What is Emergency Management?

It is a team of trained professionals who, promote and organize safer, less vulnerable communities with the ultimate goal of reducing the harmful effects of hazards and disasters. To do this they deal with all aspects of emergencies including preparedness, response, mitigation and recovery.

For our community that means creating an Emergency Operation Plan and routinely meeting as a team to familiarize ourselves with the plan and make changes as necessary. We also conduct training exercises, tabletops and workshops.

What is considered a disaster or hazard? An example would be natural disasters, this would include things like tornados, flooding and mudslides. Other examples include an infectious disease outbreak or an active shooter incident. These are things we train to prepare for, respond to, mitigate and facilitate the recovery process.

Who is on the Emergency Management Team? Police Chief Dave Borchert is the City Emergency Manager. The Emergency Management Team consists of a public/private partnership which includes: The Fire Department, Police Department, PUC, Public Health, District 88 Schools, MLC, New Ulm Public Library staff, Red Cross, churches and many other groups/organizations. There is a County Emergency Manager and a County Emergency Management team as well, and we do work closely with them. All individuals trained in Emergency Management go through the same NIMS (National Incident Management System) training and a part of that is ICS (Incident Command System) training. This means we all have the same training so that when a disaster strikes, we are ready to take action without having to learn a new management structure or new terminology.

We take a lot of pride in the work we do to keep this community safe and ready for anything.

The Emergency Management Committee meets the 3rd Thursday of each month at 8:30 a.m. at the New Ulm Fire Department, 526 8th North Street.

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Officer Pruett also serves as Public Information Officer, an internal assignment, within the Police department.

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Editor’s Note: The City of New Ulm presents a weekly column highlighting activities in different departments in the city government. Once a month the city will answer questions from readers. Questions on New Ulm city issues can be sent to comments@ci.new-ulm.mn.us.