July 9, 2025 • 51 mins
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.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to Milton and Maine, the official podcast for
the city of Milton.
We want to bring you closer tothe heart of our community
through stories that inform,inspire and connect.
Each episode offers abehind-the-scenes look at the
people, projects and prioritiesshaping Milton, covering
everything from local governmentand future development to arts,
culture, sustainability andpublic safety.
(00:30):
Whether you're a resident, alocal business owner or just
curious about our city, this isyour front row seat to what
makes Milton special.
Hey everyone, welcome back toMilton in Maine.
I'm your host, christy Weeks,the communications manager for
the city of Milton.
Today we're talking about atopic that touches all of us,
whether we realize it or notemergency management.
From major storms and poweroutages to large public events
(00:53):
and everything in between.
A lot of behind-the-scenesplanning goes into keeping our
city safe, informed and prepared.
So joining me today is DivisionChief Jason Baswell of Milton
Fire Rescue.
He leads our emergencymanagement and support services
and he's here to break down whatthat really means, how it
affects residents and what youshould know in case disaster
(01:13):
strikes.
So let's get into it.
How does Milton prepare for theunexpected?
Because we see it quite a bit.
Welcome, jason.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
You're welcome.
Glad I could finally pin youdown on a date.
You're a busy man, busy man.
So first of all, we want toknow how you got here, how you
got to Milton Fire Rescue, whatyour journey's been like.
Give us a little history.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Well, I started out in the fire service in the
mid-90s and started out atFulton County Fire Department.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Oh, look at you out.
Your age, just like me.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, and time flew by.
I was there for around 10 1⁄2years and around 2006, sandy
Springs voted to become a cityand then Milton followed suit,
sure.
And so what happened was weFulton County was not going to
be providing the fire servicesto the North Fulton cities, so
(02:09):
they did layoffs, which theycalled reduction in force, and
unfortunately I was involved inthat.
But God blessed me and got mehere, because I actually put
application in and got hiredhere as an officer on the
apparatus and worked my way upthrough the ranks and, uh, but
started here in the verybeginning, got that you've been
here 18 years, then 18 years,yep, goodness.
(02:32):
So, uh, going through thepictures, uh, my girls were just
babies when I started and it'scrazy because they're graduate
college and to think how longdid I've been here yeah 18 years
just flown by, and we weretalking earlier at the station
about Milton.
Then we got into just how muchMilton has developed over the
(02:53):
years.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
And we can remember back in 07 when we started.
You know the population wasaround 15,000 and now it's up
with around 45,000, and just thegrowth.
But you know you drive throughMilton and it's still beautiful
even with all the growth.
The tree ordinance has helpedout because, we've got these
beautiful hardwood trees.
We talked about it earlier butunfortunately, you know, with
(03:16):
those beautiful trees, whenstorms roll through here that
brings most of our call volume.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yeah, and we're going to get into all of that.
And it's funny that you weretalking about the beginning days
of fire rescue.
I had Matt Marietta and JC onin the last episode two of the
core originals, just like you,that have been around and they
kind of talked about the cultureand how things have changed and
how Milton's grown and involvedover the years.
So these stories I love hearingabout how y'all got to where
(03:44):
you are and you've come a longway.
I mean division chief is bigdeal.
Yeah, and trust me everyone, heis a busy guy.
I've been trying to get him onthis podcast pretty much since
the inception and he's so busyso let's just kind of get into
it.
Tell me what emergencymanagement actually covers in a
city like Milton, because in itwe talked off mic a little bit
(04:06):
earlier and my experiences andmy previous residences in
different states is a whole lotdifferent than what we
experience here in Georgia yeah,we work in conjunction with
AFSEMA the Atlanta Fulton CountyEmergency Management Agency,
also the Georgia EmergencyManagement Agency are outside
(04:27):
and also the North Fulton cities.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
You know some of the big things.
When we look at most of ourthreats here in the city because
we are predominantlyresidential and we don't have
like industry or railroad tracksor airports or anything like
that our biggest threat are whenstorms roll through.
You know the possibility oftornadoes.
So we looked at let me back upemergency management.
(04:52):
Yeah, what that is is basicallyit involves mitigation, which
is reducing risk.
We got to figure out what ourrisks are.
Then how do we prepare for thatRight, then how do we respond
to them and also how do werecover from them and also how
do we recover from them.
Part of that mitigation,reducing those risks is first
identifying them and, like Isaid in our emergency operations
(05:12):
plan in Milton, one of thethings identified is storms that
we worry about possibility oftornadoes.
So you know, over the years,matt Marietta, who's now the
human resource director, was ouremergency manager for years and
early on.
One of the things that welooked at due to the possibility
of storms rolling through islike a tornado sirens, early
(05:33):
warning sirens.
But what I want to stress is isthose sirens were really for
people when they were outside.
Those sirens are not really forpeople that are inside the home
in the middle of the nightduring the storm, because the
probability of you being able tohear that siren is very low
unless you live close by.
(05:54):
That's why it's so important forthings like Everbridge, which
I'm sure we'll talk about.
Oh we are, you know, and alsothe alerts that Georgia and the
National Weather Service sendout over your phone.
It's real important to sign upfor those type of alerts because
you're going to get notified bythat phone, far sooner and
(06:14):
greater than you ever would, ofour tornado sirens.
Unless you're outside orwalking or whatever, you'll hear
that tornado siren, but anyway,we've got about 11 of them
around the city.
We provide maintenance on themand when you, there's 11 in the
city.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Is that what you said ?
Yeah, city.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
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 alarge area to cover.
So I mean an engineering groupcome in early on.
They basically looked at thetopography, looked at the square
miles and they determined thebest locations to put them
(06:53):
sirens so that people would hearthem.
Fortunately for City Hall, theCrab Apple area, Alpharetta has
sirens and so you know we gotsome close by here.
But alpharetta, with theirs andours together, milton's pretty
much covered, funny story aboutsirens, tornado sirens.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I was living in michigan when my daughter was a
baby and my husband traveled alot.
And I'm not from michigan, I'mfrom colorado.
And yeah, we had tornadoes, butnot really the siren thing.
So the siren goes off.
I have no idea what it is, noclue.
I go about my day, sarah and Iare chilling in the house.
Tornado hit less than a milefrom us and just destroyed a
(07:34):
neighborhood and so all of asudden I was like, oh, that's
what that noise was.
And the neighbors are fillingme in because I was relatively
new to the neighborhood.
So three weeks later, siren goesoff.
I'm ready.
This time, man, I have a go bag.
(07:54):
I just put Sarah down for a nap, I run up, I grab her, I grab
my go bag, I'm downstairs in thebasement, I'm ready.
There's nothing, there's nocommunication.
So I call my neighbor.
I was like do you know anythingabout the tornado?
And she's like Christy, thatwas the test siren, it happens
every month.
And I was like I'm looking atmy kid, she's awake, she needed
a nap, I needed a nap.
(08:14):
Gone.
So after that I kind of quitpanicking, a little bit prepared
, not panicked.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yeah, and, and you know, ours are tested, uh,
monthly, yeah, uh, the firsttuesday of every month but y'all
, there's actually communicationthat goes out about that.
People see that and we don'ttypically we don't sound our
sirens because they are nearsome horse farms oh yeah.
So we just actually spin themand once they rotate and then we
(08:49):
make sure that the signals arepinging back to dispatch.
Because the way our sirensoperate 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, oranybody else would and so they
actually have the button andthey actually hit the button for
(09:09):
our warning sirens and actuallysound our sirens off.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
So it's automatic.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
So there's no delay in me having to call up or
dispatch or anything like that.
They automatically do it from911.
That's awesome.
Yeah, it is so.
Like I said, they get theweather alerts from National
Weather Service in whatever areain Milton, so it makes it
easier and better.
Like I said, we got automaticaid with Alpharetta, so you know
(09:33):
they set their sirens off andthey'll set our sirens off.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
It cuts a few seconds down.
Right Time matters.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
So those few seconds will count and, like I said,
it's when a tornado warningcomes out that the sirens will
operate All right.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Well, that's good to know.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
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 theyear, 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 wehad a storm pop up on.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Let's see, we're recording this early, so that
was june 26th that this pop-upstorm came out of nowhere.
And tell us what y'all saw onyour side, because we know what
we saw is residents andemployees and business owners.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
All of a sudden calls started dropping.
Our guys started responded to911 calls with trees down, yeah,
and the area seemed to be amajority on the south end there,
crab apple, okay, because wewere getting hit down here,
alpharetta, and I talked to mycounterparts in roswell same
thing.
So this area down in here wasgetting hit, yeah, with a bunch
(10:57):
of trees down.
And birmingham highway was amess.
Yeah, birmingham highway uparound up fre Road, close to you
know, going down Nix Road,birmingham Road had a few
Cogburn.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Lots of closed roads.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, and it was sporadic around the city.
The bulk of it was in thesouthern part of the city but it
was a little sporadic, that youknow where they were getting
hit.
But the past few weeks it hasbeen hot this week and drying
out, thank goodness.
But the past few weeks havebeen a hot this week and drying
out, thank goodness.
But um, the past few weeks havebeen a lot of rain, so I mean
that ground's probably stillsaturated, so it didn't help
(11:32):
when these winds come in and butit did.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
It popped out of nowhere, it did it was.
It was crazy and that'ssomething I'm still getting used
to in georgia.
But let's talk about thatbecause the tree thing
fascinates me, because I comeout of the west, where the trees
don't go down as easy as theydo here.
Let's talk about that, becauseyou said earlier off mic that it
was the hardwoods that we havethe most.
(11:57):
So tell me about the, thedynamics of that tree coming
down, because the ground thisand it's very basic when you
look at it, but it's fascinatingyeah, it's a.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
What makes milton so beautiful when you're driving
through are the hardwood treesthat we have.
Unfortunately, when thesestorms roll through, if you go
to in south georgia where theyhave a bunch of pine trees,
normally when those high windsstraight line winds of tornadoes
come through, it usually snapsthe tree about halfway up so
you're getting half the treedropping and falling and it does
cause damage.
