Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Emergency Management topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Marshall County EMA outlines HazMat response lessons, schedules public safety town hall for Dec. 4
Summary
EMA director gave a quarterly report that covered July–September incidents including a multi-day hazmat release, grant and planning updates, outreach at a senior expo, and proposed two public town-hall sessions on Dec. 4 for public safety stakeholders.
Marshall County Emergency Management Agency Director Jack presented the EMA quarterly report at the Oct. 20 Board of Commissioners meeting, describing recent incident responses, grant activity, planning and outreach and asking to use the county meeting room for a public safety town hall on Dec. 4.
Jack told commissioners EMA coordinated with the National Weather Service during severe weather at the county fair and Lake Fest in July and assisted on-scene decision-making. He reported a multi-day hazmat release at Centus on Aug. 14 that required a multi-agency response, deployment of lighting to work overnight, and mutual aid from South Bend, Elkhart and Warsaw hazmat teams because of the incident scale and extreme heat conditions. Jack said Marshall County can handle small spills locally but relies on regional hazmat teams for large incidents. He said the county will conduct an after-action review; South Bend Hazmat was to coordinate an after-action meeting and report, and EMA staff expected a fall review but had not yet been invited.
On planning and grants, Jack said EMA received permission to apply for the 2025 EMPG salary reimbursement grant and submitted the application in October. Planning work includes a revitalized debris management plan using a new state template; agencies participating include town street departments, the highway department, Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), the health department and Purdue Extension. Training updates included a full-scale HAZMAT operation/rail exercise simulating a train derailment and a FEMA MGT 415 disaster recovery in rural communities class Jack attended.
Jack requested use of the county meeting room for two Dec. 4 sessions (1–3 p.m. and 6–8 p.m.) for a public safety town hall aimed at law enforcement, firefighters, EMS, elected officials and school safety staff; the board approved the request. He also described community outreach at a senior expo that drew roughly 900 attendees, distribution of weather radios and increased downloads of the Marshall County app; EMA has updated marketing materials and obtained a high-resolution EMA seal to use in outreach. Jack said he submitted county damages for tornado recovery to the state and expects roughly $11,000–$12,000 back for county expenses, but noted the county’s appeal of FEMA individual assistance denials remains outstanding and could be affected by the federal government shutdown.
Commissioners asked whether the Centus hazmat response generated lessons learned; Jack said a full after-action meeting and report were planned but he had not yet been invited to the statewide session. He confirmed Marshall County's reliance on outside hazmat teams for large incidents and said South Bend is the first call for serious hazmat events.
