By DONNA FARLEY
Staff Writer
Second in a series
The Butler County Emergency Management Agency had a roster of more than 50 volunteers when current Director Rick Sliger took over the position at the beginning of 2007.
Numbers had fallen to about half a dozen by the ice storm of 2009, according to former volunteers.
It left little of the teams that were once able to provide the community with search and rescue, a mobile command center, disaster education, security at major events and other services.
Many duties they could have performed, such as traffic control during floods and transportation of residents to shelters, fell to law enforcement. These agencies were already inundated with what is described in documents provided by the State Emergency Management Agency as a "massive" increase in 911 volume during three federally-declared disasters.
Problems
surface
Many say problems really began to surface during the flood of 2008, when they allege Sliger failed to utilize the agency's resources.
The Daily American Republic also began receiving reports of trouble in the organization at that time, though many volunteers were initially reluctant to speak publicly because of their continued involvement with the agency.
Rumors circulated EMA phone calls were forwarded to Butler County Fire Department, which was already flooded with water rescue requests. Others claimed Sliger was difficult to reach and when he did visit emergency response operations, conflicts arose with members of the Missouri State Highway Patrol and Water Patrol, the U.S. Coast Guard and later with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
None would go on the record with the DAR to confirm this, however a number of former volunteers have since come forward now to discuss their experiences.
Charles Pinkerton was elected assistant EMA director by the volunteers in February 2008, shortly before flooding began. Pinkerton said he and several other EMA volunteers received assignments from Butler County fire during the emergency, not from Sliger.
"I couldn't find him," said Pinkerton, now 70, who was part of a water rescue team sent several times into the south part of Butler County. "That was the reason I went out to the fire station and spent my time out there. ... Everything was being coordinated there. (County fire Chief) Bob (Fredwell) did a good job."
County fire logs from that time show the volume of residents in need was high. On March 19, a partial record shows calls for assistance coming in at 7 a.m., 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m., 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.
At least nine of the EMA volunteers worked out of the county fire department, said former volunteer Jim Hager, who was storm team leader. Hager said he was kicked out of the organization by Sliger after re-posting a comment on a social networking site that asked where EMA was during the flood.
Former volunteer Steve Seawright said he was contacted by the National Weather Service, which also could not reach Sliger.
"They were trying to confirm a levee breach," said Seawright, who balanced his volunteer duties with a position as director of media services for the Palace of Praise. "I did not have the authority to release that information and told them they would have to speak to the director and they said they couldn't find the director."
Seawright was EMA communications team leader and previously had contact with the NWS to report storm spotter information.
"When a major disaster is going on and the director of the EMA can't be found, that's my breaking point," said Seawright, who left EMA after the flood.
Former volunteer Kenny Elliott, who was elected assistant EMA director in August 2008, was blunt when recalling the first federally-declared disaster during Sliger's tenure.
"The only time we saw him (Sliger) was on a news conference or when we picked up the paper," he said.
Pinkerton resigned from the assistant EMA director position in April 2008, following the flood, citing health problems, according to minutes from a volunteer meeting provided by former volunteers.
"After the flood, is when it started dropping off. People were disgusted with the way things were. EMA's role was negligible," said Pinkerton.
What the EMA was supposed to do, county fire stepped up and got done with water patrol, coast guard and urban search and rescue, according to former EMA volunteer Barry Matthews, a recently retired Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper.
Law
enforcement
Poplar Bluff Police Department officers documented 210 overtime hours during the 2008 flood, 230 during the ice storm and more than 1,100 in an 11 day period related to last year's flood, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency worksheets. The two floods also resulted in more than 900 hours of non-reimbursable regular time hours.
Butler County Sheriff's Department full-time employees and reserve officers performed more than 800 hours of overtime during the 2011 flood.
While deputies were assisting National Guard with search and rescue, for instance, during the 2011 flood, and officers responded to emergency calls related to downed power lines during the ice storm, all three events also required law enforcement to conduct wellness checks on residents and transport those who needed assistance to shelters, documents state. Other duties included officers taking citizens to emergency doctors' appointments, transporting residents with pets to shelters and providing security at shelters. Deputies provided traffic control, checked road conditions and barricaded roads.
Many of these duties EMA volunteers say they had either been trained to assist with or had done previously, including providing transportation for residents during severe weather events.
Seawright and Hager said they were among former volunteers who assisted police officers with welfare checks in 2009 and 2011 as private citizens, not at the direction of the EMA director.
Seawright went with officers and transported residents to a shelter if it was requested, freeing the officer to move on to another task. He also volunteered his assistance with traffic control at a shelter set up for the 2011 flood.
Some volunteers who remained with EMA were utilized during the ice storm, according to Elliott, although it was very few. He was instructed by Sliger to answer calls coming into the EMA phone number and also went with another volunteer to the Neelyville area to check a heating ventilation issue at a shelter, among other duties.