(12:30):
But when you have these bighardwoods like we have, you know
when these winds come throughthe ground saturated, it's a
heavy tree, it brings the wholeentire tree down usually and
their root systems aren't verydeep.
These hardwoods right no, um, Imean some of them.
You'll drive by and the wholeroot system will be up.
It'll look like it's six footold there.
(12:51):
Oh my gosh, they're huge yeah,but it brings the whole tree
down, so you can only imagine abigger tree in the roadway.
It's going to take a lot longer.
Usually public works has tocome out with some heavy
equipment, you know, or they gotlimbs on some of these trees
that are the size of some othertrees right and so they'll come
down and uh yeah, unfortunately.
You know it's beautiful when youdrive through Milton, but
(13:13):
unfortunately the hardwoodsusually cause more damage.
Takes a little bit more time toget up.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
When those come down, the power lines come down and
it's kind of a ripple effect allthe way through the city.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
And that's the biggest thing is because if a
tree is on a power line, there'snothing we can do.
We have to wait for the powercompany.
So you can only imagine a stormrolls through and is hitting
Cherokee and it's hitting allthe North Fulton area and
Forsyth County.
It could take a while.
Part of mitigation and reducingthe risk would be citizens
(13:44):
reporting trees close to theroadway that maybe looks like
they're leaning or maybe lookslike they're dead.
We could send people out tocheck it out.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
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 theinformation in the show notes so
y'all have access to that,because that's a very handy,
quick way to report issuesthroughout the city I mean, if
you think about it, the powercompany.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
I mean you watch them and they come out yearly, about
every two years, and what arethey doing?
They're trimming trees andthey're trimming tree limbs back
from the power lines.
They're mitigating thepossibility or the risk of those
tree limbs coming out andtaking the power lines down.
Unfortunately for them, thesetrees are tall and they can't
cut them back that far, so, butyou know, that's mitigation,
(14:34):
that's reducing the risk.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
I gotcha I gotcha I love that.
So it's important I foreverybody to know what
preparedness looks like.
And coming from outside ofgovernment and coming in
especially into thecommunications department, I've
had the opportunity to reallylearn what that means and what
communications part is in, likethe EOC, the Emergency
(15:00):
Operations Center, which I gotto be a part of a few times now,
and I want people to understandhow much effort and
coordination and the plans youguys have in place already for
when these situations happen,because it's not just by chance
that y'all know exactly where togo, who to contact, who shows
(15:22):
up where and all that kind ofstuff, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, it does.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
It does, doesn't it?
But for an outsider, somebodywho hasn't seen it, I'd have no
clue.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah, and there is a lot of behind the scenes that
people don't see.
Even people that work withinthe city don't even see it,
don't understand all of it andhow complex it could get, you
know.
But simplified, it'spreparation.
As far as from the city'sperspective, as you know, it
entails, first and foremost,training, obviously for police,
(15:58):
fire, public works and othercity officials.
Because you were mentioning theEmergency Operations Center,
what we normally call the EOC,there's preparation and part of
that is what we call theNational Incident Management
System.
Obviously, when a storm rollsthrough, you're dealing with
multiple departments.
You also might be dealing witha private sector or nonprofits
(16:20):
during these events.
And so what the NationalIncident Management System does?
It allows all those to cometogether and work and that's
basically what I do.
You know I don't run theemergency.
What I do is I coordinateeverybody else.
Fire department runs the callsand they run the emergency on
(16:44):
the scene.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Pd runs it if it's in their realm.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Public works Does their job, does their job, and
so, basically, everybody's doingwhat they do, what they're
trained to do and what we, youknow.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Like a football team.
Exactly the message is do yourjob.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah, and they got a game plan Right.
We have a game plan too.
We have an emergency operationsplan for the city of Milton,
and then the EOC is just a placewhere we bring all that
together and we coordinate,because 911 is going to get
overwhelmed obviously.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
With a whole bunch of 911 calls, people phoning in,
and so what we do there at theEOC is we kind of take that off
them and we just coordinate themcalls, as long as it's trees
down.
That way they can handle yourcardiac arrest, your possible
structure fire calls.
But anyway, we go intopreparation.
The national instant managementsystem, uh, matter of fact, uh,
(17:31):
all our personnel arerecertified in the instant
command system which is I'm inthe process we've actually
involved.
You know specific city personnelwho might operate within the
eoc, yep, and what those are isthose are basic classes that the
Federal Emergency ManagementAgency put out and it just gets
(17:52):
everybody on the same page,helps them to understand and,
like I said, during an emergencyI 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 anddepartments together in one
cohesive Everybody'sunderstanding who's in charge
(18:12):
the upline, the language is allcoordinated, so everybody's
talking the same language.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
because that was the one thing I picked up from the
classes I've taken so far isthat in different areas they
could have different terminologyand these classes and this
training that you have, the EOCteams take breaks that down, so
then everybody knows andeverybody's on the same page.
(18:40):
So we're all not like sittingthere Googling what this guy's
talking about or askingquestions that we should already
know.
So I find it terriblyfascinating and informative.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
so I'm working my way through.
Like I said, even going throughit, sometimes it seems
overwhelming and sometimes Ihave to bring people off the
cliff and say it's okay, Justcalm down, it's going to be all
right.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Well, it is a little bit of an intense situation.
I mean, cut us a little slack.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
We don't do that every day.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
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 thatyou're in the room with me and
other people so I communicateback and forth and fire may
communicate with you.
That way all the informationflows through one channel and
(19:29):
then it comes out as onecohesive message from the city
as a whole.
So that's what the EOC is andhopefully we'll never have to
utilize it for this.
But it's recovery.
You know EOCs are important inrecovery, yeah.
But yeah, preparedness is a lotof.
It is training from our side.
(19:50):
Logistical support, which I'malso in charge of I'm the
division chief over supportservices here which it kind of
goes with emergency management.
You know I'm over chief oversupport services here, which it
kind of goes with emergencymanagement.
You know I'm over all ourapparatus, all our equipment,
our stations and Captain Womackhe's great, he helps me manage
all that.
Yeah, preparing, making sure wegot the tools and equipment and
also, from the emergencymanagement perspective, making
(20:12):
sure even like you you knowyou're our communications person
that's going to be getting theinformation 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 (20:26):
As long as we know, yeah, when we know, which was
not the case on June 26th, itjust kind of arrived.
Good news is is that I news isthat there was trees down and
some damage and whatnot noinjuries, nothing catastrophic
off the chain, so hindsight 2020.
Anyway, let's talk Everbridge.
You brought it up.
Let's go there because it issuch an effective tool and every
(20:51):
county, every city has somesort of an emergency
notification system that goesout, or any of them that I've
been in Talk to me aboutEverbridge.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yeah, everbridge is a great program.
It allows us to send messagesout in real time.
It requires our citizens tosign up, which I highly
encourage.
We actually utilize it fornon-emergency things too, which
is also nice because it getspeople used to receiving those
messages and understanding theprogram.
But Everbridge is great because, like I said, we have the
(21:24):
tornado sirens and you have theemergency alerts.
But we also, from the cityperspective, can send emergency
alerts out and we also can sendupdates.
Know right, like on june 26when that storm wrote through,
you know we put some, may putsome things out.
This road's closed.
Well, if that road's closed,you've got to find a different
route, maybe to work, pick yourkids up or whatever.
(21:46):
We also can utilize thatprogram to let them know that
those roads are back open,because a lot of people you know
they they don't have time tolog on to social media or are
Internet.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
You know they just want a quick alert to let them
know, most people have theirphones on them at any given
point.
It is literally the most directway for us to connect.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
And that's why it's important too.
That I want people tounderstand is to make sure those
alerts are on your phone.
And you know some people theycut them alerts off because
sometimes, which the alertsdon't go out a whole lot, you'll
get an Amber alert or whatever.
But you really need to makesure that those alerts are on
your phone.
(22:27):
I think our communicationsdepartment sent something out
showing people.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Yeah, so in the last storm that we had, the June 26th
, one, pd has access toeverbridge as well.
So, coming from thecommunications department, yes,
and and I do head up theeverbridge effort, trying to get
it all the messages out asneeded, but pd and fire both
have access to it as well,because y'all see things that we
(22:54):
don't and some, and there's noreason for us to be the that
middleman in between when youguys are running alerts and
whatnot.
I, like jason said, I highly,highly encourage everybody to
sign up for the everbridgenotifications and you can find
that information on our websiteat wwwmiltongagov forward slash
(23:15):
notifications and there's anentire description as to what it
does and how to do it.
It's very, very efficient andyou can select the different
notifications you want, whetherit's road closures, city news,
parks and rec, weather updatesand emergencies, which, of
course, is our biggest bucket.
But it's vital in keeping thecommunication lines open for
(23:39):
everybody.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
And, like I said, as far as preparation, with
Everbridge fire department,police, in conjunction with
communications, we put messagesout for our citizens to help
prepare Correct.
You know, hey, we've got astorm coming.
Here's what we're expecting,here's what you can do to
prepare, and we send little tipsout for people.
(23:59):
So, like you said, I highlyencourage you to sign up.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
So that way you know what to do during an emergency.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Yeah, yeah, I'll have that information in the show
notes as well to help peoplefind their way to the Everbridge
notification system.
Um, very handy, so let's kindof look at.
You've already touched a littlebit on community risk and
reduction and prevention and youidentified storms as being kind
of our main issue, our mainthreat.
(24:29):
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-scaleevents that would happen?
I mean, maybe not so much herein Milton, but if you were to
look at an emergency managementfrom a 30,000 feet overview, is
(24:49):
it kind of the same?
This is just kind of a one-offquestion that popped in my head.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Yeah, it is, like I said, the the national incident
management system.
It come about because oflarge-scale incidents out of the
west and yes, it's.
The thing about the instantcommand system is it can expand
and you can contract, and it'ssupposed to help everything flow
real, smooth and easy and itallows you to run an incident.
(25:17):
If the incident starts outsmall and then all of a sudden
that incident ramps up, you canexpand your instant command
system to handle that and thenas time goes, you can retract it
back down.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Right.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Because you don't need all the other you know it
might be planning logisticsfinance.
