Morrow County Emergency Management office was established shortly after the tornado in Cardington under Ohio Revised Code 5502.26. The office of Disaster Services originally was established during WWII as a Civil Defense Office whos primary mission was the establishment of shelters, and evacuations during the time of war. As things progressed and the cold war ended it was decided that there needed to be an agency to deal with all types of disasters so there was a name change to Emergency Management to co-inside with the Federal Emergency Management Agency also known as FEMA and Ohio Emergency Management.

 

Well history never stays the same and as things progressed and the war in the middle east flared up along with terrorism it was decided that FEMA need to be revised again. So was born the Office of Homeland Security at the federal level along with emergency management. Well the counties in staying with government change, right after Sept 11, 2001, there was another name change, the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Now not only having responsibility of dealing with all hazards we are now full circle dealing with civil defense issues again. Handling the federal homeland security grants, meeting with the county terrorism advisory committee to plan how and where to spend federal dollars earmarked for homeland security equipment. Establish and funding for the county CERT program through federal grant funds. 

 

Morrow County Office of Homeland Security also handles the Local Emergency Response Committee (LEPC) responsibilities. This consists of monitoring all businesses that contain hazardous materials, making sure that each facility has filed their annual chemical inventory reports to identify what hazardous chemicals they have on site. Additional responsibilities is the execution of hazardous material exercises on a yearly basis. Working with the various emergency response forces to make sure every one is working in harmony. Responding to and coordinating hazardous material incidents, bomb threats, bomb disposals and maintaining liaison with the other county agencies.

 

In the past ten years this office has responded to over 100 hazardous material incidents. Established a cost recovery program to recover costs incurred by emergency response forces while dealing with hazardous material incidents. Created and ALL HAZARDS plan, completely revised the Emergency Response plan to include a terrorism section, brought the plan into compliance with the National Response plan by becoming National Incident Management Compliant, making sure that all elected officials and emergency responders are also NIMS compliant. Assisting the Health Department with establishing a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) and helping to bring in over $500,000 dollars worth of supplies and equipment for local emergency responders.

 

Handled two tornados, two Presidential declarations, the largest oil well blow out in the history of the State of Ohio, ,45000 cubic feet of natural gas an hour for 3 consecutive days, the largest oil spill in the states history 275,000 barrels of oil from an underground oil pipe line.

 

Since 1950 Morrow County leads the state of Ohio in total disaster dollars lost from natural disasters.