Say More in Raymore

Inside Emergency Management: Tim Baldwin on Keeping Raymore Safe

• Melissa • Season 1 • Episode 1

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Raymore Emergency Management Director Tim Baldwin shares information on what his job entails, how residents can prepare themselves and their families for severe weather and other emergency incidents and how to get involved in the Raymore Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).

Learn more about the City of Raymore's Communications Department at www.raymore.com/communications

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Threads @CityofRaymoreMO

Learn more about the City of Raymore's Communications Department at www.raymore.com/communications

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Threads @CityofRaymoreMO

Melissa Harmer:

Welcome to Say More in Raymore, the City of Raymore's official podcast. I'm your host, Melissa Harmer, the Communications Director at the City of Raymore. In this series, we're giving you an insider's look at the things happening in your city government, whether it's new developments shaping the community, upcoming events or the latest news that impacts everyday life in Raymore. We'll also introduce you to the people who work behind the scenes, our dedicated City staff who make it all happen. So stay tuned, because we're here to help you get to know the people, the projects and the programs that make Raymore a great place to live, work and visit, one episode at a time. Our guest for this episode is Tim Baldwin, the Emergency Management Director for the City. We'll get to know Tim and learn more about what being an Emergency Management Director entails. He'll share information on how you can prepare yourself and your family for severe weather and other emergency incidents and how you can get involved in our Community Emergency Response Team. First, a few announcements on March events you may want to check out. With our new expansion of the Raymore Activity Center at Recreation Park, lovingly called the RAC, we have Zumba, Gentle Yoga, Open Play Volleyball, a Youth Speed and Agility program all available now at the RAC. We also have open gym hours from 6 am to 9 pm Monday through Friday. Admission is always free from 6 to 8 am and admission is $3 from 8 am to 9 pm. Raymore Parks and Recreation has a 10-day pass available for $20, so you can pick up one of those at the RAC or Centerview and save a few bucks off of regular admission. We also have the Spring Craft Show from 10 am to 2 pm on Saturday, March 8th at the RAC. It'll be a great opportunity to get out and support local crafters and artisans and bring home some unique finds and shop from a wide variety of handmade items. Learn more about the Spring Craft Show, the RAC and our recreation opportunities at raymore. com/parks.

Melissa Harmer:

The Citizens Police Academy is also starting up in March. This eight-week course meets on Wednesday nights starting March 12th. The Academy gives a very in-depth look at how the Raymore Police Department works. School Y outh and Community Outreach Officer Stephanie Hornbeck heads up that program. If you've never met Officer Hornbeck, you should. She's great and I've never met anyone more sure of their calling in life than Officer Hornbeck. This program is free, but you do have to meet some requirements and turn in an application. So learn more about that at raymore. com/ CPA. Let's get to today's guest. Welcome Tim Baldwin, Emergency Management Director for the City of Raymore.

Tim Baldwin:

Thank you, glad to be here.

Melissa Harmer:

Glad to have you here. So first tell us a little bit about your background and how you ended up in Raymore.

Tim Baldwin:

Yeah. So I guess I'll start back in college. I went to college at Illinois State University. I'm from Illinois, originally majored in criminal justice there, I got my bachelor's in criminal justice. During that time I kind of developed an interest in kind of Homeland Security type matters, took some classes on Homeland Security for my bachelor's. I just kind of read some books on the topic. Found that very interesting. So after I graduated I wanted to keep going and pursue my master's degree, ideally in Homeland Security, and there weren't a lot of at the time. There weren't a lot of master's programs in Homeland Security. It's probably different now, I'm sure. But I found a school in Philadelphia, St. Joseph's University, that had kind of a combination criminal justice and Homeland Security master's program. So I completed my master's program there.

Tim Baldwin:

After college I had just a few kind of random jobs trying to get my foot in the door. I worked at a couple of different universities, just kind of in the admissions office, met my wife. We moved out to Arizona. I worked for the Maricopa County Superior Court for a little while, just kind of doing admin-type work, scheduling court cases, things like that. And then a position opened up with the state of Arizona Homeland Security Department and I went for it and somehow I got it.

