EMA OPENS EOC

When the reports of a major snowstorm heading for Lorain County started coming in, the Lorain County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) went into action.

Alice Webber, Emergency Operations Manager, said they were watching weather radar, monitoring the National Weather Service website and was in on conference calls with the National Weather Service throughout the day. The agency received requests from Community Health Partners in Lorain and Elyria Memorial Hospital to help them get their employees to and from work during the worst part of the storm. Webber opened the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and organized volunteers from the Erie Shores 4X4 club and local ham radio operators. The team had a dozen drivers at the ready to pick up nurses and other essential staff members and take them to and from work.

Tom Kelly, Lorain County EMA Director is in Washington DC at a conference for EMA Directors and has been monitoring the situation closely. Webber plans to be staffing the EOC until Kelly returns from DC Wednesday morning, that is if his flight is not canceled.