Emergency Management

Mission Statement

The Mission of the Barry County Emergency Management department is to protect the lives and property of citizens before a disaster strikes through preparedness, training and mitigation, and to reduce human suffering after a disaster strikes through prompt and effective coordination of the County’s response and recovery efforts utilizing the expertise and resources of federal, state, local agencies and voluntary relief organizations.

Jim Yarger, PEM

Office: 269-818-0362

JYarger@barrycounty.org

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What is Emergency Management

Emergency Management is an organized effort to mitigate against, prepare for, respond to, and recover from an emergency.

Mitigation is sustained activities and measures aimed at eliminating or reducing the long-term risk of property damage and loss of life from hazards and their effects. Preparedness is the action a community takes to respond to an emergency or a disaster. The main components of preparedness are planning, training, and exercising. Response is the actions you take to save lives, protect property and the environment. Response actions should also consider how to reduce secondary damage and stabilizing a situation so a jurisdiction can regroup. Recovery is the effort to restore infrastructure and the social and economic life of a community to normal. Recovery should include mitigation as a goal. Recovery is usually divided into two phases, short term and long term.