There might not ever be a timewhere you need it, or there
might be a time you need it andthen, all of a sudden, you know
after a week or two you don'tneed this no more Now you can
take it away.
So that's the great thing aboutit.
So, yeah, it can you know.
I'm not saying we wouldn't haveno other large scale event.
(25:54):
Take, for instance I don't knowif people knew on June 26.
Also, there was a meteor showerthat happened, and you know a
meteor.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
No, I did not know that.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
And a meteor went through somebody's roof in their
living room.
A piece of the meteorite.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
You're kidding.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
No, and they said it sounded like thunder and
everything else.
And yeah, I've been hearing itall on the news.
So so you know we were gettingstorms and somebody else was
getting meteorite and it wasjust in henry county.
That's crazy.
Yeah, it was never know, youdon't?
Speaker 1 (26:24):
you don't because I mean just in the areas that
we've used it.
We used everbridge and the eocfor the hurricane helene last
fall, which was my first time inthe EOC, but we also had it for
some of these snowstorms thatwe've had, which, by the way, it
was not in the Georgia brochurewhen I moved here that we got
(26:44):
as much snow as we have had.
Not going to lie, my kids hadmore snow days here than we did
in Colorado.
Very, very odd to me, but superimpressed by the way our
emergency management systemworked in those situations yeah,
the great thing about like thesnow events or ice events down
here we call them um.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
In georgia we most of the time we're, we're prepared
for them.
You know, we know correct inadvance, so we've got our
equipment in place.
Extra, extra personnel, I'mtelling you.
Unfortunately, when storms rollthrough, you could have a severe
thunderstorm, kind of like onJune 26th Right.
That storm just popped out ofnowhere and so I mean we didn't
(27:25):
have extra staff or anything.
Thank goodness we didn't needthem.
All our personnel did what theydo.
They went out and they did whatthey're trained to do was clear
the roadways, the ones thatthey could so they're trained to
do was clear the roadways theones that they could so they
could respond to.
No panic, no big hubbub, you alljust went out and did what you
(27:45):
were supposed to do.
You know, they just did a lotmore of it than they normally do
, but they did a great job.
Yeah, yeah, so one particularthing I could remember was back
in 2020, was the covid emergencyresponse to covid.
So I could think about that,because we we did a lot of
coordinating with AFSEMA, theAtlanta Fort County Emergency
Management Agency, then alsoGEMA.
Then you've got to throw FEMAin the mix and that was an
(28:08):
important thing withdeclarations such as those, or
major weather events, whenHurricane Helene come through,
is the possibility ofreimbursement for whatever
damages that may occur.
So the preparation part withtraining and things like that is
you know, we got to make sureour personnel are trained to the
proper levels in accordancewith FEMA and GEMA, because
(28:33):
during a large-scale event, ifthere is a declaration, we want
to make sure our citizens gettheir money recouped back to
them.
Unfortunately for us, we'vebeen able to do that the past
few times.
Unfortunately, during HurricaneHelene, we didn't get that
declaration.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
I think citizens were able to put in for it or we put
something out about it, but asfar 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 along time prepping for that and
the amount of effort andorganization that I was able to
(29:10):
see was incredible.
Not gonna lie and I would nevertell everybody that to their
face because that's y'all's jobbut as a new person at the time
it was great it was.
It was really cool to watcheverybody do what they do.
Now, the good part about Heleneis that we were oh goodness,
y'all were ready.
I mean things placed in theproper places around the city,
(29:33):
crews ready, everybody onstandby.
And the proper places aroundthe city, crews ready, everybody
on standby.
And that hurricane shiftedovernight and unfortunately it
hit a lot of people that werenot prepared for it because it
had not been predicted to gothose directions.
And I know a handful offamilies personally that were
(29:54):
affected by that, because I havesome friends up in Tennessee
and whatnot so awful on thatside.
So how I don't know what theright way to ask this question
is.
Is that in that instance, Imean, they're just assuming that
it's not coming their way, sothey're not putting all their
resources in place?
And yet we we pre dideverything and shifted, and for
(30:19):
us it was okay, but for othersit was so catastrophic.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Yeah, like I said, weather's finicky in Georgia.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Finicky is a solid word.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
And what I would want to say to our citizens is that
we are prepared.
Yeah, a perfect example is June26.
I mean, there was no weatheralert, there was nothing.
There was just.
It's like this thing justpopped out of nowhere and then
our personnel, they handled it.
Because that's what we do wetrain year-round for not only
(30:51):
fires and EMS, but for thosetype of emergencies.
From the emergency managementside.
I want to make sure ourpersonnel are prepared Now.
Obviously, with a storm like onJune 26, you would like to have
just a few more personnel onhand, but our personnel they
weren't able to win, or a littlenotice would have been nice,
yeah, a little notice.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Mother nature take no .
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Yeah, and so you know when a storm's coming, and we
know.
I tell you that when we knowstorms are coming, we make sure
our personnel have what theyneed on our trucks, Because we
already know we're going to runtrees down.
We don't know to what extent Ourbiggest thing is do we bring
people in early or do we wait?
That's the biggest thing.
(31:30):
But as far as training andknowing 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, publicworks.
Hey, we step back and we'rejust like what do y'all need?
Because we just let them dowhat they do and they do their
job and they do a great job atit, Right, but anyway, yes,
(31:52):
we're prepared and likespecifically like Colleen, you
know, when something like thatcomes in and there's a
possibility, even if we're notgoing to get hit, if they're
saying it's shifting too farleft or maybe it's going further
right and, as you know, theright side of the storm is
always the worst.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
I did not know that, but thank you.
Did that just help me with oneof my classes?
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Yeah, very interesting.
But yeah, the right side of thestorm is where the worst winds
and the tornadoes usually spawnoff from.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Didn't I know that?
Speaker 2 (32:21):
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 outsideof that band was what got hit
really really bad, soheartbreaking hit really, really
bad.
Oh so heartbreaking, but anyway, the when we know a storm like
that's coming and they'retalking about maybe it's a
(32:41):
tropical depression by the timeit gets here.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
We still make sure that we are prepared because we
know we talked about that stormfor how many days prior?
Speaker 2 (32:50):
yeah, and so at any point in time, and we didn't
even know, I mean, as the nightprogressed, if you remember, it
kept moving.
I remember very clearly it'snot like it moved that afternoon
or that morning it was late inthat evening and it just kept
going a little bit further rightand it moved just enough right
that we actually skated through,thank goodness but it didn't
(33:11):
start that way, and so there was.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
There was a handful of days there prior to and even
the day of where we're watching.
We're like okay, and you knowI'm sweating, I'm like this is
coming, this is happening, andthen it just kept going.
So with that type of asituation, or any of these
storms for that matter, what doour citizens need to have on
(33:35):
hand for their own emergencyplans?
Because we know the city'splanning for it, we know you all
know your job and train for iton the daily.
What do we need to tell ourcitizens to have ready to go?
I mean, what's our best pieceof advice?
Speaker 2 (33:49):
We send things out.
Our communications departmentis great.
Y'all do a great job aboutsending things out and we try to
do that year round, before thestorm season and things like
that.
But the biggest thing is makingsure you and your family have a
plan, right?
You know, obviously with thestorm we want you to stay in the
house.
It's basically after the fact.
So obviously one of the biggestthings is we want to make sure
(34:12):
you're prepared with water andfood, maybe for a few days,
because we just don't.
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 youmight put in a little bag just
in case if you got some damageon your house or whatever.
And then on top of that, withthe water and the food, a little
(34:32):
first aid kit.
Yep, make sure your cellphone's charged, your
medications yeah, medications.
I highly encourage you toactually have like some type of
charging system for your phones.
If you don't have a homegenerator Because one of the
biggest things for our elderlypopulation if they're on home
oxygen make sure you have a plan.
(34:52):
If you have an elderly mom, dad, right and uncle, help them.
Come up with a plan just incase that power goes out and
they're dependent on home oxygen.
The fire department of citywill do what we can, but
unfortunately if we have a lotof citizens, there's not a whole
lot we can do outside of.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
We will respond and obviously transport an
individual, but we got to beable to get to them so and you
know that just brought to mindthe fact that we have fire cares
and I know that they also reachout to their patients to make
sure, because they have a prettydecent size list of people that
they check on right, and theydo that every storm.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Yep, whoever is on the current list that they have,
they do reach out.
We have them reach out and, youknow, talk to them and see if
they have any needs.
They talk to their familymembers.
So, like I said, preparation isnot only for you and your
family, but also neighbors, yourcommunity, right, you know,
lending assistance to them andhelping them.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
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 EstesPark has four ways in and out
One up over the Rocky MountainNational Park.
One's a little two laner kindof not very well-traveled road
(36:15):
that comes in from the south,and then there's the two main
entrances, highway 36 andHighway 34.
We had a flood that washed out34, 36, and Highway 7, three of
our four entrances in and out ofthat town.
I believe they called it thethousand-year flood and it was
months, months and months and insome cases years for them to
(36:39):
repair the roadways in and out.
And we're like we weren'tallowed to go up over the top to
get out of town because thatwas reserved for emergency
services, gas, food, all thethings.
But I remember my friendcalling me at like four o'clock
in the morning.
We had no idea this was even athing at the time.
Yeah, we'd had a lot of rain,it was that time of year.
(37:01):
And then my friend called andgoes are you okay?
And I'm like, well, yeah, I'mfine.
And she goes turn your news on.
And that's when I saw all theflooding and then realized that
we were stuck.
We could not get in and out oftown.
For a handful of days we had nointernet.
The town it was like a movie,jason.
(37:23):
It was a movie where justyou're shut off from everything
and you can't, there's nothingyou can do.
I couldn't get a hold of myhusband to tell him not to come
home because he was inCalifornia at the time.
It was just spooky and I knowour town utilized the state of
Colorado, the counties,everybody deployed, and we had
(37:46):
Apache choppers coming in andpulling people out of stranded
areas because they had no way inand out.
Everything was washed out.
My girlfriend, she lives in alittle small town on your way
down highway 36 and the chopperlanded in her yard and her kids
were little enough.