Tim Baldwin:

And in that role it was really primarily a grant management role. Our office managed several different grant programs that first responders around the state could apply for police departments, fire departments, emergency management departments, that kind of thing and so we would help them apply, review their applications. We'd kind of decide which projects, which applications get funded, which ones don't. For the ones that did get funded, we'd help them kind of walk through the paperwork and all the reimbursement processes and everything that kind of goes along with uh being awarded a grant. Uh, so that was kind of the main thing I did in that job.

Tim Baldwin:

I also got to take a lot of uh different trips around the state to, you know, Flagstaff and Tucson and all the big cities in Arizona. I just kind of meet with some of the departments there and kind of build some really great relationships with the first responders around the state. While we were living out there we had our first boy and we decided that we kind of wanted to move kind of back to our closer to our roots, kind of in the Midwest, maybe not necessarily all the way back to Illinois, but kind of close enough to be kind of within a day's drive or so. So we made the tough decision to leave Arizona after four or five years or so and I started looking for jobs homeland security, emergency management type jobs in the Midwest. This job opened up kind of right at the time I was looking and I went for it and here I am.

Melissa Harmer:

And you've been here about two and a half years, about two and a half years almost three years, okay, great, um, and so what is? What is emergency management? What types of things do you do for the City and what walk, walk us through a day in the life of your job?

Tim Baldwin:

Yeah. So essentially what emergency management is is 30,000 foot view kind of making sure that the city, the city government as well as our citizens are ready for a large-scale emergency, that their lives, that the citizens' lives, are interrupted or impacted as little as possible in the event of a disaster. Same thing with the city government making sure our services and what we do as a city for our residents is interrupted as little as possible in the event of a disaster. So really, emergency management involves five pillars or kind of phases of emergency management. So there's the prevention phase, which is trying to just overall prevent or stop a disaster from happening, knowing that you probably can't do that in every situation. The next pillar is the protection phase, which is how do you protect people, how do you keep them safe, how do you protect their property as much as you can in the event of a disaster, again knowing that you're not going to be able to stop every disaster. The third phase is the mitigation phase, which is, again knowing you're not going to be able to stop every disaster, how do you just lessen its impact? So all of those three phases are kind of pre-event. Then you have an event and then, right, there is your fourth pillar, which is the response phase, which is the actions that you take immediately during, immediately after a disaster to save lives, help people, protect their property, and then that kind of leads into the fifth pillar, which is the recovery phase. And it's during that phase where you kind of work to restore the community, work to restore the businesses, the services, the utilities, whatever the situation might be back to where it was before the emergency or even, ideally, in a better condition than before the disaster, and that kind of leads back into the prevention stage. So it's kind of a cycle.

Tim Baldwin:

So kind of on a day-to-day basis, what I do I'm in charge of, for example, managing our LEOP, which is our Local Emergency Operations Plan.

Tim Baldwin:

That's a big document that my office maintains really kind of outlines what our city would do in the event of a variety of disasters, whether that's a severe weather event, a terrorist attack, a disease outbreak, a cybersecurity attack, kind of what our folks would do, who's responsible for what in terms of our staff members, how are decisions made, how is information shared, what kind of resources do we need to call in– that kind of thing.

Tim Baldwin:

So it's my job to kind of maintain that document, update it when needed, share it with our city staff when appropriate. I do manage our grant program as well. I receive an emergency management grant from the state every year, so I do the paperwork and everything that goes along with being a grant recipient. I maintain our big 40-foot command vehicle, make sure everything inside that is working well. That's something that we'll deploy in an emergency if needed. I work to maintain our outdoor warning sirens, make sure they're operating and sounding the way that they should. I attend a lot of meetings, trainings, exercises, conferences around the state and around the country, sometimes just do a lot of collaboration with other emergency management departments.

