First respondersMissouri first responders learn from last year’s tornado season

Drawing on the valuable lessons learned from last year’s record tornado season, emergency officials in the St. Louis area were ready to spring into action immediately after tornadoes swept through the state once again last week.

In the aftermath of last year’s devastating tornadoes, officials set to work on improving communications both between emergency responders and with the public.

To that end, city officials have pushed residents to purchase weather radios so they can hear valuable warnings before and after a storm. In addition, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has created a weather alert app for smartphones, which local officials are also pushing.

Meanwhile, to improve interagency communication, emergency officials in St. Louis recently installed a new communications system so responders from different jurisdictions can communicate during disasters.

“We’re using a new system called E-sponder, and that’s all about coordinating information and sharing information. And, really, that’s what it’s about; it’s about sharing information,” explained Mark Diedrich, a local emergency management specialist. “The big thing we’re dealing with is coordination, because there is a lot of different jurisdictions when you get into the county.”

With these improvements in place, emergency responders were out in force moments after last Wednesday’s tornado had died down.

“I certainly want to commend not only our community, our workers, but as well our neighboring communities they were on site almost immediately as well,” said Eric Gregg, the mayor of Harrisburg.