They're like they're coming toget us.
(38:09):
She's like no, we're good theystayed.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
They were prepared enough to where they could stay
and waited out until roads wererepaired enough to get in and
out and you know we went up toNorth Carolina, me, my wife and
my daughter a few months ago andit was crazy because parts of
140 was still shut down fromHurricane Helene Right, and you
(38:33):
know.
Then I see pictures and I seevideos of the communities up
there still affected and, youknow, flooded and washed away
due to, you know, mudslides orwhatever.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
And the weather we're still getting is not helping
them out.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
So I mean that goes into, because we talked about
mitigation, we talked aboutpreparedness.
The next one is response how werespond and we kind of touched
on that.
The last one is recovery, andthat'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 onthe federal government and the
state was coming in, trying todo what they could do.
(39:12):
Even at that you can onlyimagine.
I mean, I remember I wasworking in the fire department
at Fulton when the floodhappened in Louisiana.
And I mean that was devastating.
I mean I can't even imagine theresponse.
And obviously the military comein and FEMA set up a command
system and they brought peoplein.
And that was just such largescale.
(39:35):
Was it perfect?
No, but I mean I can't imaginesomething on that scale that
affect that many people in thatlarge of an area.
It's just it's almost like youdon't have enough resources.
So what we're talking about ispreparation is very important,
because you know then you know,fortunately, I don't think we'd
(39:56):
ever now.
Do we have flooding around here?
Yes, we do, but not tosomething that scale.
Right, you know, I remember afew years ago we did have a
flood.
One of the dams broke up onBirmingham 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 talkedabout, where you were just shut
(40:16):
off from the world.
North Carolina is going throughit right now.
There's people that are shutoff from the world, and they're
just now, you know.
Obviously they were able tofinally get to them and they
were able to get out.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
But as far as, like I mean, you can only imagine
they're having to rebuild roadsback to those communities.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
Everything, the complete infrastructure is under
construction To your pointpreparation, making sure you
have food, first aid and things.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
A go bag.
Tell me what goes in a go bag.
Such a fancy word.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Yeah, I know Equipment.
We got like cert bags and whatcert bags do for cert members.
It's kind of like that you canonly imagine and what I tell
people is put in your go bagsome of the main essentials you
know, obviously a first aid kit,some basic tools a knife, a
(41:07):
hammer, a screwdriver and thingslike that.
But there's other things outthere that you need to make the
go bag unique to you and yourfamily.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
So tell us the website where you can get a list
, because I know that there is.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
The best place to go to if you go to readygeorgiagov.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Ah, I'll put that in the show notes too.
Show notes are going to bepacked full of information.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Yeah, it gives you so much information, talks about
go bags, emergency bags, whatyou should put in there.
It also has emergency plans.
That's another thing.
Some of the things you kind ofhit on when you said when that
happened to you up there, you'vegot to imagine like in North
Carolina, especially if you'refamily and you're separated,
(41:54):
your husband's away and you andthe kids are vice versa.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
And you've got to imagine, communications are gone
.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
They're completely gone.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
So there's no way that you're going to be able to
communicate with your family, soyou need to come up with some
type of plan, right?
Speaker 1 (42:09):
What the funny part is is, right out that morning I
was like, well you know, Iwasn't really aware of the full
impact of what had happened.
So I go, I think I'll go to thegrocery store and I'm picking
up all this water and stuff, andsomebody asked me they're like
what are you doing?
I said, well, I'm getting waterin case we don't have any.
(42:30):
And this person looked at meand goes fill your bathtub up,
sir.
That's a great idea for a lotof efforts.
I am not drinking that.
That is you're.
No, thank you, I'm not doing it.
Anyway, there was a noteverybody was fully aware of the
impact of what we were gettingready to experience.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
You got to think.
I mean it's going to takesomething on that scale,
especially with flooding.
I mean it's going to take yourwater system out, it'll take
your sewer system out.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
And if you have a septic tank.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
It's even worse, because the ground's going to be
saturated, so that that'llstart backing up in your house.
So you just need to be prepared.
The best thing to do is, oncethe storm rolls through, if you
can safely evacuate, right, ifnot, just stay there until
emergency personnel can get toyou.
But yeah, I was uh going backto the ready georgia.
(43:25):
They actually have an app thatyou can download called
readygeorgia.
It consists of making a plan,building a kit, getting kids
ready, and so a lot of greatinformation that I encourage
everybody to go to.
It'll give you a good start.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Yeah, for sure, for sure.
So, as we wrap this up, youreally just kind of touched on a
lot of the resources, on whereto find it and again I'll put it
all in the show notes Give usyour final thoughts on emergency
management and what people needto know.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
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 ofthe city and our response and
what we do in preparation, andthere's also what the citizens
need to do Making sure you'reprepared and your family's
(44:17):
prepared and your neighbors areprepared and that brings me to
this.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
That's just dawned on me, because we are a community
that has horses and animals andfarms and and whatnot, so it's
important that you have a merge,an emergency plan, for your
animals as well give you a goodexample.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Years ago, when we first started, we were the only
ones in the state georgia thathad a technical large animal
emergency rescue team.
Right and it's around 2009,2010.
Somewhere around there, therewas storm that come through and
a flood come through and partsof sandy springs actually got
flooded and we actually gotcalled down there and myself and
(44:59):
, at the time, chief Stevens anda few others, we responded down
there with the T-Lair team andwe got down there.
What we responded to was downby the river there was an
equestrian farm and these horseswere actually stuck.
It looked like a little islandand they were stuck in a barn.
We responded out there and weactually helped get them horses.
(45:23):
We walked through water and itwas about chest deep.
We had to slowly and calmly walkhorses through that water and
get them to the other side,because there was more flood
than it was supposed to come.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
They may or may not cooperate.
I've had horses.
Yes, found that out real quickyeah, they may or may not decide
to go with you.
They they have their own ideasof how it should go.
But I will tell you that thatwas always my panic button.
I knew what to do with myfamily, but with my horses it's
important to know how you'regoing to evacuate them, and
there was a time when I did.
(45:56):
I myself didn't have a trailerat a window where I hadn't
gotten my trailer yet and I waslike, if I needed to evacuate
these guys, how would I do that?
The good news about theequestrian community they are so
willing to help everybody outin a lot of these emergency
situations.
Hey, I've got a horse trailerholler at me.
If you need me, I'll come.
Come, grab your horses, we'lltake them here.
(46:18):
It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
And that's you know.
That's the bad part about ourmajor threat within the city,
which is these storms, isbecause usually when these
storms roll through in thespring or in the fall, we worry
about threats of tornadoes orstraight-line winds.
They usually cover large areas,so it's like you get them
(46:42):
alerts.
It's like central Georgia, allthe 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, becausewhere are you going to load
your horse and take them to ifyou're in central Georgia,
correct, and it's coveringcentral and north georgia, right
, you know?
So, yeah, so you know it'simportant, yes, if you, if know
(47:04):
ahead of time to be able to takeyour animals somewhere.
But if not, get with theequestrian community, come
together.
You know big thing, because youtake, for instance, like the
sandy springs when it flooded iskind of twofold, because
they're down here and you needto get them up because away from
the flood.
But when you bring them up now,you're coming into the tornado
(47:27):
or straight line wind territory.
So where are you going to housethem to keep them safe from
that?
So, unfortunately from us, likeI said, we don't have to worry
too much about flooding, likesandy springs and some others
that are right there by theriver, but we do have to worry
about these straight line windsand possibility of tornadoes.
And that's the thing aboutpreparation.
Even if the storms are notcoming until October, the bad
(47:50):
ones now's the time to preparefor them Be ready.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
That's really great advice and I appreciate that.
It's a great way to wrap thisepisode up Again.
Everything will be in the shownotes.
I'll list all these resourcesthat Jason has shared with us
and make sure you guys are inthe know.
That's the best way you canprepare yourself.
I appreciate you being heretoday, jason.
This was, as I said, somethingI've been trying to get on the
books for a while, because thisis important for our community,
(48:18):
appreciate you having me becauseit is important and a lot of
people they don't think about ituntil it's too late.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
Yeah until they have to or it's too late.
So it's great to be able totalk to people and help them to
understand and especially whatthe city has done in preparation
.
I can assure all our citizensthat the city from the fire,
police, public works, cityofficials we are all prepared to
assist our citizens to recoverfrom or mitigate, hopefully
(48:44):
reduce the risk and especiallyrespond to any type of emergency
that we have just remember.
Also, what helps us is when ourcitizens are prepared, because
if you're prepared, then we canrespond to these other mercies
because we know that you aretaken care of.
So it really helps us for ourcitizens to be prepared.
(49:05):
You know, it's kind of likewhen storms roll through.
I know people want to get out,it's like an ice storm or snow
storm, but we highly encourageyou to stay inside you know,
until you get the all clear.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
You mean when we send out that message that says stay
inside.
You actually mean stay inside.
Speaker 2 (49:22):
Yes, stay inside and if you need.
Clarifications.
If you have an emergency andyou need us, dial 911 and we
will be there.
Yes, please stay inside and aslong as you sign up for
Everbridge, which we highlyencourage you to, you will know
when it's safe to come out andget on the roads.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
And I promise you we are not going to text you and
tell you what we're eating forbreakfast.
These are important updatesthat 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 DivisionChief Jason Baswell for joining
us and giving us a clearerpicture of what emergency
management really looks likehere in Milton.
(49:59):
If there's one takeaway, it'sthis, and Jason just said it
very clearly.
You really don't need merepeating it Preparedness isn't
just the city's responsibility.
It's something we all have arole in, from signing up for
alerts to having a family planin place.
The more we know, the better werespond when it counts.
So remember all those links arein the show notes.
(50:21):
Head over to the website.
There's a slew of informationin 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 forlistening.
Stay safe, stay informed andwe'll catch you next time.
(50:43):
Thanks for listening to Miltonin Maine.
We hope this episode gave youfresh insights into what makes
our city so special.
Stay connected and don't missan episode by subscribing to
this podcast on your favoriteplatform and following us on
social media for all updates and, of course, thank you.
