Emergency management in Clay County, Iowa is a coordinated effort, involving local, state, and federal government agencies, volunteer organizations and businesses.

2013 Clay County
Hazard Mitigation Plan
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Clay Alert 2011
Click here for Frequently asked questions about the Clay Alert. Click on the Clay Alert Logo below for more information.

Clay County Emergency Management Agency & Homeland Security: A little History Lesson
The history of Clay County Emergency Management actually began in the 1940’s and was known then as Civil Defense. It was created in the early days of World War II, on May 20th 1940 President Roosevelt created the “Office of Civilian Defense” Roosevelt considered the United States to be in “.. a state of unlimited emergency” and recommended that communities create plans to deal with the potential dangers that existed. That threat became reality on December 7, 1941 when Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

The end of World War II would not bring an end to the Civil Defense department as the U.S. was then involved in a Cold War. This period of Civil Defense brought “backyard” shelters and “duck and cover” drills in our schools.

In 1979 President Carter created the Federal Emergency Management Agency, known simply as FEMA. This would shift the arena of work to preparation and mitigation for natural disasters such as tornados and flooding. However, the terror attacks on September 11, 2001, would bring Emergency Management full turn again to and begin preparing for a new danger, terrorist actions such as—“dirty bombs”, biological agents and even our own airplanes.

Emergency Management Agency in Clay County
As prescribed by Iowa Code, the Clay County Emergency Management Agency is overseen by a commission comprised of the mayor of each community, a representative of the Board of Supervisors and the County Sheriff.

Our Mission in Clay County is:
To Prepare
To Respond
To Recover
To Mitigate

This is to provide a service to local communities and the county, helping them with all that may affect them. We are involved with all responders in the County also to help train, make plans for, and respond to incidents.

Clay County Emergency Management is also taking a active part in building a regional response. We are also very active in Amateur Radio in and around our county, we have built a well trained SKYWARN group of storm spotters with nearly 70 members from around the area to respond when the weather turns bad; amateurs are also involved with providing communications in times of need. i.e.: power outages, storm damage, and other natural or man-made incidents.