Six county emergency management coordinators from Iowa left Thursday for Clanton, Alabama, to help out with emergency operations in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan. State Emergency Management Director David Miller says the Iowans will help their counterparts in Alabama. He says they’ll be working in local county emergency operations centers helping them administer, procure resources, and manage the disaster. Miller says the emergency management coordinators from Des Moines, Fayette, Floyd, Henry, Lee and Monona County will be in Alabama two weeks. He says their help is part of a 49-state Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC). He says under the federal disaster declaration, the receiving state can get reimbursed by the federal government, but he says they would go and help even without the declaration. Miller says the additional help will put more than two dozen Iowans on relief duty helping in Florida and Alabama. He says the Department of Public Health sent 16 people to Florida, and two of his staff were already helping out in Alabama. Miller says residents in the counties where the coordinators have left for Alabama don’t have to worry about having someone in charge. He says they work within their local jurisdictions to find someone locally to fill in, such as Lee County where some local sheriff’s deputies will cover the calls. Miller says the Iowa coordinators will provide needed relief for Alabama Emergency Management staff who have been working continuously since prior to Ivan’s landfall.
