ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Disasters and emergencies happen seemingly on a daily basis around the world, and whether it is a fire, flood, tornado, hurricane, blizzard, accident or any other emergency, in America, first responders are almost immediately on scene when the call to respond goes out.
In Seward County, Greg Standard has been responding to those scenes since 1988, when he began working as a volunteer with the Seward County Fire Department. Two years later, he became an EMT with the county’s EMS department, and in 1999, he took the opportunity by taking the position of the county’s Emergency Management director, as well as its assistant fire chief.
It was in 2016 when Standard would become the full-time director of Emergency Management, and he recently retired from the position after more than 35 years of working as a first responder for Seward County.
Standard said his beginnings with the county were simply to help fill the demand for local services.
“The community needed firefighters,” he said. “They needed EMTs. They needed an emergency manager, and those were skills I had. I was able to give something back to the community that had been very good to me up to that point in my life.”
In his time working with the county, Standard has seen the development of programs to make local emergency management more effective and responsive.
A growing problem in recent years is emergencies dealing with hazardous materials, and to help with this, it was in 1986, shortly before Standard went to work for the county, when Congress passed the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA), which established a national baseline with regard to planning, response, management and training for hazardous materials emergencies.
SARA mandated the establishment of both state and local planning groups to develop and review hazardous materials response plans. The state planning groups are referred to as State Emergency Response Commissions (SERC) and are responsible for developing and maintaining the state’s emergency response plan.
Closer to home, the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) is responsible for developing an emergency plan for responding to chemical emergencies within the community.
It is the main function of the LEPC to look after community interests in regard to hazardous incidents that may occur there. The LEPC is the coordinating point for both planning and training activities at the local level.
The LEPC also receives emergency release and chemical inventory information submitted by local industrial facilities and makes this information available to the community it serves.
In addition to its formal responsibilities, the LEPC often serves as a focal point for information and discussions about hazardous substances. The LEPC’s ability to improve and maintain the safety and health of its community is greatly enhanced by the support of an informed community.
Seward County’s LEPC meets monthly, and in 2003, the group received an award for the best LEPC in a small community.
Seward County likewise has a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program that educates people about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization and disaster medical operations.
Using the training learned in the classroom and during exercises, CERT members can assist others in their neighborhood or workplace following an event when professional responders are not immediately available to help.
CERT members also are encouraged to support emergency response agencies by taking a more active role in emergency preparedness projects in their community. Classes are typically taught over a three-day period.
Standard said organizing, planning, responding to and recovering from a disaster requires teamwork from all aspects of local government, private industry and volunteer organizations.
“The idea is by organizing, having plans in advance and having all the responders know what their part in it is going to be when that day comes, we respond better, and we’re better able to help the citizens of Seward County,” he said.
More recently on the local level, Standard oversaw planning, response and recovery effort for the COVID-19 pandemic, and this included the creation and activation of a local Emergency Operation Center (EOC), where emergency coordinations are generally carried out during disaster situations.
The EOC houses representatives of each department organization involved in its response activities in order to ensure an organized response to the situation and the public is given accurate and timely information regarding the disaster.
Standard lives in rural Seward County with his wife, Chris, near Kismet, and as for what he will be doing with his retirement, this involves taking some time to attend to some neglected tasks at home.
“I’m going to assist my wife with raising cattle, and I’m going to fix fences and do things I’ve been putting off for the last 20 years at my place,” he said.
Taking over for Standard will be Tim Newman, who was recently hired and trained to be the new Emergency Management director, and Standard said Newman is well prepared to move forward and take care of the county and its citizens.
“It should always be our main concern in government to take good care of the people who need our assistance,” Standard said.
