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Spring 2022Nebraskans Respond to Wildfires739702
The Beacon – March 2022 in ReviewWe envision safer, less vulnerable communitiesin Nebraska made possible through effectivecollaborative partnerships committed to savinglives and reducing the impact of disasters.A Message fromNEMA Assistant DirectorOur mission is to coordinate, support and serveNebraska through an effective and relevantemergency management agency.Erv PortisAs drought continues across Nebraska, local, state and federal emergency management and our partners in publicsafety continue to remain vigilant to wildfire potential across the state. It has been a busy spring with fires during April andMay collectively burning more than 115,000 acres across the state.While fire danger indicators such as the National Weather Service’s 3-day rangeland fire danger forecasts and the RockyMountain Area 7-Day Fire Weather Outlook have shown a significant decrease in day-to-day risk, fire services and emergency management remain cautious and alert. The fire risk can increase to critical levels in less than a day with the rightcombination of warm temperatures, low relative humidity, gusty winds and dry fuel such as grass, trees, and crops.The State of Nebraska annually contracts a Single Engine Air Tanker (SEAT) to provide aerial fire suppression fromJuly into September. Due to the heightened fire danger, the decision was made to bring the SEAT into Nebraska startingin April. The SEAT is a valuable asset allowing local emergency managers to get a plane up in the air to drop retardant onfires as soon as possible after they are detected. Since its April arrival, the SEAT has been deployed within the state onseveral firefighting missions.All Nebraskans can do their part to prevent wildfires. Please remember to: report unattended fires; extinguish fire pitsand campfires when done; do not throw lit cigarettes out of a moving car; use caution when using flammable liquids; payattention to local ordinances for trash burning; only use fireworks in clear areas with no woods or dry vegetation nearbyand pay attention to the risk of wildfires in your area.We also need to remember severe weather season will likely impact the state as it does every year. A May 12 storm hasalready caused significant damage in multiple counties due to straight-line winds that destroyed trees, grain bins, irrigation systems, roofs, buildings and electrical transmission lines. Damage reports are being compiled from the event whichmay lead to a disaster request from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Please continue to be prepared, have aplan and stay weather aware.Sincerely,Ervin L. PortisAssistant DirectorGov. Pete Ricketts and NEMA Assistant Director Erv Portis departa Nebraska National Guard UH60 following a damage assessmentflight over the 702 Road Fire on May 3 in Furnas and Red WillowCounties in west-central Nebraska.Nebraska Emergency Management AgencyPage 2
The Beacon – March 2022 in ReviewMultiple Wildfires Impact NebraskaNebraska faced significantchallenges as multiple fires occurred simultaneously in differentareas of the state in late April. Itrequired the effort of local, stateand federal agencies to worktogether to respond and provideassistance.Fifteen days after the 739 Road Fireburned about 35,000 acres in Gosperand Furnas counties, another blazestarted near Norton, Kans on April22. The Road 702 Fire moved rapidlynorthward through Furnas and RedWillow counties spurred on by highwinds and dry fuels.Region 17 Emergency ManagementDirector Roger Powell said he arrivedat the Nebraska-Kansas line just after4:30 p.m. about 15 minutes after apage went out to local firefightersreporting the fire.“I saw how fast it was moving andhow high the smoke was getting intothe air,” Powell said. “But I still thoughtwe had a chance to get in front of it.”The Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team 1 was calledin to work on the response and the fireeventually burned 45,000 acresThe west central fires were notthe only ones Nebraskans battled inApril. Here is a round up of other firesreported to NEMA.Elsie Fire, April 22 — Four fires nearthe village of Elsie, were reported tothe NEMA Watch Center, primarily affecting farm and cattle grazing lands.The fires burned an estimated 4,970acres. Four firefighters sustainednon-life-threatening injuries. PerkinsCounty made an emergency declaration on April 22.Purdum Fire, April 22 — In BlaineCounty, near Purdum, five large fireswere reported with more than 20volunteer fire departments responding. Three fire trucks were damaged inthis nearly 30,000-acre fire, which wascontained