to where they could stay and waited out until roads were repaired enough to get in and out and you know we went up to North Carolina, me, my wife and my daughter a few months ago and it was crazy because parts of 140 was still shut down from Hurricane Helene Right, and you know. Then I see pictures and I see videos of the communities up there still affected and, you know, flooded and washed away due to, you know, mudslides or whatever.

Speaker 1:

And the weather we're still getting is not helping them out.

Speaker 2:

So I mean that goes into, because we talked about mitigation, we talked about preparedness. The next one is response how we respond and we kind of touched on that. The last one is recovery, and that's what they're going through right now. So I mean Slow process. Yeah, it's a very slow process. You know they were waiting on the federal government and the state was coming in, trying to do what they could do. Even at that you can only imagine. I mean, I remember I was working in the fire department at Fulton when the flood happened in Louisiana.

Speaker 2:

And I mean that was devastating. I mean I can't even imagine the response. And obviously the military come in and FEMA set up a command system and they brought people in. And that was just such large scale. Was it perfect? No, but I mean I can't imagine something on that scale that affect that many people in that large of an area. It's just it's almost like you don't have enough resources. So what we're talking about is preparation is very important, because you know then you know, fortunately, I don't think we'd ever now. Do we have flooding around here? Yes, we do, but not to something that scale. Right, you know, I remember a few years ago we did have a flood. One of the dams broke up on Birmingham Road up there and it kind of washed half the road out, but I mean we could still get by. It wasn't like what you talked about, where you were just shut off from the world.

Speaker 2:

North Carolina is going through it right now. There's people that are shut off from the world, and they're just now, you know. Obviously they were able to finally get to them and they were able to get out.

Speaker 1:

But as far as, like I mean, you can only imagine they're having to rebuild roads back to those communities.

Speaker 2:

Everything, the complete infrastructure is under construction To your point preparation, making sure you have food, first aid and things.

Speaker 1:

A go bag. Tell me what goes in a go bag. Such a fancy word.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I know Equipment. We got like cert bags and what cert bags do for cert members. It's kind of like that you can only imagine and what I tell people is put in your go bag some of the main essentials you know, obviously a first aid kit, some basic tools a knife, a hammer, a screwdriver and things like that. But there's other things out there that you need to make the go bag unique to you and your family.

Speaker 1:

So tell us the website where you can get a list, because I know that there is.

Speaker 2:

The best place to go to if you go to readygeorgiagov.

Speaker 1:

Ah, I'll put that in the show notes too. Show notes are going to be packed full of information.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it gives you so much information, talks about go bags, emergency bags, what you should put in there. It also has emergency plans. That's another thing. Some of the things you kind of hit on when you said when that happened to you up there, you've got to imagine like in North Carolina, especially if you're family and you're separated, your husband's away and you and the kids are vice versa.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And you've got to imagine, communications are gone.

Speaker 1:

They're completely gone.

Speaker 2:

So there's no way that you're going to be able to communicate with your family, so you need to come up with some type of plan, right?

Speaker 1:

What the funny part is is, right out that morning I was like, well you know, I wasn't really aware of the full impact of what had happened. So I go, I think I'll go to the grocery store and I'm picking up all this water and stuff, and somebody asked me they're like what are you doing? I said, well, I'm getting water in case we don't have any. And this person looked at me and goes fill your bathtub up, sir. That's a great idea for a lot of efforts. I am not drinking that. That is you're. No, thank you, I'm not doing it. Anyway, there was a not everybody was fully aware of the impact of what we were getting ready to experience.

Speaker 2:

You got to think. I mean it's going to take something on that scale, especially with flooding. I mean it's going to take your water system out, it'll take your sewer system out.

Speaker 1:

And if you have a septic tank.

Speaker 2:

It's even worse, because the ground's going to be saturated, so that that'll start backing up in your house. So you just need to be prepared. The best thing to do is, once the storm rolls through, if you can safely evacuate, right, if not, just stay there until emergency personnel can get to you. But yeah, I was uh going back to the ready georgia. They actually have an app that you can download called readygeorgia. It consists of making a plan, building a kit, getting kids ready, and so a lot of great information that I encourage everybody to go to. It'll give you a good start.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, for sure, for sure. So, as we wrap this up, you really just kind of touched on a lot of the resources, on where to find it and again I'll put it all in the show notes Give us your final thoughts on emergency management and what people need to know.

Speaker 2:

Emergency management is simple. It's how we prepare, respond to, recover from and reduce the effects of emergencies. You know there's the aspect of the city and our response and what we do in preparation, and there's also what the citizens need to do Making sure you're prepared and your family's prepared and your neighbors are prepared and that brings me to this.

Speaker 1:

That's just dawned on me, because we are a community that has horses and animals and farms and and whatnot, so it's important that you have a merge, an emergency plan, for your animals as well give you a good example.

