Emergency management personnel and educators attended the Safe School Summit on Monday. (Click on picture for larger image) Back row: Dan Fulscher, director of the Logan County Emergency Management Agency/E911; Terry Morgan, principal at Mount Pulaski High School; Dan Smith, Region 7 coordinator for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency; Mike Workman, assistant principal at Lincoln Junior High School; Kirby Rogers, education liaison for Logan County EMA; Lyle Reed, retired teacher and representative for Zion Lutheran School in Lincoln; and Terry Storer, deputy director of Logan County EMA/E911. Front row: Jean Anderson, regional superintendent for Logan, Menard and Mason County; Mary Ahillen, District 27 superintendent; Rhonda Hyde, assistant principal at Lincoln Community High School; Jennifer Hamm, superintendent and principal at Chester-East Lincoln; and Ginger Yeazle, principal at Washington-Monroe School.

Logan County schools receive all-hazards weather radios [October 27, 2011]  Logan County school representatives attended a Safe School Summit on Monday. The meeting was hosted by Dan Fulscher, director of the Logan County Emergency Management Agency and E911, and Terry Storer, deputy director, to conduct an annual review of the countywide response plan for emergency situations. All schools in Logan County are encouraged to send a representative to the annual review in order to coordinate their school's individual plan with the EMA. By state statute the regional superintendent is required to receive an emergency plan from each school in the region.

Before the group of educators left the Logan County Safety Complex, each representative received an all-hazards weather radio for their school. With a grant initially funded through the federal Department of Homeland Security, Logan County EMA obtained 110 all-hazard radios -- enough to distribute one to each school and licensed day care center in Logan County.

Storer wrote an application in early summer for a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency All Hazards grant to the Illinois Terrorism Task Force. One hundred and fifty-six Illinois emergency response agencies, including Logan County EMA/E911, received the all-hazards radios. The state task force purchased the radios through the Emergency Management Committee of the Illinois Emergency Services Management Association.

Several years ago Storer, Regional Superintendent of Schools Jean Anderson, Logan County Sheriff's department and the Lincoln Police Dept. formed a planning group to create a countywide emergency response plan. In 2006 the state of Illinois adopted the School Safety Drill Act, establishing minimum required standards for schools to follow for safety drills and emergency and crisis response plans. Schools and first responders were encouraged to coordinate activity and work together to develop plans.

"They were originally an unofficial group who formed to address the need for an emergency plan," Storer said, "but it became a formal unit when the state statute was approved. The group was actually ahead of the state in planning a coordinated effort.

"It started as a simple, logical plan," Storer continued, "including a variety of incidents like water shut-offs, power outages and other situations that might create a school crisis."

Each school's emergency response plan involves the school administrators and staff, plus the first responders -- fire department, police, emergency services, emergency management. Specific people may be assigned to certain tasks in order to use time and people most efficiently during a crisis.

The all-hazard weather radios will provide an alert due to the forecast of severe weather, domestic situations, hazardous spills and emergency announcements. The EMA office will write a message concerning the emergency to be announced and send it to NOAA at the local National Weather Service office, which will transmit the message to radios in the jurisdiction.

"We're utilizing the system they use for weather in order to get the message out to the public," Storer said. "We're building on an existing system."

A computerized signal will activate the weather radios to announce the emergency message. It will reset after a few minutes, unlike a scanner that is "on" continually. A repeated message would reactivate the system, if necessary.

"This is another tool in the tool kit to get emergency messages out," Storer said. "We'd like to see all-hazard weather radios be as common as smoke detectors. It would be a communications tool that would give warnings directly to members of the public.

"We can do cable television overrides and contact the radio stations," Storer said, "but if most people had an all-hazard weather radio, it would be an immediate warning or notice no matter what they were doing. It could save lives, keep people out of harm's way and make a sweeping announcement that everyone would hear at once. It is a great tool."

[By MARLA BLAIR]