Welcome to Milton and Maine, the official podcast for
the city of Milton.
We want to bring you closer tothe heart of our community
through stories that inform,inspire and connect.
Each episode offers abehind-the-scenes look at the
people, projects and prioritiesshaping Milton, covering
everything from local governmentand future development to arts,
culture, sustainability andpublic safety.
(00:30):
Whether you're a resident, alocal business owner or just
curious about our city, this isyour front row seat to what
makes Milton special.
Hey everyone, welcome back toMilton in Maine.
I'm your host, christy Weeks,the communications manager for
the city of Milton.
Today we're talking about atopic that touches all of us,
whether we realize it or notemergency management.
From major storms and poweroutages to large public events
(00:53):
and everything in between.
A lot of behind-the-scenesplanning goes into keeping our
city safe, informed and prepared.
So joining me today is DivisionChief Jason Baswell of Milton
Fire Rescue.
He leads our emergencymanagement and support services
and he's here to break down whatthat really means, how it
affects residents and what youshould know in case disaster
(01:13):
strikes.
So let's get into it.
How does Milton prepare for theunexpected?
Because we see it quite a bit.
Welcome, jason.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
You're welcome.
Glad I could finally pin youdown on a date.
You're a busy man, busy man.
So first of all, we want toknow how you got here, how you
got to Milton Fire Rescue, whatyour journey's been like.
Give us a little history.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Well, I started out in the fire service in the
mid-90s and started out atFulton County Fire Department.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Oh, look at you out.
Your age, just like me.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, and time flew by.
I was there for around 10 1⁄2years and around 2006, sandy
Springs voted to become a cityand then Milton followed suit,
sure.
And so what happened was weFulton County was not going to
be providing the fire servicesto the North Fulton cities, so
(02:09):
they did layoffs, which theycalled reduction in force, and
unfortunately I was involved inthat.
But God blessed me and got mehere, because I actually put
application in and got hiredhere as an officer on the
apparatus and worked my way upthrough the ranks and, uh, but
started here in the verybeginning, got that you've been
here 18 years, then 18 years,yep, goodness.
(02:32):
So, uh, going through thepictures, uh, my girls were just
babies when I started and it'scrazy because they're graduate
college and to think how longdid I've been here yeah 18 years
just flown by, and we weretalking earlier at the station
about Milton.
Then we got into just how muchMilton has developed over the
(02:53):
years.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
And we can remember back in 07 when we started.
You know the population wasaround 15,000 and now it's up
with around 45,000, and just thegrowth.
But you know you drive throughMilton and it's still beautiful
even with all the growth.
The tree ordinance has helpedout because, we've got these
beautiful hardwood trees.
We talked about it earlier butunfortunately, you know, with
(03:16):
those beautiful trees, whenstorms roll through here that
brings most of our call volume.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yeah, and we're going to get into all of that.
And it's funny that you weretalking about the beginning days
of fire rescue.
I had Matt Marietta and JC onin the last episode two of the
core originals, just like you,that have been around and they
kind of talked about the cultureand how things have changed and
how Milton's grown and involvedover the years.
So these stories I love hearingabout how y'all got to where
(03:44):
you are and you've come a longway.
I mean division chief is bigdeal.
Yeah, and trust me everyone, heis a busy guy.
I've been trying to get him onthis podcast pretty much since
the inception and he's so busyso let's just kind of get into
it.
Tell me what emergencymanagement actually covers in a
city like Milton, because in itwe talked off mic a little bit
(04:06):
earlier and my experiences andmy previous residences in
different states is a whole lotdifferent than what we
experience here in Georgia yeah,we work in conjunction with
AFSEMA the Atlanta Fulton CountyEmergency Management Agency,
also the Georgia EmergencyManagement Agency are outside
(04:27):
and also the North Fulton cities.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
You know some of the big things.
When we look at most of ourthreats here in the city because
we are predominantlyresidential and we don't have
like industry or railroad tracksor airports or anything like
that our biggest threat are whenstorms roll through.
You know the possibility oftornadoes.
So we looked at let me back upemergency management.
(04:52):
Yeah, what that is is basicallyit involves mitigation, which
is reducing risk.
We got to figure out what ourrisks are.
Then how do we prepare for thatRight, then how do we respond
to them and also how do werecover from them and also how
do we recover from them.
Part of that mitigation,reducing those risks is first
identifying them and, like Isaid in our emergency operations
(05:12):
plan in Milton, one of thethings identified is storms that
we worry about possibility oftornadoes.
So you know, over the years,matt Marietta, who's now the
human resource director, was ouremergency manager for years and
early on.
One of the things that welooked at due to the possibility
of storms rolling through islike a tornado sirens, early
(05:33):
warning sirens.
But what I want to stress is isthose sirens were really for
people when they were outside.
Those sirens are not really forpeople that are inside the home
in the middle of the nightduring the storm, because the
probability of you being able tohear that siren is very low
unless you live close by.
(05:54):
That's why it's so important forthings like Everbridge, which
I'm sure we'll talk about.
Oh we are, you know, and alsothe alerts that Georgia and the
National Weather Service sendout over your phone.
It's real important to sign upfor those type of alerts because
you're going to get notified bythat phone, far sooner and
(06:14):
greater than you ever would, ofour tornado sirens.
Unless you're outside orwalking or whatever, you'll hear
that tornado siren, but anyway,we've got about 11 of them
around the city.
We provide maintenance on themand when you, there's 11 in the
city.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Is that what you said ?
Yeah, city.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
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 alarge area to cover.
So I mean an engineering groupcome in early on.
They basically looked at thetopography, looked at the square
miles and they determined thebest locations to put them
(06:53):
sirens so that people would hearthem.
Fortunately for City Hall, theCrab Apple area, Alpharetta has
sirens and so you know we gotsome close by here.
But alpharetta, with theirs andours together, milton's pretty
much covered, funny story aboutsirens, tornado sirens.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I was living in michigan when my daughter was a
baby and my husband traveled alot.
And I'm not from michigan, I'mfrom colorado.
And yeah, we had tornadoes, butnot really the siren thing.
So the siren goes off.
I have no idea what it is, noclue.
I go about my day, sarah and Iare chilling in the house.
Tornado hit less than a milefrom us and just destroyed a
(07:34):
neighborhood and so all of asudden I was like, oh, that's
what that noise was.
And the neighbors are fillingme in because I was relatively
new to the neighborhood.
So three weeks later, siren goesoff.
I'm ready.
This time, man, I have a go bag.
(07:54):
I just put Sarah down for a nap, I run up, I grab her, I grab
my go bag, I'm downstairs in thebasement, I'm ready.
There's nothing, there's nocommunication.
So I call my neighbor.
I was like do you know anythingabout the tornado?
And she's like Christy, thatwas the test siren, it happens
every month.
And I was like I'm looking atmy kid, she's awake, she needed
a nap, I needed a nap.
(08:14):
Gone.
So after that I kind of quitpanicking, a little bit prepared
, not panicked.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yeah, and, and you know, ours are tested, uh,
monthly, yeah, uh, the firsttuesday of every month but y'all
, there's actually communicationthat goes out about that.
People see that and we don'ttypically we don't sound our
sirens because they are nearsome horse farms oh yeah.
So we just actually spin themand once they rotate and then we
(08:49):
make sure that the signals arepinging back to dispatch.
Because the way our sirensoperate 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, oranybody else would and so they
actually have the button andthey actually hit the button for
(09:09):
our warning sirens and actuallysound our sirens off.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
So it's automatic.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
So there's no delay in me having to call up or
dispatch or anything like that.
They automatically do it from911.
That's awesome.
Yeah, it is so.
Like I said, they get theweather alerts from National
Weather Service in whatever areain Milton, so it makes it
easier and better.
Like I said, we got automaticaid with Alpharetta, so you know
(09:33):
they set their sirens off andthey'll set our sirens off.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
It cuts a few seconds down.
Right Time matters.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
So those few seconds will count and, like I said,
it's when a tornado warningcomes out that the sirens will
operate All right.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Well, that's good to know.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
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 theyear, 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 wehad a storm pop up on.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Let's see, we're recording this early, so that
was june 26th that this pop-upstorm came out of nowhere.
And tell us what y'all saw onyour side, because we know what
we saw is residents andemployees and business owners.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
All of a sudden calls started dropping.
Our guys started responded to911 calls with trees down, yeah,
and the area seemed to be amajority on the south end there,
crab apple, okay, because wewere getting hit down here,
alpharetta, and I talked to mycounterparts in roswell same
thing.
So this area down in here wasgetting hit, yeah, with a bunch
(10:57):
of trees down.
And birmingham highway was amess.
Yeah, birmingham highway uparound up fre Road, close to you
know, going down Nix Road,birmingham Road had a few
Cogburn.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Lots of closed roads.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, and it was sporadic around the city.
The bulk of it was in thesouthern part of the city but it
was a little sporadic, that youknow where they were getting
hit.
But the past few weeks it hasbeen hot this week and drying
out, thank goodness.
But the past few weeks havebeen a hot this week and drying
out, thank goodness.
But um, the past few weeks havebeen a lot of rain, so I mean
that ground's probably stillsaturated, so it didn't help
(11:32):
when these winds come in and butit did.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
It popped out of nowhere, it did it was.
It was crazy and that'ssomething I'm still getting used
to in georgia.
But let's talk about thatbecause the tree thing
fascinates me, because I comeout of the west, where the trees
don't go down as easy as theydo here.
Let's talk about that, becauseyou said earlier off mic that it
was the hardwoods that we havethe most.
(11:57):
So tell me about the, thedynamics of that tree coming
down, because the ground thisand it's very basic when you
look at it, but it's fascinatingyeah, it's a.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
What makes milton so beautiful when you're driving
through are the hardwood treesthat we have.
Unfortunately, when thesestorms roll through, if you go
to in south georgia where theyhave a bunch of pine trees,
normally when those high windsstraight line winds of tornadoes
come through, it usually snapsthe tree about halfway up so
you're getting half the treedropping and falling and it does
cause damage.
