Wadena Disaster Case Study

The International Federation of the Red Cross defines a disaster as “a sudden, calamitous event that seriously disrupts the functioning of a community or society and causes human, material, and economic or environmental losses that exceed the community’s or society’s ability to cope using its own resources” (What is a disaster, n.d.). At 5:00 p.m. on June 17, 2010, an EF4 tornado struck the town of Wadena, Minnesota. The damage was 1.1 miles wide along a 10-mile path (Weather Service, 20 June 2010). Wadena is located in the Central region of Minnesota and had a population of 4,088. It has 15 churches, three schools and the Minnesota State Community and Technical College. The town’s financial capital is reliant upon agriculture, manufacturing,
and healthcare and has a large population of below average or poverty level incomes. The tornado went directly through the southern portion of town, tearing the roof off of the high school, causing significant damage to the college, cemetery, fairgrounds, private homes, rental apartments, and vegetation. According to the Wadena – Otter Tail Long-Term Recovery committee (King, n.d.), there were 34 reported injuries requiring treatment and no fatalities as well as one hundred displaced individuals. This disaster was not on the same scale as Hurricane Katrina or the Joplin, Missouri tornado, however to a community of this size the impact required assistance from surrounding communities, the state as well as the federal government. The recovery efforts from this disaster was aided by the fact that the community had a mitigation plan and there was a federal declaration that provided assistance by the Federal Government. According to Bryan Savaloja, the interim Emergency Manager for Wadena county as well as an active duty police officer during the Wadena tornado, the mitigation planning efforts prior to the tornado was the primary reason why there were no fatalities as a result of the tornado. The major risk associated with severe weather was the inadequate coverage of the alert sirens, the mitigation plan identified two areas where those systems could be enhanced and they implemented those changes. The county installed two new alert sirens in the southern part of town in 2009 and early 2010 ensuring that the alerts could be heard in both the fairgrounds, schools and park areas as well as the residential areas throughout the city. To tag along with the installation of the sirens there was a large effort to education the community members of measures to take to ensure safety during and after a severe weather storm. Another area addressed in the mitigation plan was the realization that the town would need immediate support with restoring utilities to areas damaged by storms. The small town electrical utility did not have the staffing to adequately respond to a major event. The action item resulting from this consisted of mutual aid agreements with utility companies located within a 75-mile radius. Within 30 minutes of the tornado hitting the town, the Wadena emergency manager was able to communicate and activate the mutual aid agreements and had power poles, transformers, and wire as well as line crews to a staging area south of the damage zone. Having pre-planned areas designated for debris collection, memorandums of understandings with large garbage bins suppliers, mutual aid agreements with neighboring counties for law enforcement and fire department support, as well as annual disaster response trainings that included the local volunteer fire department, community members, and healthcare all assisted with the response and recovery efforts were all mitigation effects that had an impact in the response and recovery. Many of the displaced members were of lower income and relied heavily on the city for assistance. The city was quick to realize that they were going to run out of resources and placed calls to the State Duty Office to request support. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management were notified by the State Duty Office of the situation in Wadena.
There were several storms throughout the state, including two other tornados so the State of Minnesota opened up the State Emergency Operations Center and on June 18th, 2010, the Governor requested that the Federal Emergency Management Agency to do an initial assessment (Davis, 2010, n.p.). During the week of June 22 – 24, 2010, a joint damage assessment was conducted by the federal, state and local governments. The assessment included not just the Wadena area but also included other locations throughout the state that were affected by the severe storms. Due to the damage throughout the entire state, on July 2, 2010, President Obama declared a State of Disaster for seven counties, including Wadena. This declaration allowed public assistance through the Stafford Act, for the state as well as the local government and some nonprofit organizations (which included the technical college and churches). The financial support was to share the costs of emergency work, repair or replacement of facilities damaged. The declaration also initiated the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program which provides further assistance so the state that could assist homeowners, businesses, and private nonprofits in recovery efforts. In total, according to Byan Savaloja, FEMA contributed just over $5 million dollars towards the response and recovery efforts in Wadena
county. Wadena county was able to respond and recover from this disaster due to the mitigation efforts taken prior to the disaster and the initiation of the plans, agreements, and memorandums of understandings post-disaster. The response efforts went beyond the borders of the county and used resources from neighboring counties. Due to the fact that there were other parts of the state that were affected by severe storms, the higher level of damage allowed for the State to request the support of the Federal government. Full recovery required not only the involvement of local fund raising efforts but relied heavily on the funding and support received from FEMA.