Emergency Preparedness

Quake drill is critical (01/19/12)
Tennessee Emergency Management Agency is encouraging schools, families and businesses to participate in an earthquake drill next month. Registration is open for the second annual Great Central U. S. ShakeOut earthquake drill, scheduled for Feb. 7 at 10:15 a.m.. Last April, more than 3 million people in 11 states, including 250,000 Tennesseans, took part...

CodeRED system to be tested Friday (01/11/12)
Expect a call Friday afternoon. Bedford County 911 Communications Center will use the CodeRED Emergency Notification System on Friday to call more than 15,000 land-line telephones in Bedford County. The calls, which will be made during the afternoon on Friday, are meant as a test of the CodeRED system, but will also serve to promote the system to local residents, whom officials say can benefit by registering themselves at the CodeRED website. ...

Code Red ready to go if disaster strikes Bedford Co. (11/30/11)
A new notification system gives local emergency departments a variety of new options for notifying the public in case of a disaster, and members of the public can opt in to receive notices related to severe weather. Bedford County Emergency Communications District (E-911) has signed up for the Code Red program, which gives departments options for making automated calls or sending cell phone text messages, according to Bedford County Communications Center director Cathey Mathis...

Johnson had close call during attacks (09/11/11)
In September 2001, Scott and Alice Johnson were living in Washington, D.C. Scott was working as an agent for the U.S. Air Force, while Alice taught at a local elementary school. Their two children were in high school in northern Virginia...

Area not immune to terror (09/11/11)
Shelbyville may seem like an unlikely place to find terrorists, but that doesn't eliminate the need for vigilance or homeland security, according to Scott Johnson, director of Bedford County Emergency Management Agency and a terrorism liaison officer for the state...

'Everyday heroes': Ambulance workers devote lives to saving lives (05/17/11)
National Emergency Medical Services Week is May 15-21, and this year's theme is "Everyday Heroes." To mark the occasion, two long-time employees of Bedford County Emergency Medical Service spoke to the Times-Gazette about what they do. There are two major training levels for ambulance workers: emergency medical technician (EMT) and paramedic. ...

A 'smarter' 9-1-1 (05/13/11)
Bedford County has joined the Smart 9-1-1 program, and while it will take two months for the equipment to be installed at the local com center, director Cathey Mathis has urged citizens to go ahead and enter their personal information at the Smart911.com web site so that the information will be ready when the com center is...

Healthy response hoped for test (04/03/11)
Bedford and 11 other counties will participate in a drill April 14 to test state and local responses to a public health emergency. The scenario for the exercise involves the release of a nerve agent affecting a limited number of people, and how to deploy medical countermeasures for treatment...

Smart 9-1-1 could save lives (03/22/11)
Bedford County Communications Center is considering joining the Smart 9-1-1 program, which supporters say allows users to voluntarily and securely input personal information which might be useful in case of an emergency. Com center director Cathey Mathis said the Emergency Communications District (E-911) board has funds available to subscribe to the service but would first like feedback from citizens about whether or not it would be used...

Storm causes little damage (02/25/11)
Scott Johnson of Bedford County Emergency Management Agency said the county experienced "sporadic power outages, downed trees and some temporary flash flooding" as the result of Thursday night's severe weather. "As the strong squall line moved into Marshall County from west to east about 10 p.m., it had some indications of potential tornado activity," wrote Johnson in an e-mail to the Times-Gazette. ...

City firefighters may respond to medical calls (02/17/11)
An agreement formalizing the use of Shelbyville firefighters as first responders in certain medical emergencies was placed on Bedford County Board of Commissioners' March agenda by the commission's rules and legislative committee, which met Tuesday night...

Storms spring up; be prepared (02/16/11)
In order to survive severe weather, you need to do two things: know, and act. You must know when there is a danger of severe weather. The most-recommended tool for that is a NOAA weather radio receiver, widely available at a variety of local stores...

Old Med Center lot to house seized cars (02/09/11)
Bedford County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday night to turn a parking area at the old Bedford County Medical Center campus on Union Street into a lot for the storage of vehicles seized from drug offenders, DUI offenders and driving-on-revoked-license offenders...

Tornado forecast creates 'a momentary scare' (10/26/10)
Bedford County Emergency Management Agency director Scott Johnson said that local officials had "a momentary scare" when the county seemed likely to fall victim to a tornado. "We did have a momentary scare this afternoon from the storms," stated Johnson in an e-mail to the Times-Gazette....

Emergency communications exercise held at fire academy (03/11/10)
Emergency communications units from local, state and federal agencies operating in Middle Tennessee gathered this week at the Tennessee Fire Service and Codes Enforcement Academy for an exercise designed to improve inter-agency communications in the case of a major disaster or other emergency...

Severe weather season nears (02/25/10)
This is Severe Weather Awareness Week in Tennessee, and Bedford County Emergency Management Agency director Scott Johnson says that every family, every business, and every church or non-profit organization should have a plan for coping with severe weather...

Uncertainty reigns as officials prepare for snow, ice and sleet (01/28/10)
A winter storm continues to bear down on Tennessee, and forecasters are scrambling to figure out what form of precipitation is likely to fall where. A statement from the National Weather Service office in Memphis early Thursday said icing of up to a half inch was possible along the Interstate 40 corridor from Memphis to Jackson. Forecasters cautioned that it wasn't clear what form the precipitation would take...

EMS board may be eliminated (12/09/09)
Bedford County Board of Commissioners, meeting Tuesday night, asked its rules and legislative committee to study doing away with the Bedford County Emergency Medical Services board and placing the ambulance service under control of the commission's own law enforcement committee...

Flashing lights can save lives (11/26/09)
In some types of medical emergency, the faster an ambulance can arrive, the better chance the patient has of survival. But a rural neighborhood sometimes poses challenges for ambulance, fire and law enforcement personnel. Homes may be located some distance from the road. ...

Johnson tells Patriot Day crowd of close brush with Sept. 11 (09/13/09)
Everyone can remember exactly where they were on Sept. 11, 2001 when they heard news of the attacks on America. Whether you were at home, work, attending school or commuting, it's hard to erase that day from memory. For Scott Johnson, director of Bedford County Emergency Management Agency, the day has special meaning. He was supposed to be at the Pentagon for a meeting on that day...

Cost control emphasized to county officials (03/21/08)
Cost control and record-keeping were stressed during a meeting Thursday of the county's department heads. The quarterly luncheon meeting was held Thursday at the Bedford County Emergency Management Agency building on Railroad Avenue. It included the presentation of bonus checks to the staff of Bedford County Zoning Office for their cost-saving measures...

Two churches step up for disaster relief (03/20/08)
Last year, Bedford County Emergency Management Agency began working with area churches to provide short-term shelter locations where people could ride out a severe storm in safety. But those shelters are only meant for a few hours, until severe weather has passed. What happens in the event of a major disaster, like the tornadoes that struck Tennessee in February, when a substantial number of people lose their homes all at once?...

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