(12:30):
But when you have these bighardwoods like we have, you know
when these winds come throughthe ground saturated, it's a
heavy tree, it brings the wholeentire tree down usually and
their root systems aren't verydeep.
These hardwoods right no, um, Imean some of them.
You'll drive by and the wholeroot system will be up.
It'll look like it's six footold there.
(12:51):
Oh my gosh, they're huge yeah,but it brings the whole tree
down, so you can only imagine abigger tree in the roadway.
It's going to take a lot longer.
Usually public works has tocome out with some heavy
equipment, you know, or they gotlimbs on some of these trees
that are the size of some othertrees right and so they'll come
down and uh yeah, unfortunately.
You know it's beautiful when youdrive through Milton, but
(13:13):
unfortunately the hardwoodsusually cause more damage.
Takes a little bit more time toget up.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
When those come down, the power lines come down and
it's kind of a ripple effect allthe way through the city.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
And that's the biggest thing is because if a
tree is on a power line, there'snothing we can do.
We have to wait for the powercompany.
So you can only imagine a stormrolls through and is hitting
Cherokee and it's hitting allthe North Fulton area and
Forsyth County.
It could take a while.
Part of mitigation and reducingthe risk would be citizens
(13:44):
reporting trees close to theroadway that maybe looks like
they're leaning or maybe lookslike they're dead.
We could send people out tocheck it out.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
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 theinformation in the show notes so
y'all have access to that,because that's a very handy,
quick way to report issuesthroughout the city I mean, if
you think about it, the powercompany.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
I mean you watch them and they come out yearly, about
every two years, and what arethey doing?
They're trimming trees andthey're trimming tree limbs back
from the power lines.
They're mitigating thepossibility or the risk of those
tree limbs coming out andtaking the power lines down.
Unfortunately for them, thesetrees are tall and they can't
cut them back that far, so, butyou know, that's mitigation,
(14:34):
that's reducing the risk.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
I gotcha I gotcha I love that.
So it's important I foreverybody to know what
preparedness looks like.
And coming from outside ofgovernment and coming in
especially into thecommunications department, I've
had the opportunity to reallylearn what that means and what
communications part is in, likethe EOC, the Emergency
(15:00):
Operations Center, which I gotto be a part of a few times now,
and I want people to understandhow much effort and
coordination and the plans youguys have in place already for
when these situations happen,because it's not just by chance
that y'all know exactly where togo, who to contact, who shows
(15:22):
up where and all that kind ofstuff, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, it does.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
It does, doesn't it?
But for an outsider, somebodywho hasn't seen it, I'd have no
clue.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah, and there is a lot of behind the scenes that
people don't see.
Even people that work withinthe city don't even see it,
don't understand all of it andhow complex it could get, you
know.
But simplified, it'spreparation.
As far as from the city'sperspective, as you know, it
entails, first and foremost,training, obviously for police,
(15:58):
fire, public works and othercity officials.
Because you were mentioning theEmergency Operations Center,
what we normally call the EOC,there's preparation and part of
that is what we call theNational Incident Management
System.
Obviously, when a storm rollsthrough, you're dealing with
multiple departments.
You also might be dealing witha private sector or nonprofits
(16:20):
during these events.
And so what the NationalIncident Management System does?
It allows all those to cometogether and work and that's
basically what I do.
You know I don't run theemergency.
What I do is I coordinateeverybody else.
Fire department runs the callsand they run the emergency on
(16:44):
the scene.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Pd runs it if it's in their realm.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Public works Does their job, does their job, and
so, basically, everybody's doingwhat they do, what they're
trained to do and what we, youknow.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Like a football team.
Exactly the message is do yourjob.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah, and they got a game plan Right.
We have a game plan too.
We have an emergency operationsplan for the city of Milton,
and then the EOC is just a placewhere we bring all that
together and we coordinate,because 911 is going to get
overwhelmed obviously.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
With a whole bunch of 911 calls, people phoning in,
and so what we do there at theEOC is we kind of take that off
them and we just coordinate themcalls, as long as it's trees
down.
That way they can handle yourcardiac arrest, your possible
structure fire calls.
But anyway, we go intopreparation.
The national instant managementsystem, uh, matter of fact, uh,
(17:31):
all our personnel arerecertified in the instant
command system which is I'm inthe process we've actually
involved.
You know specific city personnelwho might operate within the
eoc, yep, and what those are isthose are basic classes that the
Federal Emergency ManagementAgency put out and it just gets
(17:52):
everybody on the same page,helps them to understand and,
like I said, during an emergencyI 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 anddepartments together in one
cohesive Everybody'sunderstanding who's in charge
(18:12):
the upline, the language is allcoordinated, so everybody's
talking the same language.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
because that was the one thing I picked up from the
classes I've taken so far isthat in different areas they
could have different terminologyand these classes and this
training that you have, the EOCteams take breaks that down, so
then everybody knows andeverybody's on the same page.
(18:40):
So we're all not like sittingthere Googling what this guy's
talking about or askingquestions that we should already
know.
So I find it terriblyfascinating and informative.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
so I'm working my way through.
Like I said, even going throughit, sometimes it seems
overwhelming and sometimes Ihave to bring people off the
cliff and say it's okay, Justcalm down, it's going to be all
right.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Well, it is a little bit of an intense situation.
I mean, cut us a little slack.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
We don't do that every day.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
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 thatyou're in the room with me and
other people so I communicateback and forth and fire may
communicate with you.
That way all the informationflows through one channel and
(19:29):
then it comes out as onecohesive message from the city
as a whole.
So that's what the EOC is andhopefully we'll never have to
utilize it for this.
But it's recovery.
You know EOCs are important inrecovery, yeah.
But yeah, preparedness is a lotof.
It is training from our side.
(19:50):
Logistical support, which I'malso in charge of I'm the
division chief over supportservices here which it kind of
goes with emergency management.
You know I'm over chief oversupport services here, which it
kind of goes with emergencymanagement.
You know I'm over all ourapparatus, all our equipment,
our stations and Captain Womackhe's great, he helps me manage
all that.
Yeah, preparing, making sure wegot the tools and equipment and
also, from the emergencymanagement perspective, making
(20:12):
sure even like you you knowyou're our communications person
that's going to be getting theinformation 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 (20:26):
As long as we know, yeah, when we know, which was
not the case on June 26th, itjust kind of arrived.
Good news is is that I news isthat there was trees down and
some damage and whatnot noinjuries, nothing catastrophic
off the chain, so hindsight 2020.
Anyway, let's talk Everbridge.
You brought it up.
Let's go there because it issuch an effective tool and every
(20:51):
county, every city has somesort of an emergency
notification system that goesout, or any of them that I've
been in Talk to me aboutEverbridge.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yeah, everbridge is a great program.
It allows us to send messagesout in real time.
It requires our citizens tosign up, which I highly
encourage.
We actually utilize it fornon-emergency things too, which
is also nice because it getspeople used to receiving those
messages and understanding theprogram.
But Everbridge is great because, like I said, we have the
(21:24):
tornado sirens and you have theemergency alerts.
But we also, from the cityperspective, can send emergency
alerts out and we also can sendupdates.
Know right, like on june 26when that storm wrote through,
you know we put some, may putsome things out.
This road's closed.
Well, if that road's closed,you've got to find a different
route, maybe to work, pick yourkids up or whatever.
(21:46):
We also can utilize thatprogram to let them know that
those roads are back open,because a lot of people you know
they they don't have time tolog on to social media or are
Internet.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
You know they just want a quick alert to let them
know, most people have theirphones on them at any given
point.
It is literally the most directway for us to connect.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
And that's why it's important too.
That I want people tounderstand is to make sure those
alerts are on your phone.
And you know some people theycut them alerts off because
sometimes, which the alertsdon't go out a whole lot, you'll
get an Amber alert or whatever.
But you really need to makesure that those alerts are on
your phone.
(22:27):
I think our communicationsdepartment sent something out
showing people.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Yeah, so in the last storm that we had, the June 26th
, one, pd has access toeverbridge as well.
So, coming from thecommunications department, yes,
and and I do head up theeverbridge effort, trying to get
it all the messages out asneeded, but pd and fire both
have access to it as well,because y'all see things that we
(22:54):
don't and some, and there's noreason for us to be the that
middleman in between when youguys are running alerts and
whatnot.
I, like jason said, I highly,highly encourage everybody to
sign up for the everbridgenotifications and you can find
that information on our websiteat wwwmiltongagov forward slash
(23:15):
notifications and there's anentire description as to what it
does and how to do it.
It's very, very efficient andyou can select the different
notifications you want, whetherit's road closures, city news,
parks and rec, weather updatesand emergencies, which, of
course, is our biggest bucket.
But it's vital in keeping thecommunication lines open for
(23:39):
everybody.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
And, like I said, as far as preparation, with
Everbridge fire department,police, in conjunction with
communications, we put messagesout for our citizens to help
prepare Correct.
You know, hey, we've got astorm coming.
Here's what we're expecting,here's what you can do to
prepare, and we send little tipsout for people.
(23:59):
So, like you said, I highlyencourage you to sign up.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
So that way you know what to do during an emergency.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Yeah, yeah, I'll have that information in the show
notes as well to help peoplefind their way to the Everbridge
notification system.
Um, very handy, so let's kindof look at.
You've already touched a littlebit on community risk and
reduction and prevention and youidentified storms as being kind
of our main issue, our mainthreat.
(24:29):
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-scaleevents that would happen?
I mean, maybe not so much herein Milton, but if you were to
look at an emergency managementfrom a 30,000 feet overview, is
(24:49):
it kind of the same?
This is just kind of a one-offquestion that popped in my head.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Yeah, it is, like I said, the the national incident
management system.
It come about because oflarge-scale incidents out of the
west and yes, it's.
The thing about the instantcommand system is it can expand
and you can contract, and it'ssupposed to help everything flow
real, smooth and easy and itallows you to run an incident.
(25:17):
If the incident starts outsmall and then all of a sudden
that incident ramps up, you canexpand your instant command
system to handle that and thenas time goes, you can retract it
back down.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Right.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Because you don't need all the other you know it
might be planning logisticsfinance.
