Fergus County officials faced a major March winter storm last weekend
with a plan developed at a meeting of an incident management team. Despite two feet of snow and blowing winds, county officials said things went smoothly.
As of Wednesday much of the two feet of snow that fell over Fergus County in central Montana has melted and flooding so far is minimal. County Disaster and Emergency Service Director Steve Fanning says residents’ response to the storm action plan has been positive.
“So the feedback has been alarmingly or mostly very positive,” Fanning said. “A couple of negative comments which we will take in and change our plan if we need to. But for the most part in the city and in the county, much better comments then say prior storms that have affected us like this.”
Fanning said the incident management team held an after-action meeting on Tuesday that included representatives from Fergus County, the city of Lewistown, the hospital, energy companies and others. His critique is they are 75% to 80% to where they want to be with a response plan.
“And again positive feedback there. A lot of that’s communication. Whether it’s being on social media or messaging with Sonia on other media sources. Or internal communication between each of us. Whether if there is a need that pops up we already have the relationship in place. You don’t have to build a relationship. You can just do it. And I think that’s the most important part as far as our response goes. A lot times you’re put into a situation where you don’t know the person you care calling for help. But if you have a relationship present it makes the timeline go much quicker,” said Fanning.