Speaker 2:

Years ago, when we first started, we were the only ones in the state georgia that had a technical large animal emergency rescue team. Right and it's around 2009, 2010. Somewhere around there, there was storm that come through and a flood come through and parts of sandy springs actually got flooded and we actually got called down there and myself and, at the time, chief Stevens and a few others, we responded down there with the T-Lair team and we got down there. What we responded to was down by the river there was an equestrian farm and these horses were actually stuck. It looked like a little island and they were stuck in a barn. We responded out there and we actually helped get them horses. We walked through water and it was about chest deep.

Speaker 2:

We had to slowly and calmly walk horses through that water and get them to the other side, because there was more flood than it was supposed to come.

Speaker 1:

They may or may not cooperate. I've had horses. Yes, found that out real quick yeah, they may or may not decide to go with you. They they have their own ideas of how it should go.

Speaker 1:

But I will tell you that that was always my panic button. I knew what to do with my family, but with my horses it's important to know how you're going to evacuate them, and there was a time when I did. I myself didn't have a trailer at a window where I hadn't gotten my trailer yet and I was like, if I needed to evacuate these guys, how would I do that? The good news about the equestrian community they are so willing to help everybody out in a lot of these emergency situations. Hey, I've got a horse trailer holler at me. If you need me, I'll come. Come, grab your horses, we'll take them here. It's unbelievable.

Speaker 2:

And that's you know. That's the bad part about our major threat within the city, which is these storms, is because usually when these storms roll through in the spring or in the fall, we worry about threats of tornadoes or straight-line winds. They usually cover large areas, so it's like you get them alerts. It's like central Georgia, all the way up in north Georgia. So it's like, yeah, so I mean, if you know that within a week, that's one thing I mean, because where are you going to load your horse and take them to if you're in central Georgia, correct, and it's covering central and north georgia, right, you know? So, yeah, so you know it's important, yes, if you, if know ahead of time to be able to take your animals somewhere.

Speaker 2:

But if not, get with the equestrian community, come together. You know big thing, because you take, for instance, like the sandy springs when it flooded is kind of twofold, because they're down here and you need to get them up because away from the flood. But when you bring them up now, you're coming into the tornado or straight line wind territory. So where are you going to house them to keep them safe from that? So, unfortunately from us, like I said, we don't have to worry too much about flooding, like sandy springs and some others that are right there by the river, but we do have to worry about these straight line winds and possibility of tornadoes.

Speaker 2:

And that's the thing about preparation. Even if the storms are not coming until October, the bad ones now's the time to prepare for them Be ready.

Speaker 1:

That's really great advice and I appreciate that. It's a great way to wrap this episode up Again. Everything will be in the show notes. I'll list all these resources that Jason has shared with us and make sure you guys are in the know. That's the best way you can prepare yourself. I appreciate you being here today, jason. This was, as I said, something I've been trying to get on the books for a while, because this is important for our community, appreciate you having me because it is important and a lot of people they don't think about it until it's too late.

Speaker 2:

Yeah until they have to or it's too late. So it's great to be able to talk to people and help them to understand and especially what the city has done in preparation. I can assure all our citizens that the city from the fire, police, public works, city officials we are all prepared to assist our citizens to recover from or mitigate, hopefully reduce the risk and especially respond to any type of emergency that we have just remember. Also, what helps us is when our citizens are prepared, because if you're prepared, then we can respond to these other mercies because we know that you are taken care of. So it really helps us for our citizens to be prepared. You know, it's kind of like when storms roll through. I know people want to get out, it's like an ice storm or snow storm, but we highly encourage you to stay inside you know, until you get the all clear.

Speaker 1:

You mean when we send out that message that says stay inside. You actually mean stay inside.

Speaker 2:

Yes, stay inside and if you need. Clarifications. If you have an emergency and you need us, dial 911 and we will be there. Yes, please stay inside and as long as you sign up for Everbridge, which we highly encourage you to, you will know when it's safe to come out and get on the roads.

Speaker 1:

And I promise you we are not going to text you and tell you what we're eating for breakfast. These are important updates that we're saving for you. So, with all that being said, that's a wrap on today's episode of Milton and Maine. A huge thank you to Division Chief Jason Baswell for joining us and giving us a clearer picture of what emergency management really looks like here in Milton. If there's one takeaway, it's this, and Jason just said it very clearly. You really don't need me repeating it Preparedness isn't just the city's responsibility.

Speaker 1:

It's something we all have a role in, from signing up for alerts to having a family plan in place. The more we know, the better we respond when it counts. So remember all those links are in the show notes. Head over to the website. There's a slew of information in there wwwmiltongagov and if you ever have any questions, ideas or just want to learn more, you can reach out. I will help direct you. You can get me at my email. Christyweeks at miltongagov. And, as always, thanks for listening. Stay safe, stay informed and we'll catch you next time. Thanks for listening to Milton in Maine. We hope this episode gave you fresh insights into what makes our city so special. Stay connected and don't miss an episode by subscribing to this podcast on your favorite platform and following us on social media for all updates and, of course, thank you.