There might not ever be a timewhere you need it, or there
might be a time you need it andthen, all of a sudden, you know
after a week or two you don'tneed this no more Now you can
take it away.
So that's the great thing aboutit.
So, yeah, it can you know.
I'm not saying we wouldn't haveno other large scale event.
(25:54):
Take, for instance I don't knowif people knew on June 26.
Also, there was a meteor showerthat happened, and you know a
meteor.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
No, I did not know that.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
And a meteor went through somebody's roof in their
living room.
A piece of the meteorite.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
You're kidding.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
No, and they said it sounded like thunder and
everything else.
And yeah, I've been hearing itall on the news.
So so you know we were gettingstorms and somebody else was
getting meteorite and it wasjust in henry county.
That's crazy.
Yeah, it was never know, youdon't?
Speaker 1 (26:24):
you don't because I mean just in the areas that
we've used it.
We used everbridge and the eocfor the hurricane helene last
fall, which was my first time inthe EOC, but we also had it for
some of these snowstorms thatwe've had, which, by the way, it
was not in the Georgia brochurewhen I moved here that we got
(26:44):
as much snow as we have had.
Not going to lie, my kids hadmore snow days here than we did
in Colorado.
Very, very odd to me, but superimpressed by the way our
emergency management systemworked in those situations yeah,
the great thing about like thesnow events or ice events down
here we call them um.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
In georgia we most of the time we're, we're prepared
for them.
You know, we know correct inadvance, so we've got our
equipment in place.
Extra, extra personnel, I'mtelling you.
Unfortunately, when storms rollthrough, you could have a severe
thunderstorm, kind of like onJune 26th Right.
That storm just popped out ofnowhere and so I mean we didn't
(27:25):
have extra staff or anything.
Thank goodness we didn't needthem.
All our personnel did what theydo.
They went out and they did whatthey're trained to do was clear
the roadways, the ones thatthey could so they're trained to
do was clear the roadways theones that they could so they
could respond to.
No panic, no big hubbub, you alljust went out and did what you
(27:45):
were supposed to do.
You know, they just did a lotmore of it than they normally do
, but they did a great job.
Yeah, yeah, so one particularthing I could remember was back
in 2020, was the covid emergencyresponse to covid.
So I could think about that,because we we did a lot of
coordinating with AFSEMA, theAtlanta Fort County Emergency
Management Agency, then alsoGEMA.
Then you've got to throw FEMAin the mix and that was an
(28:08):
important thing withdeclarations such as those, or
major weather events, whenHurricane Helene come through,
is the possibility ofreimbursement for whatever
damages that may occur.
So the preparation part withtraining and things like that is
you know, we got to make sureour personnel are trained to the
proper levels in accordancewith FEMA and GEMA, because
(28:33):
during a large-scale event, ifthere is a declaration, we want
to make sure our citizens gettheir money recouped back to
them.
Unfortunately for us, we'vebeen able to do that the past
few times.
Unfortunately, during HurricaneHelene, we didn't get that
declaration.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
I think citizens were able to put in for it or we put
something out about it, but asfar 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 along time prepping for that and
the amount of effort andorganization that I was able to
(29:10):
see was incredible.
Not gonna lie and I would nevertell everybody that to their
face because that's y'all's jobbut as a new person at the time
it was great it was.
It was really cool to watcheverybody do what they do.
Now, the good part about Heleneis that we were oh goodness,
y'all were ready.
I mean things placed in theproper places around the city,
(29:33):
crews ready, everybody onstandby.
And the proper places aroundthe city, crews ready, everybody
on standby.
And that hurricane shiftedovernight and unfortunately it
hit a lot of people that werenot prepared for it because it
had not been predicted to gothose directions.
And I know a handful offamilies personally that were
(29:54):
affected by that, because I havesome friends up in Tennessee
and whatnot so awful on thatside.
So how I don't know what theright way to ask this question
is.
Is that in that instance, Imean, they're just assuming that
it's not coming their way, sothey're not putting all their
resources in place?
And yet we we pre dideverything and shifted, and for
(30:19):
us it was okay, but for othersit was so catastrophic.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Yeah, like I said, weather's finicky in Georgia.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Finicky is a solid word.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
And what I would want to say to our citizens is that
we are prepared.
Yeah, a perfect example is June26.
I mean, there was no weatheralert, there was nothing.
There was just.
It's like this thing justpopped out of nowhere and then
our personnel, they handled it.
Because that's what we do wetrain year-round for not only
(30:51):
fires and EMS, but for thosetype of emergencies.
From the emergency managementside.
I want to make sure ourpersonnel are prepared Now.
Obviously, with a storm like onJune 26, you would like to have
just a few more personnel onhand, but our personnel they
weren't able to win, or a littlenotice would have been nice,
yeah, a little notice.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Mother nature take no .
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Yeah, and so you know when a storm's coming, and we
know.
I tell you that when we knowstorms are coming, we make sure
our personnel have what theyneed on our trucks, Because we
already know we're going to runtrees down.
We don't know to what extent Ourbiggest thing is do we bring
people in early or do we wait?
That's the biggest thing.
(31:30):
But as far as training andknowing 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, publicworks.
Hey, we step back and we'rejust like what do y'all need?
Because we just let them dowhat they do and they do their
job and they do a great job atit, Right, but anyway, yes,
(31:52):
we're prepared and likespecifically like Colleen, you
know, when something like thatcomes in and there's a
possibility, even if we're notgoing to get hit, if they're
saying it's shifting too farleft or maybe it's going further
right and, as you know, theright side of the storm is
always the worst.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
I did not know that, but thank you.
Did that just help me with oneof my classes?
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Yeah, very interesting.
But yeah, the right side of thestorm is where the worst winds
and the tornadoes usually spawnoff from.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Didn't I know that?
Speaker 2 (32:21):
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 outsideof that band was what got hit
really really bad, soheartbreaking hit really, really
bad.
Oh so heartbreaking, but anyway, the when we know a storm like
that's coming and they'retalking about maybe it's a
(32:41):
tropical depression by the timeit gets here.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
We still make sure that we are prepared because we
know we talked about that stormfor how many days prior?
Speaker 2 (32:50):
yeah, and so at any point in time, and we didn't
even know, I mean, as the nightprogressed, if you remember, it
kept moving.
I remember very clearly it'snot like it moved that afternoon
or that morning it was late inthat evening and it just kept
going a little bit further rightand it moved just enough right
that we actually skated through,thank goodness but it didn't
(33:11):
start that way, and so there was.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
There was a handful of days there prior to and even
the day of where we're watching.
We're like okay, and you knowI'm sweating, I'm like this is
coming, this is happening, andthen it just kept going.
So with that type of asituation, or any of these
storms for that matter, what doour citizens need to have on
(33:35):
hand for their own emergencyplans?
Because we know the city'splanning for it, we know you all
know your job and train for iton the daily.
What do we need to tell ourcitizens to have ready to go?
I mean, what's our best pieceof advice?
Speaker 2 (33:49):
We send things out.
Our communications departmentis great.
Y'all do a great job aboutsending things out and we try to
do that year round, before thestorm season and things like
that.
But the biggest thing is makingsure you and your family have a
plan, right?
You know, obviously with thestorm we want you to stay in the
house.
It's basically after the fact.
So obviously one of the biggestthings is we want to make sure
(34:12):
you're prepared with water andfood, maybe for a few days,
because we just don't.
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 youmight put in a little bag just
in case if you got some damageon your house or whatever.
And then on top of that, withthe water and the food, a little
(34:32):
first aid kit.
Yep, make sure your cellphone's charged, your
medications yeah, medications.
I highly encourage you toactually have like some type of
charging system for your phones.
If you don't have a homegenerator Because one of the
biggest things for our elderlypopulation if they're on home
oxygen make sure you have a plan.
(34:52):
If you have an elderly mom, dad, right and uncle, help them.
Come up with a plan just incase that power goes out and
they're dependent on home oxygen.
The fire department of citywill do what we can, but
unfortunately if we have a lotof citizens, there's not a whole
lot we can do outside of.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
We will respond and obviously transport an
individual, but we got to beable to get to them so and you
know that just brought to mindthe fact that we have fire cares
and I know that they also reachout to their patients to make
sure, because they have a prettydecent size list of people that
they check on right, and theydo that every storm.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Yep, whoever is on the current list that they have,
they do reach out.
We have them reach out and, youknow, talk to them and see if
they have any needs.
They talk to their familymembers.
So, like I said, preparation isnot only for you and your
family, but also neighbors, yourcommunity, right, you know,
lending assistance to them andhelping them.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
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 EstesPark has four ways in and out
One up over the Rocky MountainNational Park.
One's a little two laner kindof not very well-traveled road
(36:15):
that comes in from the south,and then there's the two main
entrances, highway 36 andHighway 34.
We had a flood that washed out34, 36, and Highway 7, three of
our four entrances in and out ofthat town.
I believe they called it thethousand-year flood and it was
months, months and months and insome cases years for them to
(36:39):
repair the roadways in and out.
And we're like we weren'tallowed to go up over the top to
get out of town because thatwas reserved for emergency
services, gas, food, all thethings.
But I remember my friendcalling me at like four o'clock
in the morning.
We had no idea this was even athing at the time.
Yeah, we'd had a lot of rain,it was that time of year.
(37:01):
And then my friend called andgoes are you okay?
And I'm like, well, yeah, I'mfine.
And she goes turn your news on.
And that's when I saw all theflooding and then realized that
we were stuck.
We could not get in and out oftown.
For a handful of days we had nointernet.
The town it was like a movie,jason.
(37:23):
It was a movie where justyou're shut off from everything
and you can't, there's nothingyou can do.
I couldn't get a hold of myhusband to tell him not to come
home because he was inCalifornia at the time.
It was just spooky and I knowour town utilized the state of
Colorado, the counties,everybody deployed, and we had
(37:46):
Apache choppers coming in andpulling people out of stranded
areas because they had no way inand out.
Everything was washed out.
My girlfriend, she lives in alittle small town on your way
down highway 36 and the chopperlanded in her yard and her kids
were little enough.
