Published: September 28, 2009 09:19 am      

ASCOG recognizes emergency management directors

I had the great pleasure to speak to a student group this past weekend about the legislative process and encourage them to become more involved in their government.

I serve as a board member for Youth & Government in Oklahoma , a group sponsored through the YMCA and they had a preparatory meeting this past weekend for their upcoming state meeting.

If your school or a student is interested in participating, contact your closest YMCA or my office for details.

I also had the chance to attend the annual Association of South Central Oklahoma Governments banquet which recognized their efforts over the past year and rewarded their employees for the excellent jobs they do.

ASCOG also recognized the efforts of our county emergency management directors and the jobs they do to keep up prepared for any type of disaster. My local directors recognized were:

• Caddo County - Larry McDuffey

• Comanche County - Clint Wagstaff

• Grady County - Dale Thompson

• Stephens County - Gary Ball

Thank you to each of you for the job you do to keep us safe! It was also recommended that each of us put together a home safety kit in case of disaster.

This September is the 6th Annual Emergency Preparedness month for the United States.

The basic items for a kit are water, non-perishable foods, first aid supplies, tools, clothing, bedding, sanitation supplies and special items consisting of baby needs, medication, batteries, important family documents, a small amount of cash and entertainment items not requiring electricity.

For more information on this, review the information at www.fema.gov or contact your local emergency management director.

Along these lines, I'll be in Washington , D.C. with the State Fire Marshall's office this week meeting the new officials with Emergency Management. I, along with several fire chiefs and three other Representatives, were selected to attend this year to increase our knowledge on emergency management for upcoming policy changes.

I developed a good contact base with those in the Bush Administration and hope to do the same with the current FEMA staff. I will also have the chance to visit with Oklahoma's federally-elected officials about the need for disaster mitigation funds and hopefully find a good policy for maintaining our current emergency management fund at optimal levels.

On the first day, we participated in a leadership and incident command program which took place at the National Fire Academy at Emmitsburg, Maryland and in Washington, D.C. We will also be meeting with our congressional delegation and other national officials dealing with emergency preparedness.



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If you wish to contact me and discuss one of these or another issue, I can be reached at my office in Oklahoma City toll-free at 1-800-522-8502, or directly at 1-405-557-7305. My e-mail address is joedorman@okhouse.gov at work. My mailing address is PO Box 559, Rush Springs, OK 73082 and my website is www.joedorman.com