KALAMAZOO, Mich. — The city of Kalamazoo has created a new position to help out in large-scale crises.
It now has its own emergency preparedness director.
Until now, the city has solely relied on the county and state in large-scale emergency situations.
The new emergency preparedness director has already started planning for what response within the city limits will look like.
“We’re going to do everything we can to plan for every possible scenario to help everyone out," said the city of Kalamazoo's Emergency Preparedness and Resource Director Brandi Janes.
Coming in with over 20 years of experience in emergency response, Brandi Janes knows the importance of having a position like hers for a city the size of Kalamazoo.
“It's always best to have someone there that's already, you know, looking at all the possible scenarios and planning for that," said Janes.
Her role will be to create plans for scenarios impacting large amounts of people like tornadoes, flooding, mass shootings and even severe weather.
“To monitor resources, what we have available, what we would have to go to other counties or their cities and county and the state in order to, you know, properly respond to those events," said Janes.
In addition, she said building relationships and plans with other agencies is crucial.
“You might not have the resources that you need. You can't plan locally for everything, so you've got to go through the county in order to get those resources," said Janes.
What's her message to the community on how she's handling things?
“You always have to be prepared for something to potentially go wrong. You hope for the best, but you prepare for the worst," said Janes.
The city will soon be releasing plans and recommendations on how the community can be best prepared as well.
You can find that information on their websiteor through their social media.
