What is Emergency Management

Bowling Green / WarrenCounty Emergency Management (formerly DES) is attached to WarrenCounty Government and operates at the direction of Warren County Judge Executive. The Emergency Management director oversees the day to day operation of the local program. The local program also operates under the direction of the Area, State and Federal Offices of Emergency Management. Laws that govern this program are under KRS 39.

Functional areas within EM include communications, emergency operations, training, preparedness, shelter survey, disaster planning, mitigation and recovery, public information and administration

Disaster Education: Emergency Management, state and local, provide a wide variety of training to Emergency Service responders, general public, schools, nursing homes, day cares, facilities, civic groups, etc., dealing with a wide spectrum of topics.

The local EM office has a supply of self preparedness brochures. These brochures cover preparedness tips for tornadoes, earthquake, food storage, and natural disasters. For brochures call the local EM office at 781-8776

Search and Rescue Missions: The Emergency Management Director or the Local Search and Rescue Coordinator has the responsibility to develop and maintain a local search and rescue plan. This plan sets forth the policies, procedures and guidelines for the coordination and control of search response in the county.

Preparedness: thorough planning is provided for population protection and disaster preparedness on the local level. Disaster preparedness planning assistance and tornado shelter surveys are provided to local emergency services, facilities, schools, nursing homes, day care centers, etc. The local EM agency has the responsibility to develop and maintain a local emergency operations plan. This plan sets forth the policies, procedures and guidelines for the coordination and control of disasters and emergency response.

Response: the local EM director will be routinely available to respond to command post, or emergency operations centers to coordinate emergency response at the local level, to perform necessary administrative, planning and organizational duties and to prepare a preliminary damage assessment in the event of a declaration.

Recovery: Following a Presidential declared disaster such as flooding, tornadoes, ice storms, etc., EM assist in implementing various federal and state funded recovery programs, along with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), including the Individual and Family Grant Program. This provides Federal and State Aid to families or individuals who have unmet losses of essential items as a result of the disaster. Funds for the replacement of public facilities may also be provided on a matching basis among federal, state and local governments through the Public Assistance Program

Mitigation: One of the primary roles of EM is mitigation. The federal government has put major emphasis on mitigation planning and implementation. Mitigating disaster situations to lesson damages from disasters will save lives and money by preventing the effects of disasters on communities.

WarrenCounty has in place a Hazard Mitigation Team. This team looks for hazards in our community that can be mitigated and adds these projects to the Hazard Mitigation Plan. Several of these projects have been addressed, such as the COWS (Community Outdoor Warning System), real time Doppler Radar, Mt.LebanonBridge, and Indoor Warning. The outdoor warning system was credited with saving lives during the hail storm on April 16, 1998.

We are looking for photos of disasters that have occured in Warren County.  If you have any please feel free to email the Webmaster for inclusion in our Warren County Disaster Folder in the picture gallery!! If you have first hand blogs, blurbs or articles about disasters that have taken place here in Warren County and would like those included, please email them also.  Thank you.

Warren County Emergency Management
Director: Ronnie Pearson
Deputy Director: Brian Geringswald
429 1/2 10th Ave - Suite B .
Bowling Green, KY42101
270.781.8776 (phone)
270.780.9550 (fax)