Rural Missouri - July 2022 - 9

STORM SAFE
Ozark Border Electric teams up with fi rst responders to safeguard community
by Zach Smith | zsmith@ruralmissouri.coop
T
he ice storm of 2009 may be a bad memory, but it's
never far from the minds of residents in southern
Missouri. That may be especially true for anyone in
the 11-county service area of Ozark Border Electric
Cooperative who remembers the 3,000 poles that were
wiped off the map or the dark days that followed when as
many as 28,000 member-owners were without power.
As electric co-ops know best, power lines can be rebuilt
and the lights will eventually be turned on again. It's the
potential loss of human life that keeps community pillars
awake at night, and that's why when natural disasters
strike the area Ozark Border and the Butler County Emergency
Management Agency share a common goal: helping
the local population stay informed and prepared for bad
weather.
" We've had a long-running tradition: If the local emergency
management agencies need help, they know they
can call us, " says Ozark Border Manager David Schremp.
" It's always been a two-way relationship. "
Butler County EMA Director Robbie Myers estimates
the partnership stretches back at least 20 years when the
Butler County Health Department purchased new tornado
sirens. The EMA and the co-op worked together to choose
locations where the equipment could be placed in order
to reach the greatest number of residents. Ozark Border
donated the use of personnel and bucket trucks to help
mount the sirens.
" David, the board and the staff are always communityminded, "
Robbie says, noting the co-op helps make the
scene safe for EMA restoration efforts in the aftermath of
storms. " We know we can count on them whether it's time
of emergency or time of planning. "
In addition to the tornado sirens, the Butler County
EMA has two other resources for storm preparedness and
warning. One is the Poplar Bluff Severe Weather Response
Team, a group of storm spotters trained by the National
Weather Service to help identify different storm systems
and cloud types. When it may not be safe or feasible to dispatch
people to a particular area, that's when the second
tool comes in handy - weather cameras.
The EMA's recent focus has been integrating its
weather tracking with a nationwide weather warning app,
Butler County Emergency Management Agency Director Robbie
Myers and Ozark Border Electric Cooperative Board President Darrell
Atchison visit one of the EMA's storm sirens and weather cameras in
Poplar Bluff. The cooperative helped install fi ve of the cameras earlier
this year to assist the EMA with storm spotting.
RadarOmega. The weather cameras are particularly useful
in Butler County, which is located at the westernmost edge
of the Paducah, Kentucky NWS radar system. Because
of the conical shape of the radar's wave, storms closer
to the ground near the edge of radar range are harder to
accurately detect. Ozark Border helped ring in the new
year by placing fi ve of the weather cameras for the EMA,
creating another tool in the county's storm preparedness
kit.
" We can't stop a tornado from coming in and creating
damage, but we can limit the damage to human life
by having ample warnings, " Robbie says. " With cameras,
sirens and volunteers we can alert people and get them to
safety. "
Ozark Border also has a strong presence in its local
school district, whether it's helping to light the way back to
night football games for the Doniphan Dons after a 49-year
absence, or performing safety demonstrations for students.
When COVID prevented the in-school demos from taking
place, David said Ozark Border Electric's board of directors
saw an opportunity to engage more of the community in
the electric safety conversation.
" It got us thinking outside that box about what areas
are most affected, " David adds. " Farming is big here, and
we have a lot of fi rst responders. We probably have 50 or
more volunteer fi re departments within our service area, so
it seemed like a natural transition. "
The fi rst of the new electric safety programs held in
May targeted volunteer fi refi ghters teaching them what to
look for and how to react in emergency situations where
they may encounter electric equipment. The program also
teaches fi rst responders what to do when energized lines
are involved, how to steer clear of them and contact the
co-op for assistance. David says plans call for expanding
the program to focus on agriculture and farming-related
electrical safety as well as a standard safety demonstration
for adults that can be offered on a regular basis to the
public.
" These are our members out here doing this work, so
any time we can help them and have a direct impact on
their safety out there, it's important for us to do that, " David
says. " It's all about safety and community involvement
for us. "
Poplar Bluff
For more information about Ozark
Border Electric Cooperative, visit www.
ozarkborder.org. For more information
about Butler County EMA, follow
them on Facebook at www.
facebook.com/ButlerCountyEMA.
JULY 2022 | RURALMISSOURI.COOP 9
http://www.ozarkborder.org http://www.ozarkborder.org http://www.facebook.com/ButlerCountyEMA http://www.facebook.com/ButlerCountyEMA http://www.RURALMISSOURI.COOP
Rural Missouri - July 2022

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