ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Sally roared ashore along the Alabama Gulf Coast, the Baldwin County Emergency Operations Center in Robertsdale is still running at full tilt, coordinating the sprawling, multi-agency effort to get power, water and supplies back to residents across the county.
Emergency Management Agency Director Zach Hood said the pace inside the operations center has not let up since the Sunday before the storm made landfall, when crews began staging equipment and personnel ahead of Sally’s arrival.
“We’ve been nonstop, and we will not stop until our mission has ended,” Hood said.
That mission has required housing mutual-aid crews from across Alabama who came to help with search-and-rescue, debris removal and utility repair, all while trying to keep everyone safe amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Inside the operations room, staff and visiting responders wore masks as they worked shoulder to shoulder over maps, radios and status boards tracking the recovery in real time.
“Incredible challenges, and as you know, we were housing individuals 24/7 and we had to maintain that distance,” Hood said of balancing pandemic protocols with the demands of sheltering out-of-town crews.
The toll of round-the-clock operations has fallen heavily on Hood personally. For seven straight days after the storm, he slept in his office rather than go home, and even then he chose the floor over one of the cots set up for responders so that rescue crews would have a more comfortable place to rest.
With search-and-rescue operations winding down, Hood said the emergency management team’s attention has shifted to the next phase of recovery: continued debris cleanup and making sure food, water and other essential supplies reach the residents who still need them most, particularly in areas that saw the heaviest wind and flood damage.
Hood credited local volunteer organizations with helping fill gaps that county and state resources alone could not cover in the days after the storm.
“And if it weren’t for our volunteer organizations in our community, we definitely would have had an even more difficult time and increased challenges,” he said.
Baldwin County EMA is also working closely with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to get FEMA’s individual assistance program up and running for residents who suffered storm damage to their homes. To make that process easier to navigate, the agency has added a new tab to its mobile app that links users directly to the Baldwin County FEMA assistance page, where residents can check eligibility and apply for help with housing and other storm-related losses.
County officials have continued to urge residents to be patient as utility crews work through downed lines and blocked roadways, and to report storm damage through official channels so that state and federal aid requests accurately reflect the scope of need across Baldwin County.