By KATHY HAGEMAN
Dickinson County public information coordinator
ABILENE - From digitizing reports to attending emergency management exercises to chasing tornadoes, Josh Walker won’t soon forget his time working as an intern with Dickinson County Emergency Management Director Chancy Smith.
Walker, who hails from the Milwaukee, Wis., area, graduated May 14 from Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina with a degree in emergency management and criminal justice.
He spent eight months working in Dickinson County learning about emergency management and preparedness from Smith, the 2021 Kansas Emergency Management Professional of the Year. The two met in September 2021 during the Kansas Emergency Management Association annual meeting where Smith received his award.
“I had a very hands-on experience,” Walker said. “I don’t think there was ever a day when I didn’t have something to do.”
Smith said he knew Walker would be a good fit in Dickinson County.
“Josh has a great work ethic. He always wanted to be doing something and he finished everything he did. He would work through problems,” Smith said. “I’d give him a task and it would just get done.”
Walker’s interest in emergency management dates back to two major tornado disasters -- one in Joplin, Mo., and the other in Moore, Okla.
“Back in 2011 when the Joplin tornado hit, my family went down there and we helped. We were in a church parking lot that was collecting canned goods and toiletries.
“Handing things out to survivors face-to-face was a surreal experience -- just feeling how grateful they were for the simple things,” Walker said.
During the 2013 Moore tornado, his family once again volunteered by helping the Salvation Army fold clothes and handling donations.
“I’d never heard of emergency management before then and it really got me interested. I began researching it in high school looking for colleges and it was hard to find a program,” Walker explained. “It’s kind of a niche degree. It’s not like there’s a lot of people lining up to do this.”
Walker came to Kansas Wesleyan University, drawn by the college’s emergency management program. He also majored in criminal justice because he was able to obtain dual credit for some courses.
Tornado chasing
Walker said he was not really interested in the storm monitoring aspect of emergency management until the historic windstorm that came through Kansas in December.
“I really didn’t get interested in the weather until that big windstorm. I wasn’t here, unfortunately – every time I left the area something big would happen down here – but I was monitoring it on Twitter and saw some videos,” Walker said.
But his most exciting experience in Dickinson County occurred April 29 when he and Smith watched six tornadoes – two that actually touched down and four funnels – form while storm spotting from their vantage point at Rural Center School south of Abilene.
“Sitting in Chancy’s truck -- being a quarter mile away from a funnel cloud, watching it form right in front of us -- was the most exciting thing. It was pretty crazy,” Walker said. “And I’d never seen hail that big either. Hail is usually pea-size, but that night some of it was the size of clementines.
“I knew it was going to be eventful when Chancy told me to put my vehicle in the county garage,” he added with a laugh. “That’s when you know it’s going to be bad.”
As soon as they climbed into Smith’s vehicle, Dickinson County 911 dispatch began relaying funnel and tornado reports from local residents and the National Weather Service.
Walker said he was familiar with the weather software Smith uses since Walker has it installed on his home computer.
“To be able to hop in the truck, pull up a tablet and be able to know how to use everything was invaluable,” Walker said. “It’s so different from looking at a monitor 100 miles away versus being in the storm and being able to see what you see in the sky right on your tablet.
“It was kind of adrenaline rush. It was one day for only six hours, but I loved every second of it,” he said with a smile.
Preparedness exercises, digitizing records
While storm chasing was the most memorable event of his internship, Walker said everything he did was interesting. He spent hours digitizing reports, moving them from paper files to computer; helped repurpose an old ambulance for use by emergency management by stripping off decals and non-essential items; participated in the tabletop exercise in November preparing for a “hypothetical tornado” that strikes the city of Abilene and other exercises in various Kansas counties; helped Smith with needed facility work at the courthouse and completed other tasks.
The most time consuming was digitizing Tier 2 reports. That involved entering information about hazardous material locations into the computer and geotagging them so their location could be found on a map.
“By clicking on them, emergency responders can see what kind of chemical is housed, the location and other data. Once all that is finalized, it will be sent to dispatch where they can have that information available,” Walker said. “So, fire departments, police or other responders know what’s there if they are responding.
“It was a lot of hard work. Not difficult per se, but a lot of detail,” Walker added.
Smith said Walker also helped out doing easy stuff like finding keys once the new doors were installed in the newly-remodeled courthouse and putting up signs.
“It was his last day and there was a strip of eight door numbers left. Josh took them and got them all put up,” Smith said. “He really wanted to get things done.”
Even though his time in Dickinson County officially is over, Walker plans to return in a few days to attend a “functional” exercise Monday through Wednesday in Abilene. A follow-up event to the tabletop exercise held back in November, the functional exercise looks at the coordination, command and control between various multi-agency coordination centers.
“His internship ended in mid-May, but he’s coming back to Kansas next week to participate in our exercise,” Smith said.
Job hunting
After the excitement of April 29’s storm chasing, Walker said he obtained certification from the National Weather Service to serve as a trained spotter.
“That night really inspired me,” he said.
As for the future, Walker currently is a finalist for two deputy emergency management director positions open in other states and he’s been spending time with family in Milwaukee after leaving Kansas.
Smith said a representative from one of those jobs called and asked him about Walker.
“We talked for 20 minutes and I said, ‘I can only tell you this: If I had a position, he’d work for me. I wouldn’t let him go,” Smith said. “He will do a really good job for somebody.”
Walker said his internship in Dickinson County gave him the opportunity to meet other emergency management professionals and learn many important skills.
“It was a “great hands-on experience, which was exactly what I was looking for,” Walker said.