Murrysville Export Emergency Management Agency provides support network for first responders
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When it comes to large-scale emergencies, preparation is the key to a proper response.
When something such as a ruptured gas line or a late-night power outage at a senior assisted living facility happens, first responders need to be able to do their jobs and rely on a support network that can get them what they need, when they need it.
Enter the Murrysville Export Emergency Management Agency, whose members have been meeting regularly for nearly five decades and have helped coordinate the response to several emergencies in the area over the years.
“When the Murrysville Rehabilitation and Wellness Center lost its gas power, we took steps to start evacuating those folks over to Murrysville Alliance Church,” said Matt Stromberg, deputy director for the agency. “The whole intent of emergency management is to plan ahead for what we may need but also to support the teams who are out in the field.”
When a construction excavator struck a gas line south of Route 22 in 2013, the agency was activated. During some major snow events, the agency has helped make sure that public works crews have all the tools they need as they clear roads.
“If Murrysville was hit by a tornado, with trees down all over the place, we have what we call a ‘red book,’ ” Stromberg said. “It’s about 3 inches thick, and it’s got every resource we can try and anticipate needing ahead of time, like utilities, people with earth-moving equipment, all things that may help back us up in an emergency.”
The agency was formed following the creation of similar, larger groups such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. It has met regularly since 1975. In 2017, officials from Export formally joined the agency, although they had been part of its meetings for quite some time already.
The agency recently got a new director with the promotion of Capt. Tom Kusinsky in the Murrysville Police Department. Kusinsky’s predecessor, Chuck Tappe, is the former director.
“It supports our emergency services in the field,” Kusinsky said. “If they need something they don’t have, this group has the ability to make those phone calls and procure that stuff, and get it where it needs to go while the people at the scene are free to do what needs done.”
In Stromberg’s tornado scenario, for example, Kusinsky said that “if we needed a bunch of extra chainsaws to clear trees, they can help us find them.”
The agency has representatives from Murrysville, its police department and public works, Murrysville and Export fire companies and an all-volunteer emergency shelter team.
“The emergency shelter team is tied right into all of it,” Kusinsky said. “When we had people who had to evacuate Redstone Highlands and needed to get situated, Pastor Dan Lawrence from Murrysville Alliance Church and (resident) Val Mittereder helped get that set up along with a lot of other volunteers.”
Stromberg said agency officials work to get important information out to news media during an emergency, as well as reaching out to families who are directly affected.
“With the Redstone evacuation, we tried to get the word out about where residents’ families could reach them,” he said. “And we’ve done walk-throughs at the new (Franklin Regional primary and intermediate schools) and looked at all the nooks and crannies so that if there is an emergency, our staff knows the layout and is prepared. We’ve done a tour of the Titan well pad site on Bollinger Road for the same reason.”
The agency has four regular meetings per year, and after working through an emergency situation, Stromberg said the group always hosts a debriefing to see where they can improve.
“We look at what went right, what went wrong and how we can do better the next time something happens,” he said.