Tim Baldwin:

And that's really the thing about emergency management is most departments, except for maybe the really big cities, are one, two, maybe three people. So there's a lot of collaboration, a lot of helping each other, a lot of looking out for each other. So definitely a lot of collaboration with my counterparts throughout the area.

Melissa Harmer:

And you talked about conferences. You were in Denver just a few months ago for a national conference. Tell me about that, because I know you made a presentation.

Tim Baldwin:

Yeah yeah, so every year there is the International Emergency Management Conference. We get people attending that from I think last year there was 30 different countries. Emergency management professionals come to this and they hold it in a different city every year. In my few years here, I've been to Savannah, Georgia, Long Beach, California, and this past November was in Colorado Springs, and so I attended that and I was actually asked to present what's kind of like a TED Talk. Is the way they compare it to. A TED Talk is the way they compare it to.

Tim Baldwin:

They select six or seven emergency managers from around the country every year and ask them to just share a six or seven minute presentation on a topic, and this past November I applied to be one of those presenters and I was selected, so I got to share a few minutes on a topic that's important to me, and everybody gets to pick their own topic, obviously, and so I decided to go with.

Tim Baldwin:

I shared a few tips for new emergency managers because in a way, I was kind of a new emergency manager. I had studied Homeland Security, you know, academically, and I had worked, you know, for Homeland Security Department at the state level, but in terms of being an emergency manager, this was my first kind of introduction to that role, so my presentation was just sharing a few helpful tips on what emergency managers can do to be successful, because every year at the opening of the conference they ask everybody to raise your hand if this is your first conference and ask everybody to raise your hand if this is your first conference. And in the three conferences that I've been to I would say probably 30% to 40% of people raised their hand. So this is a field where there's a lot of turnover, a lot of new folks entering the field from out of college or just other areas. So I thought it would be a good idea to maybe share some tips for new emergency managers on what they can do to kind of settle in, feel comfortable and be successful in their role.

Melissa Harmer:

That's great. Some of the, let's say, natural disasters that are more of a threat here in our area than others, how can we prepare for those and what are those?

Tim Baldwin:

Yeah, so, depending on where you live in the country, you're going to face different natural disasters.

Tim Baldwin:

Obviously, some emergency managers in different parts of the country or the world might face hurricanes or volcanoes, and that's not really a concern for us here in Raymore, but the top of our list in terms of severe weather is definitely tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, and we're in the middle of winter right now, so a heavy snowstorm or ice storm those are kind of the top of my list in terms of the weather events that I prepare for.

Tim Baldwin:

So we are approaching the spring severe weather season, so it's going to kind of transition here soon from looking out for snowstorms to looking out for tornado activity. So one of the things that I'm a big advocate for for our residents is to just have a plan, know what to do in the event that a tornado is potentially imminent here in Raymore. So one of the things that I suggest people have is an emergency kit. That is a supply of things that you would want to have handy, accessible in the event that you have to get to your shelter location. So there's a long list you can find online of things you want to include in your kit. But we're talking, you know, food, water, maybe some extra clothes, blankets or towels, flashlights.

Tim Baldwin:

Extra medication, yeah medication, definitely, first aid kits, just things that you want to have immediately accessible in the event that maybe you're trapped, maybe part of your house is damaged you can't get to those things – just a kit that you want to have with you as you shelter in place in the event of a tornado. You also want to know where to go in the event of a tornado. Where in your house? Where in your home is the best place to be if a tornado is coming? Now, for most people that's going to be a basement. If you don't have a basement, we would suggest going to the lowest level interior room without windows, so that might be a bathroom, maybe a closet somewhere. Wherever you can get to the lowest level of your home without windows, try to put as many obstacles or barriers as you can between to the lowest level of your home without windows. Try to put as many obstacles or barriers as you can between yourself and the outside, so that could even be, you know, getting under a table If you're able to put a mattress over yourself. Do that. Anything you can do to kind of protect yourself. Be as interior, be as hidden as possible from the outside. And then the last main thing that I would advocate for is getting a weather radio.

