Hurricane Ivan: 15 Years Later
Autauga Co. Emergency Management Director says the deadly storm changed the way crews coordinate during disaster response
On September 16, 2004 Hurricane Ivan made landfall as a category 3 hurricane near Gulf Shores, Alabama. The storm maintained hurricane strength until it was over central Alabama, leaving miles of devastation in its wake.
Autauga County EMA director, Ernie Baggett was one of the hundreds of people, whose home was destroyed 15 years ago. He was with the Alabama National Guard then, his family rode out the storm on base at Montgomery’s Dannelly Field. He says he remembers the emergency response to the widespread devastation.
“That was one of the first storms that I remember in this area where people were without power for up to seven or eight days” he recalled “it wasn’t that the people didn’t want to respond…it was just more than they could handle, it was overwhelming”.
As crews from all over the state responded to the aftermath, Baggett says it was hard to coordinate with other agencies because they all used different training and response methods. “That particular storm in our area really helped fast-forward the ‘NIMS’ piece” he said.
The National Incident Management System or “NIMS” is a uniformed system by FEMA for federal, state local, and even tribal agencies to prepare and respond to disasters. The plan rolled out nationally in March 2004, but it wasn’t until Ivan’s Alabama landfall in September that local EMA officials realized how much it was needed.
Anyone can take the courses online through FEMA website although the upper level classes are only offered in-person, and are typically for emergency crews only.
“It goes across the county lines very easily because everybody understands what going on” Baggett said “were all trained the exact same way by the exact same trainers, it is exact”.
Emergency crews are constantly learning and applying what works and what doesn’t when responding to deadly disasters like Ivan, but as Baggett explains the coordination now compared to 15 years ago, “it’s a 180 degree difference”.
Ivan was blamed for a total of 92 deaths — 25 of those were in the U.S., but none in Alabama.
