County Commission | The Magazine October 2018 | Page 47

A voice from
Alabama’s
67 counties
Bob Franklin,
CLEM, MLEM
EMA Director, Russell County
President, Alabama Association
of Emergency Managers (AAEM)
getting a lot of attention from
the White House, and ACCA
is making road funding a top
issue for 2019. From an EMA
perspective, what are some
consequences of inadequate
and poorly maintained roads
and bridges?
Q
What are the key
issues facing
emergency managers
at the local level?
A
Building a culture of
preparedness is one
of the key issues facing emergency
managers across the state. We are
used to calling 9-1-1 and getting a
fast response, but in a disaster, our
local resources will be overwhelmed
quickly. When citizens prepare now,
it will help reduce the impact of a
major disaster in the future.
Funding for emergency
management programs is always an
issue. Whether at the local or state
level, emergency management is
easily overlooked because of tight
budgets and other pressing issues.
We must keep our programs up-
to-date in order to make a positive
impact on our communities.
A
Maintaining our roads and
bridges is vital to citizens,
schools and businesses. We must
have the funding to maintain our
ditches and culverts; when debris
accumulates, that can cause our
What can be done to
roadways to fail during a heavy
ensure Alabama is
rain. Another thing that is often
prepared for the next disaster?
overlooked when road funding is
short are the consequences when a
We should be building on our disaster, such as flooding, strikes.
lessons learned from previous While we assume FEMA will come
disasters. That is one constant that I in and fund road repair projects
see when I talk to other emergency
at 75 percent when we receive a
managers across the state, they are
declaration for categories C through
always reviewing what they can do
G, FEMA’s project managers
differently to have a better outcome
are going to review the road
for their citizens.
department’s maintenance records to
see if the road was maintained. If it
wasn’t, they may reduce the amount
Transportation
of funding we would receive.
infrastructure has been
Q
A
Q
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