Tim Baldwin:

These are pretty cheap. They're maybe 20 to 30 bucks. You can pick them up. You know Amazon or really anywhere. Some of our local stores have them. You can pick them up and you can program them. You can customize them to give you alerts on different weather events and you can kind of customize how they share information. They can just display text. They can set off kind of a sound, you know, kind of an audible tone. They can speak you know, words to you and let you know what's going on. So you can kind of customize it to share with you. However you know best fits what you're looking for. So those are the big things. As we head into tornado season, get a kit, build a kit, know where to go in your home. Get a weather radio as well. Those are the big things.

Melissa Harmer:

I'm also a big believer in a weather radio, even though sometimes it's kind of annoying, but I would much rather have that wake me up in the middle of the night.

Tim Baldwin:

No, I agree.

Melissa Harmer:

Even severe thunderstorm, but it has been there to give those important tornado on your phone.

Tim Baldwin:

Yeah.

Melissa Harmer:

It depends on where you've been with your phone. I don't know but weather radio 100%.

Tim Baldwin:

Yeah, it's a lifesaver.

Melissa Harmer:

Yeah, yeah, I agree, I agree. And then Severe Weather Preparedness Week is coming up in Missouri the first week of March and there will be a statewide tornado drill. And it's a little different this year it's actually on a Wednesday when we normally test the tornado sirens.

Tim Baldwin:

Yeah, so Severe Weather Preparedness Week is the first full week of March. It's Monday, March 3rd through Friday the 7th, and this is a really good week to kind of educate yourself, inform yourself on different hazards that we might face here in Raymore. So every day kind of has a different theme to it. So I'll see if I can remember it here. I think Monday is how to receive alerts, how to receive information, so that might be a good day to focus on, you know, if you don't have a weather radio, maybe go out and buy one that day or just kind of sign up for you know, a way to receive alerts on your phone. That would be a good day to kind of focus on "How can I receive information in the event that severe weather is coming.

Tim Baldwin:

Tuesday, I believe, is lightning safety, so maybe a good day to focus on what do you do in the event of a thunderstorm. Wednesday is tornado safety, I believe. And yeah, like you said, there's going to be a big statewide tornado drill on that Wednesday. Thursday is hail and wind safety. So maybe think about what you would do in the event of a big windstorm or hailstorm. And then Friday is flooding safety. So think about what you could do in the event of a flash flood to protect yourself, protect your home. So there's lots of good information to find online. I'm going to be posting things every day of that week relating to that topic, so check out the Raymore Emergency Management Facebook page, if you're not following it already. I'm going to post some things throughout that week that might be beneficial. And then, yeah, the highlight of that week really is the Wednesday, the fifth, statewide tornado drill.

Melissa Harmer:

That's 11 o'clock in the morning, so we would encourage everybody to participate in a tornado drill that morning and wherever you are if you're at work or if you're at home, like you should know where to go at work. You should know where to go when you're home. Or if you're out, let's just say someone's out shopping at the grocery store. Do our local businesses have plans in place too?

Tim Baldwin:

Yeah, we would encourage everybody to you know whether you're a school that would be a good time to maybe schedule a tornado drill. It's that Wednesday at 11 for our schools. A church, we know, churches aren't, you know, usually busy on a Wednesday morning, but maybe the staff that is there could participate in a drill, just so they know kind of where to go and where to lead their congregations in the event that one, you know, happens during a service. All of our businesses, they're welcome to participate as well. If you're just at your home at 11 o'clock, you know, go to your shelter and just hang out there for a few minutes, figure out where to go and kind of what you want to do in the event of a real tornado. We're going to do a tornado drill here at City Hall. We're going to sound the sirens, so it's going to be, you know, kind of like the real thing that Wednesday morning. So it's a good chance to practice wherever you are.

