Kansas taking the lead in emergency response to Hurricane Matthew

EMAC

Although hundreds of miles from the Atlantic Ocean, Kansas is playing a major role in preparations to respond to Hurricane Matthew when it hits land.

This year, Kansas is the coordinating state for the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, a multistate, mutual aid agreement that facilitates interstate assistance in response and recovery operations during a disaster, according to a media release.

As such, Kansas is responsible for assisting in coordinating resources from other states to go to Florida or other storm-stricken states when needed.

Here are the key messages from NHC regarding Category 4 #hurricane #Matthew at 5 pm EDT Thurs. https://t.co/T8bABTTyjI @NHCDirector @NOAA pic.twitter.com/UTcw2QefXV

— NHC Atlantic Ops (@NHC_Atlantic) October 6, 2016

Jonathan York, Response and Recovery Branch director and EMAC coordinator for the Kansas Division of Emergency Management, is this year’s chairman of the Emergency Management Assistance Compact Executive Task Force. As the national coordinating state, KDEM has the following responsibilities:

1. Ensures that operational procedures are followed
2. Identification and staffing of A- (Advance) Teams and liaison teams
3. Ensures timely status reports on EMAC deployments are issued
4. In coordination with the National Emergency Management Association, resolves any policy or procedural issues

In addition, KDEM is staffing a virtual A-Team for the state of Florida. KDEM personnel will staff the A-Team until a physical team from California arrives in Florida later this week to assist local authorities with response to the hurricane. A-Teams have the primary responsibility of implementing the EMAC process in both the Requesting and Assisting States as assigned by the state emergency management director or their designee. All members of an EMAC A-Team are qualified by NEMA and must have disaster experience, are adaptable to high stress environments, capable of working without direct supervision and are fully knowledgeable of EMAC policies, procedures and web-based tools.