Tornado survivor stories drive EMA director Cooper

When it comes to protecting yourself, your family and community, preparedness is the name of the game.

Taking a look into the rear view mirror on the last four months since the Greenfield and Adair County tornadoes, Adair and Guthrie County Emergency Management Coordinator Jeremy Cooper says preparedness has been the cornerstone for why the area has recovered so well after the disaster. It also should be the cornerstone for how people respond to the disaster and move forward with their lives.

September is National Preparedness Month, a time that is set aside each year to remind everyone that preparing for emergencies and disasters can keep them, their families and their communities safe.

Governor Kim Reynolds also declared Sept. 16-20 as Emergency Management Appreciation Week in Iowa, to put in perspective for the state’s residents the importance of those who regularly devote themselves to the research, legwork and followup of preparedness before a disaster strikes so the recovery is hopefully much less chaotic.

“You look across Greenfield, and even rural Adair County, the drastic change between May 21 and now is huge. You’re always going to have that scar and see that tornado path for years to come, especially through the city of Greenfield,” Cooper said. “But it’s very promising to see the rebuilds that are happening. The City of Greenfield itself, I think there are around 90 active building permits right now. That’s very promising. It makes me feel good that we’re to this point. To see the houses that are going up now, it makes me feel good and revitalizes my energy to this disaster. It has been a grueling event, to say the least.”

Whether it’s as a volunteer firefighter and now fire chief of his department in Bagley, or as an employee of emergency management, helping people has been a theme that has run through Cooper’s veins for a long time.

On the preparedness side of his job, Cooper is always working on emergency plans, recovery plans, and responding to various situations. These can include hazmat, law enforcement situations or weather, as they assist in all kind of emergencies. His agency also does special weather briefings and monitoring for big events like the Adair County Fair, and works with event coordinators to make those events go off as safe as possible.

In terms of response, Cooper said that many from other agencies at higher levels have applauded Adair and Guthrie County EMA’s response to the Adair County tornadoes thus far.

“I’d like to think our response was spot on. I hear from my local partners that are in the emergency management world, and the higher powers above me and the governor and FEMA headquarters offices, I feel like the residents of Adair and Guthrie County have a really great program here,” Cooper said.

Cooper doesn’t take all the credit for that. While he’s been tied to it for over 20 years as a volunteer or board member, Bob Kempf was coordinator until earlier this year, when he retired. Cooper was hired to assist Kempf in 2019, then was asked if he’d apply for the top job. Just over a week before the tornado, he became coordinator. Several years ago, the push was made to merge Adair and Guthrie County’s emergency management agencies into one, and they are one of only a few such joint agencies in Iowa.

“Bob’s wealth of knowledge and his desire to help people prepare for the worst of times is what got us here today,” Cooper said. “I’ve served all aspects in emergency management. I’m a volunteer fire chief and have a desire to help people, so that’s what got me into going deeper and deeper into emergency management at the local level.”

According to the National Preparedness Month website, this month’s theme is “Start a Conversation.”

Talking about bad things that could happen, like a disaster or emergency, isn’t always easy. We may think we’re protecting the people we love by avoiding these conversations, but they are important to start taking steps to get ready and stay safe.

Starting a conversation today can help you and your family to take more actions to prepare. By taking simple steps, you can build your preparedness at your own pace:

• Set aside a time when everyone is calm and relaxed

• It may help to hold discussions over a set period of time so that decisions aren’t rushed and people feel more comfortable talking about the topic

• Talk about steps that you’ve taken to prepare and encourage others to ask questions about preparedness actions that might work for them

Cooper followed the main tornado that struck Greenfield all the way from Adams County until Greenfield, but he said the stories he hears from residents about what they witnessed and went through the day of the tornado is what drives him forward each day. While he started taking weekends off awhile back, scaling back from a seven-day presence in Adair County, demands of the response to the disaster have called him back to an everyday presence here.

“Unfortunately we lost four lives here in Greenfield. The stories you hear from people around town are unbelievable, what they witnessed and they went through. Those are things that drive me to continue doing what I’m doing, continuing to try to help the residents with this disaster. It’s probably beyond the normal scope of my disaster response, but this isn’t a normal disaster either,” Cooper said. “The knowledge we have and the resources we have access to, it’s so beneficial to our county governments and our citizens as well. It just demanded me to have an every day, seven-day response here.”