Melissa Harmer:

That's right, and we have done that drill before when people have been at the police station, when people have been in City Hall and we take them downstairs with us.

Tim Baldwin:

So everyone participates who's here. Got to practice like it's the real thing.

Melissa Harmer:

Right, right. And then you have extra links to resources on your emergency management webpage at the city's website. So that's raymore. com/ EM. Make it really easy, E-M for emergency management and that, so that can give – you have resources to everything.

Tim Baldwin:

Yeah, so a few links that I always like to share with people. One is weather. gov. There's a million different weather websites out there, but that's the official kind of national weather service website. That's kind of the one that I go to in the event that we're looking at severe weather. That's kind of the most reliable, most accurate, most timely is weather. gov. And then there's ready. gov R-E-A-D-Y-dot-gov, and that's kind of an offshoot of the FEMA website.

Tim Baldwin:

So there's lots of good information there tips for individuals, for households, for kids – we don't want to forget about, you know, kids, making sure they understand preparedness and you know what can we do to keep their stress levels low during an emergency. So there's lots of good information on ready. gov for kids games, coloring pages, activity pages, lots of helpful videos, information on you know how to build an emergency kit, lots of good stuff on ready. gov. So check that out. And then redcross. org. There's information there on, you know, signing up to give blood, different first aid classes you can take as well.

Tim Baldwin:

And then, kind of along the same lines, I'm an advocate for people to download the Red Cross First Aid app. It's a free app you can download and basically what it does is it gives you a whole big list of potential injuries or wounds or illnesses that somebody might encounter. You click on it and it kind of walks you through what to do to help the person, to treat the person, at least until the actual first responders can arrive. So that could end up being a lifesaver. So that's the Red Cross First Aid app if you want to download that.

Melissa Harmer:

Excellent. And one more thing – how can our residents get involved if they want to be able to assist, to volunteer in the event of the aftermath of some sort of natural disaster or other emergency incident?

Tim Baldwin:

Yeah, so one of my favorite things that I do in this role is to lead our CERT group and that is our Community Emergency Response Team, and that is a group of volunteers who have shown interest in helping out after a disaster. So we hold meetings every other month over at Centerview behind City Hall. Each meeting usually has a topic and a guest speaker, but these are folks who have, you know, shown interest in, you know, maybe after a storm, helping out with search and rescue or first aid, maybe distributing food and water to folks, or volunteering at a shelter doing damage assessment of you know, maybe there's some homes that have been damaged. Maybe they'll drive around and kind of assess the damage to these homes, picking up debris that might have, you know, fallen throughout the community. So lots of different ways to help and it's completely voluntary.

Tim Baldwin:

Obviously, in the event of a tornado or whatever, your first obligation is yourself and your family. So there's no obligation to help out, but if you're able to, you want to. You know the CERT program is a great way to get involved. So, like I said, we have meetings every other month. The next one is February 11th. The next one after that will be sometime probably mid-April or so, and I put out information on that on my Facebook page, on the City website as well. So that's a great way to get involved. Really, any way to just be invested in your community really helps out, whether it's volunteering at a charity or a church or whatever the situation might be. The more you're invested in your community, the better off everybody is. So if you can find even just one way to give of yourself, volunteer somewhere in Raymore, in Cass County, that really benefits everybody.

Melissa Harmer:

That's awesome. So if anyone wants to get in touch with you, your contact information is at raymore. com/ EM. Tim Baldwin, thank you so much for sharing a little bit about what you do for our community today. Is there anything else you want to leave us with?

Tim Baldwin:

No, just everybody be safe. We're still kind of in the thick of winter here, and then the spring weather season is coming up,

Melissa Harmer:

Right

Tim Baldwin:

Yeah, know what to do, know where to go and always reach out to me if you have any questions or want some information on anything. I can point you in the right direction.

Melissa Harmer:

Thank you so much, Tim.

Tim Baldwin:

Yeah, thank you.