as of April 23.Cheyenne and Deuel Counties,April 22 — Three large fires brokeout between Sunol and Lodge Pole.Residents of the area were temporarily evacuated. The fires were containedon April 23.Scotts Bluff County Fire, April 22 —high winds of 83 mph spurred on nineseparate fires. Dozens of power polessnapped, trees uprooted, five structures were damaged and uncontrolledfires burning in rural areas causedevacuations. Upwards of 4,000 customers were without power. WesternNebraska Regional Airport closedSaturday for safety reasons. It wasreported 100 percent contained as ofApril 23.Burt County Fire , April 23 — a firewas reported at Lyons, which continued toward the village of Macy, whichwas evacuated. Eighteen volunteerfire departments responded to thefire, which destroyed one fire truckand one house and damaged threeother structures. Four injuries havebeen reported, one requiring life flight.A county declaration was issued onApril 23rd.Tuls Dairy Calf Farm Fire, RisingCity Fire, April 22 — One hay barn, 100calves and 900 calving hutches werelost. Two firefighters were transportedto the hospital for smoke inhalation,while several others were treated onthe scene for eye irritation. The firewas caused when a front-loader bucket sparked on concrete and ignited ahay facility. Eight volunteer fire departments responded to this fire.An overlay of the Road 739 Fire is included on this map of the 702 Fire.Nebraska Emergency Management AgencyPage 3
The Beacon – March 2022 in ReviewAssociation holds Annual ConferenceThe Nebraska Association ofEmergency Management held its2002 Finding Our Focus Conference at the Boarders Inn & Suitesin Grand Island, April 6-8.The annual conference gives thestate’s emergency managers anopportunity to listen to speakers,visit with vendors and network withcolleagues, according to outgoingNAEM president Nick Kemnitz whois the Wayne County emergencymanager.“We hope that everyone had achance to find their focus for theupcoming year,” Kemnitz said. “Thespeakers gave us valuable information to help us as we meet theemergency management needs ofour communities across the state.Grand Island Mayor RogerSteele opened the conference andwelcomed participants to his city.Nebraska Emergency Management Assistant Director Erv Portisand Federal Emergency Management Agency EMA Region VII Administrator Andrea Spillarsupdated the attendees on theiragency activities.“We really do have the samegoal as you to serve the people inyour communities,” Portis said.Spillar addressed the goals andThe Nebraska Association of Emergency Management Conference kick off in Grand islandon April 6.objectives of the FEMA strategicplan which include: Goal 1: Instill equity as a foundation of emergency management Goal 2: Lead whole of community in climate resilience Goal 3: Promote and sustaina ready FEMA and preparednation.Spillar told the local emergencymanagers in attendance that FEMAwants to “make your life easier.”Tim Eggebraaten was thekeynote speaker for the conference. Eggebraaten retired in 2016as chief of police with the DetroitLakes, Minn. Police Department.He uses music and stories to tellabout his leadership journey. Hefound that discussing personaland emotional topics helped inhis own healing process. He saidhe learned that others can benefitfrom knowing they are not alone intheir own journey.A good start to each day, Eggebraaten said, is to ask: “What willtoday’s adventure be?““If you’re focused on the negative all the time, that’s all you’llsee,” Eggebraaten said.Erv Portis and Federal Emergency Management Tim Eggebraaten used music to share his message of making positive thinking aAgency FEMA Region VII Administrator Andrea Spillars habit, filtering the negative and counting one’s blessings. Eggebraaten said “lookupdated the attendees on their agency’s activities.for the good.”Nebraska Emergency Management AgencyPage 4
The Beacon – March 2022 in ReviewNAEM Conference ContinuedRight: From left, Colt Farringer ofThayer County, Amanda Burki of Johnson/Pawnee counties, and MarkHosking of Lancaster County discusshow they used the Incident CommandSystem to manage the National FinalsHigh School Rodeo in Lincoln.Below: Other speakers at the conference included LTC Shane Varejka,Major David Strom, Nic McKinley; TimNewman, Tia Loftin, Jodie Fawl, JonRosenlund, Kirk Smith, Julie Rother,Andrew Mills and Nick Kemnitz.Nick Kemnitz presents Dawna Whitcomb of Adams County, Jill Harvey of Phelps County and Laura Hintz Tom Smith of Dodge Countyof Knox County with Presidents Awards. Whitcomb also was installed as the new president of the associa- was honored as Emergencytion. Harvey was named deputy emergency manager of