They're like they're coming toget us.
(38:09):
She's like no, we're good theystayed.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
They were prepared enough to where they could stay
and waited out until roads wererepaired enough to get in and
out and you know we went up toNorth Carolina, me, my wife and
my daughter a few months ago andit was crazy because parts of
140 was still shut down fromHurricane Helene Right, and you
(38:33):
know.
Then I see pictures and I seevideos of the communities up
there still affected and, youknow, flooded and washed away
due to, you know, mudslides orwhatever.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
And the weather we're still getting is not helping
them out.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
So I mean that goes into, because we talked about
mitigation, we talked aboutpreparedness.
The next one is response how werespond and we kind of touched
on that.
The last one is recovery, andthat'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 onthe federal government and the
state was coming in, trying todo what they could do.
(39:12):
Even at that you can onlyimagine.
I mean, I remember I wasworking in the fire department
at Fulton when the floodhappened in Louisiana.
And I mean that was devastating.
I mean I can't even imagine theresponse.
And obviously the military comein and FEMA set up a command
system and they brought peoplein.
And that was just such largescale.
(39:35):
Was it perfect?
No, but I mean I can't imaginesomething on that scale that
affect that many people in thatlarge of an area.
It's just it's almost like youdon't have enough resources.
So what we're talking about ispreparation is very important,
because you know then you know,fortunately, I don't think we'd
(39:56):
ever now.
Do we have flooding around here?
Yes, we do, but not tosomething that scale.
Right, you know, I remember afew years ago we did have a
flood.
One of the dams broke up onBirmingham 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 talkedabout, where you were just shut
(40:16):
off from the world.
North Carolina is going throughit right now.
There's people that are shutoff from the world, and they're
just now, you know.
Obviously they were able tofinally get to them and they
were able to get out.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
But as far as, like I mean, you can only imagine
they're having to rebuild roadsback to those communities.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
Everything, the complete infrastructure is under
construction To your pointpreparation, making sure you
have food, first aid and things.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
A go bag.
Tell me what goes in a go bag.
Such a fancy word.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Yeah, I know Equipment.
We got like cert bags and whatcert bags do for cert members.
It's kind of like that you canonly imagine and what I tell
people is put in your go bagsome of the main essentials you
know, obviously a first aid kit,some basic tools a knife, a
(41:07):
hammer, a screwdriver and thingslike that.
But there's other things outthere that you need to make the
go bag unique to you and yourfamily.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
So tell us the website where you can get a list
, because I know that there is.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
The best place to go to if you go to readygeorgiagov.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Ah, I'll put that in the show notes too.
Show notes are going to bepacked full of information.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Yeah, it gives you so much information, talks about
go bags, emergency bags, whatyou should put in there.
It also has emergency plans.
That's another thing.
Some of the things you kind ofhit on when you said when that
happened to you up there, you'vegot to imagine like in North
Carolina, especially if you'refamily and you're separated,
(41:54):
your husband's away and you andthe kids are vice versa.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
And you've got to imagine, communications are gone
.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
They're completely gone.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
So there's no way that you're going to be able to
communicate with your family, soyou need to come up with some
type of plan, right?
Speaker 1 (42:09):
What the funny part is is, right out that morning I
was like, well you know, Iwasn't really aware of the full
impact of what had happened.
So I go, I think I'll go to thegrocery store and I'm picking
up all this water and stuff, andsomebody asked me they're like
what are you doing?
I said, well, I'm getting waterin case we don't have any.
(42:30):
And this person looked at meand goes fill your bathtub up,
sir.
That's a great idea for a lotof efforts.
I am not drinking that.
That is you're.
No, thank you, I'm not doing it.
Anyway, there was a noteverybody was fully aware of the
impact of what we were gettingready to experience.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
You got to think.
I mean it's going to takesomething on that scale,
especially with flooding.
I mean it's going to take yourwater system out, it'll take
your sewer system out.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
And if you have a septic tank.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
It's even worse, because the ground's going to be
saturated, so that that'llstart backing up in your house.
So you just need to be prepared.
The best thing to do is, oncethe storm rolls through, if you
can safely evacuate, right, ifnot, just stay there until
emergency personnel can get toyou.
But yeah, I was uh going backto the ready georgia.
(43:25):
They actually have an app thatyou can download called
readygeorgia.
It consists of making a plan,building a kit, getting kids
ready, and so a lot of greatinformation that I encourage
everybody to go to.
It'll give you a good start.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Yeah, for sure, for sure.
So, as we wrap this up, youreally just kind of touched on a
lot of the resources, on whereto find it and again I'll put it
all in the show notes Give usyour final thoughts on emergency
management and what people needto know.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
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 ofthe city and our response and
what we do in preparation, andthere's also what the citizens
need to do Making sure you'reprepared and your family's
(44:17):
prepared and your neighbors areprepared and that brings me to
this.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
That's just dawned on me, because we are a community
that has horses and animals andfarms and and whatnot, so it's
important that you have a merge,an emergency plan, for your
animals as well give you a goodexample.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Years ago, when we first started, we were the only
ones in the state georgia thathad a technical large animal
emergency rescue team.
Right and it's around 2009,2010.
Somewhere around there, therewas storm that come through and
a flood come through and partsof sandy springs actually got
flooded and we actually gotcalled down there and myself and
(44:59):
, at the time, chief Stevens anda few others, we responded down
there with the T-Lair team andwe got down there.
What we responded to was downby the river there was an
equestrian farm and these horseswere actually stuck.
It looked like a little islandand they were stuck in a barn.
We responded out there and weactually helped get them horses.
(45:23):
We walked through water and itwas about chest deep.
We had to slowly and calmly walkhorses through that water and
get them to the other side,because there was more flood
than it was supposed to come.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
They may or may not cooperate.
I've had horses.
Yes, found that out real quickyeah, they may or may not decide
to go with you.
They they have their own ideasof how it should go.
But I will tell you that thatwas always my panic button.
I knew what to do with myfamily, but with my horses it's
important to know how you'regoing to evacuate them, and
there was a time when I did.
(45:56):
I myself didn't have a trailerat a window where I hadn't
gotten my trailer yet and I waslike, if I needed to evacuate
these guys, how would I do that?
The good news about theequestrian community they are so
willing to help everybody outin a lot of these emergency
situations.
Hey, I've got a horse trailerholler at me.
If you need me, I'll come.
Come, grab your horses, we'lltake them here.
(46:18):
It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
And that's you know.
That's the bad part about ourmajor threat within the city,
which is these storms, isbecause usually when these
storms roll through in thespring or in the fall, we worry
about threats of tornadoes orstraight-line winds.
They usually cover large areas,so it's like you get them
(46:42):
alerts.
It's like central Georgia, allthe 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, becausewhere are you going to load
your horse and take them to ifyou're in central Georgia,
correct, and it's coveringcentral and north georgia, right
, you know?
So, yeah, so you know it'simportant, yes, if you, if know
(47:04):
ahead of time to be able to takeyour animals somewhere.
But if not, get with theequestrian community, come
together.
You know big thing, because youtake, for instance, like the
sandy springs when it flooded iskind of twofold, because
they're down here and you needto get them up because away from
the flood.
But when you bring them up now,you're coming into the tornado
(47:27):
or straight line wind territory.
So where are you going to housethem to keep them safe from
that?
So, unfortunately from us, likeI said, we don't have to worry
too much about flooding, likesandy springs and some others
that are right there by theriver, but we do have to worry
about these straight line windsand possibility of tornadoes.
And that's the thing aboutpreparation.
Even if the storms are notcoming until October, the bad
(47:50):
ones now's the time to preparefor them Be ready.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
That's really great advice and I appreciate that.
It's a great way to wrap thisepisode up Again.
Everything will be in the shownotes.
I'll list all these resourcesthat Jason has shared with us
and make sure you guys are inthe know.
That's the best way you canprepare yourself.
I appreciate you being heretoday, jason.
This was, as I said, somethingI've been trying to get on the
books for a while, because thisis important for our community,
(48:18):
appreciate you having me becauseit is important and a lot of
people they don't think about ituntil it's too late.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
Yeah until they have to or it's too late.
So it's great to be able totalk to people and help them to
understand and especially whatthe city has done in preparation
.
I can assure all our citizensthat the city from the fire,
police, public works, cityofficials we are all prepared to
assist our citizens to recoverfrom or mitigate, hopefully
(48:44):
reduce the risk and especiallyrespond to any type of emergency
that we have just remember.
Also, what helps us is when ourcitizens are prepared, because
if you're prepared, then we canrespond to these other mercies
because we know that you aretaken care of.
So it really helps us for ourcitizens to be prepared.
(49:05):
You know, it's kind of likewhen storms roll through.
I know people want to get out,it's like an ice storm or snow
storm, but we highly encourageyou to stay inside you know,
until you get the all clear.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
You mean when we send out that message that says stay
inside.
You actually mean stay inside.
Speaker 2 (49:22):
Yes, stay inside and if you need.
Clarifications.
If you have an emergency andyou need us, dial 911 and we
will be there.
Yes, please stay inside and aslong as you sign up for
Everbridge, which we highlyencourage you to, you will know
when it's safe to come out andget on the roads.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
And I promise you we are not going to text you and
tell you what we're eating forbreakfast.
These are important updatesthat 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 DivisionChief Jason Baswell for joining
us and giving us a clearerpicture of what emergency
management really looks likehere in Milton.
(49:59):
If there's one takeaway, it'sthis, and Jason just said it
very clearly.
You really don't need merepeating it Preparedness isn't
just the city's responsibility.
It's something we all have arole in, from signing up for
alerts to having a family planin place.
The more we know, the better werespond when it counts.
So remember all those links arein the show notes.
(50:21):
Head over to the website.
There's a slew of informationin 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 forlistening.
Stay safe, stay informed andwe'll catch you next time.
(50:43):
Thanks for listening to Miltonin Maine.
We hope this episode gave youfresh insights into what makes
our city so special.
Stay connected and don't missan episode by subscribing to
this podcast on your favoriteplatform and following us on
social media for all updates and, of course, thank you.
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