Midwest snow storm tests Indiana responders | 02.15.2007 | 06:23:56 | Views: 5781 | ID: February 15 '07: The severe winter storm that moved across the Midwest and into the Mid Atlantic and Northeast this week dumped ice and snow causing more than a dozen fatalities and slowing air and highway traffic. In Indiana, coordination among state and local responder agencies along with the Department of Homeland Security and the Red Cross helped to reduce the impact of the storm, responder officials told the South Bend Tribune. Response, communication and recovery operations were supervised on the state level while an emergency operations center was established to coordinate state and local officials. Clyde Avery, the emergency management director for Marshall County, Indiana told the Tribune, "The state kind of orchestrated everything. ... They indicated they were going to activate the state EOC. ... And every six hours on Monday, we had to provide status reports 'round the clock." Avery told the Tribune that during the entire storm, county emergency management officials "were in close communication through the whole thing." Avery continued to say that the storm was a "good test" for the area's responders because the storm was unexpected. Overall, Avery said he and the rest of the state emergency management officials "were learning" from the storm and the response to it.
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