the year and Hintz was named a lifetime member. Manager of the Year.Nik Kemnitz presents Jeff McGill ofCuming County with the new emergency manager of the year award.Nik Kemnitz, president of NAEM presents the family of Lynn Marshallwith a posthumous president’s award from the association. Lynn Marshall served as Sarpy County Emergency Management Director untilhe died from COVID in November 2021 at age 64.Pictured from left Nik Kemnitz recognized and thankedare: Lynn’s wife Margie Marshall, grandson Braxton Huegenrich and Leroy Janssen for 35 years of servicedaughter Erika Huegenrich.to the association.Nebraska Emergency Management AgencyPaul Johnson of DouglasCounty and Kevin Garvin ofCedar County (not pictured)were recognized for 25 yearsof membership in the association.Page 5
The Beacon – March 2022 in ReviewExercise Becomes Reality at NAEM ConferenceTroy Harris of Nebraska EmergencyManagement Agency and CoreySimmons of the Office of the ChiefInformation Office represented thestate communications unit at theNebraska Association of Emergency Management Conference inGrand Island, April 8, to assist witha communications exercise and toprovide a demonstration of thecache radios available for deployment to local jurisdictions followingan emergency or disaster.During the exercise the state received a request to deploy the radios to the 739 Road Fire fire in Gosperand Furnas County.“We stopped exercise operations and transitioned to pre-deployment preparations,” Harris said. “We identified conference attendees who were comms unit trainees and requested their assistance to program radios and repack theequipment in the comm unit trailer.“It was a great opportunity to demonstrate the capabilities of the Comms Unit in action and show how fast we can getequipment out to the field,” Harris said. “Simmons then left Grand Island to deliver the radios to the field and deployas the Comm-L unit leader for the fire.”Cybersecurity 101:It’s time to “Be Smart, Be Safe andBe Aware” according to NathanielSmith, information technology infrastructure support analyst of NEMAwho spoke to all agency staff, May10.“We need to be constantly vigilant,” Smith said. “Staying safe athome, at work or in the field is notjust for the nerds.”Smith outlined a variety of methods for staying safe while using thecomputer.At home, he said: Secure your Wi-Fi password(change the default SSID(name)and Security Key(password).Make sure the password is acombination of letters, numbers,and symbols. At least 8 characters long. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication whenever possible to loginto sites. MFA makes it moredifficult to hack an accountas the hacker needs both thepassword and another methodof authenticating.How to Stay Safe at Home, at Work or in the FieldKeep devicesup to date. Assoon as possiblewhenever thereis an updatefor your phone,computer, router,etc., performthat update inSmithorder to patchany security vulnerabilities. Use virus and anti-malwaresoftware (at a minimum on windows devices run scans regularlywith Windows Defender). Do not install untrusted applications on computers and mobiledevices. Malware is often timestied to Mobile Applications andDesktop Applications. Do not share personal information on social media such as addresses, phone numbers, email,and birthdays. Hackers can usethis information to guess usernames and passwordsSmith said at work the best practices include: not opening email linksthat are unexpected or from un Nebraska Emergency Management Agencyknown sources; reporting suspiciousemails; not downloading suspiciousfiles or programs; and not keepingpasswords in plain-text on your deskor in an unsecured document onyour computer.“Again, make sure your passwordsare long and strong,” Smith said.When working away from home orthe office there are also best practices, Smith said.“Do not connect to public WiFi andwatch out for ‘shoulder surfers’ aterm for people who peek over yourshoulder to steal log in informationor see private documents,” Smithsaid. “When working in the field, donot leave devices unattended andnever plug unknown flash drives intoyour computer.”Another thing to watch out for issocial engineering where someonetries to manipulate you into givingout confidential information or secure access.“It takes awareness to be safe online,” Smith concluded. “Be sure youthink about all the choices you makewhile working online.”Page 6
The Beacon – March 2022 in ReviewFIRE SCHOOLNebraska Emergency Management Agency staff andlocal emergency management staff assisted with resource tracking, set up and student tracking in 12hands-on classes at the 2022 Fire School in GrandIsland May 16-22.Nebraska Emergency Management AgencyPage 7
