Search and Rescue gear activities back to normal. He explained that Yankton County at this time is working in this phase after the April flooding. His team is gathering the information on what damages have been done with the infrastructure of Yankton County. The department has a technological, very advanced way of collecting this data necessary. He explains that Yankton County has a LEOP, or a Local Emergency Operations Plan. The plan covers every natural disaster, including such detail as how sirens are activated during a storm warning. There are “trigger points” for each situation; the trigger points involve a checklist breaking down different components of the situation to help determine when they might need to increase the help or materials they need. Scherschligt explained it further, using the Jim River or Missouri River as an example. The rivers rise; when one gets to a certain level, his team starts to look further into the situation. If the river keeps going up, they’ll have meetings with various people to determine what’s going on, who it’s affecting and how it’s affecting them. As it continues to rise, it heightens the situation to move up to the next trigger point. Scherschligt gives a view of an Emergency Operations Center The team also looks at those four previously mentioned components in emergency situations outside of a natural disaster, including plans for active shooter, civil disturbance, mass fatality and hazmat plans. Details, or tactics, are included on how to handle each situation. “There’s got to be at least 50 different facets of the plan that we have to look at,” Scherschligt explains. “It isn’t just us. I have to orchestrate the plan; I have to put it together. We have a committee called the local emergency planning committee that works together to help look at things.” As he explained the many duties that he and his team cover in keeping our community safe, I appreciated the responsibility, detail and teamwork of so many that go into this. This team also assists Scherschligt in providing education to businesses on various issues such as how to recover from an emergency or how to initiate a plan for one. His new goal is to educate vSCHERSCHLIGT continued on page 14 When you want brand-name sunwear, choose Vision Care Associates www.visioncareassociates.net 605.665.2020 2701 Fox Run Parkway, Yankton, SD 57078 A S S O C I AT E S Dr. Steven Anderson, Dr. Aaron Feser, Dr. Laura Slowey HERVOICEvMAY/JUNE 2019v9