Cape Girardeau County takes first step toward a future emergency management location building

Chastened by tornadoes over the past several months both north and south of Cape Girardeau County, the county commission voted Thursday to explore consolidating all emergency equipment indoors and in one location.

Commissioners Paul Koeper and Charlie Herbst voted to seek RFQs, requests for qualification, from architectural engineering firms that could design an appropriate building.

"We've got equipment in multiple locations, some of its outdoors, that could be brought together in one spot," said Sam Herndon V, deputy director of the county's emergency management agency office.

County EMA director Mark Winkler said not only would equipment be stored together in the proposed structure but also the EMA offices and the emergency operations center -- located now in the basement of the county administration building at 1 Barton Square in Jackson.

The federal Homeland Security Department enabled the county after September 11, 2001, the funding to purchase a mass care trailer with 100 cots, a mass fatality trailer plus two portable generators, among other equipment.

"The county is caretaker for this equipment but it is deployable anywhere where there is emergency need," Winkler said.

Koeper said the action is just the initial step toward a building and the county needs more information before taking more concrete action.

While no location has been identified yet, Herndon said easy access to the interstate will be important.

Koeper made note Tuesday during earlier discussion the damage done by recent twisters in Fredericktown and St. Mary, Missouri, plus the December tornadoes in the Missouri Bootheel and in Mayfield, Kentucky, is prompting the desire to move forward.