The Beacon – March 2022 in ReviewLeadership Lincoln Participates in Emergency Response ExerciseLeadership Lincoln metat Nebraska EmergencyManagement Agency,May 12 to learn aboutmanagement of a disaster through an exerciseheld in the State Emergency Operations Center.Participants discussedhow they would respondif a tornado impacted alarge portion of Lincoln.They discussed community lifelines and howvarious responders wouldwork together in the eventof such a disaster.Training Offers Information on Basic ICSG191: Incident Command System/Emergency Operations Center Interface was offered April 20 in NebraskaCity Southeast Planning, Exercise andTraining Region. Instructors includedRoger Conrad, below, and Larry Fichtner, not pictured.Nebraska Emergency Management AgencyPage 8
The Beacon – March 2022 in ReviewEvaluated Exercise Held for REP ProgramNebraska Emergency ManagementAgency participated in an evaluatedexercise for the Cooper Nuclear Stationon May 24 along with state emergencysupport function coordinators and Nemaha and Richardson county emergencymanagement agencies.In addition, the Nuclear RegulatoryCommission (NRC) requires CooperNuclear Station to have a dress rehearsalwhich was held April 5.1Pictured clockwise from right:1. NEMA’s Sean Runge, Erv Portis, Mack Johnson andDeb Robinson work in the Emergency Operations Facility at Auburn.2. Norm Valentine of FEMA, Jodie Fawl of NEMA and Gary Lesoingof Nemaha County discuss joint information center operations duringthe dress rehearsal.23. Richardson County staff work in their emergency operationscenter.4. Jeff Powell of DHHS serves as the state’s spokesperson duringa mock news conference at the Emergency Operation Facility inAuburn.43Region 11 Emergency Management held a full-scale hazmat exercise in Norfolk, May 24. The exercise included fire, law enforcement,emergency medical service personnel and a variety of volunteers. Norfolk High School drama students portrayed victims.Nebraska Emergency Management AgencyPage 9
The Beacon – March 2022 in ReviewNemaha County Emergency Management and Nemaha County volunteers participate in an Emergency Worker Decontamination Center(EWDC) evaluated exercise on May 23. The purpose of this drill was to ensure the county can safely and properly process, assess and, ifneeded, decontaminate, any emergency worker who would respond to a radiological release at Cooper Nuclear Station. An effective EWDCis paramount in the event of a radiological release response, as it ensures all emergency workers can safely exit the potentially contaminated area.Harris Joins NEMA’s Hazard Mitigation UnitChelsea Harris joined Nebraska Emergency Management Agency on May 16 assupervisor of the hazard mitigation unit.Harris attended Southeast Community College and the University of Phoenix studying early childhood and criminal justice.She came to NEMA from the Department of Agriculture where she worked as anEmergency Response Coordinator and has been an ESF for 6 years. She also previously worked at the Department of Corrections for 2 years and was in the military for 10years.She is married to, her husband, Ryan, and they have three children, a son Ethan whois 17, a son Aiden who is 14, and a daughter Aylish who is 4.She enjoys spending time outdoors and fishing and spending time with her children.2433 N.W. 24th St., Lincoln NE 68524www.nema.nebraska.govMain Line: (402) 471-7421Toll Free: (877) 297-2368Fax: (402) 471-7433Governor Pete RickettsState Homeland Security Director, Lt. Gov. Mike FoleyNEMA Director, Major General Daryl BohacAssistant Director Erv PortisNEMA is charged by Nebraska statute to reducethe vulnerabilities of the people and communities ofNebraska in terms of injury, loss of life and propertydamage resulting from natural, technological or manmade disasters and emergencies.NEMA is responsible for coordinating the stateresponse in any major emergency or disaster includingthe support of local governments as needed or requested, and coordinating assistance with the FederalEmergency Management Agency (FEMA) and otherfederal partners.The Beacon includes emergency management newsand activities from across the state. Please forwardstory ideas or photos for inclusion in the newsletter to:Public Information Officer Jodie Fawl, 402-471-7428 orjodie.fawl@nebraska.gov.
The Rocky Mountain Complex Inci-dent Management Team 1 was called in to work on the response and the fire eventually burned 45,000 acres The west central fires were not the only ones Nebraskans battled in April. Here is a round up of other fires reported to NEMA. Elsie Fire, April 22 — Four fires near the village of Elsie, were reported to
