Her job is to help save lives and keep people out of harm’s way during times of emergency.
A first responder for 25 years, Shannan Hinton has spent the past five as director of the Bartholomew County Emergency Management Agency.
Its mission is to reduce loss of life and property while protecting infrastructure such as roads and buildings from all types of hazards through mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.
The two-person operation — Hinton and deputy director Natalie Ferrenburg — goes by “the book.”
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In this case, that’s the county’s emergency operations plan, which coordinates fire, law enforcement, medical and other disaster agencies — and keeps them all on the same page while carrying out their individual duties.
Hinton cut her teeth as a first responder as a volunteer firefighter and EMT with the Wayne Township Fire Department in southern Bartholomew County. She kept that commitment for 19 years, 1995 to 2004, overlapping her first stint with the Emergency Management Agency when she was second in command.
As deputy director, she partnered with director Dennis Moats to coordinate the county’s response to 2008’s massive flooding, which caused three deaths and $500 million in property damage.
“Her input was vital during the flood of 2008,” the retiring Moats said upon Hinton’s appointment as his successor.
The flooding emergency began Friday night, June 8, when up to 11 inches of rain fell upstream of Columbus. By Saturday morning, flash flooding was occurring in Columbus, Hope and Taylorsville. Haw Creek was spilling into Columbus Regional Hospital, resulting in the evacuation of patients and hospital staff — and closing of the facility for five months.
The list of challenges facing first responders was endless.
Flooding closed off certain areas of the city and taxed the public safety radio system statewide, forcing the county to set up mobile towers. Bartholomew County government offices lost internet service, and computers in the Emergency Operations Center went down when the building where servers were housed flooded. First responders fortunately could use their cell phones to communicate with each other, but voicemail messages flooded their in-baskets to capacity.
Hinton and Moats worked two days straight before finally being able to go home for a few hours of sleep Sunday night of the flood weekend, followed by weeks of 14- and 16-hour days.
It’s a different type of emergency this time around, but experience from the 2008 flood prepared Hinton for the challenges of 2020 brought on by COVID-19.
Back with the department since 2016 as director, Hinton has spent much of the past six months helping coordinate a unified local effort to mitigate the pandemic, which has claimed more than 50 lives locally.
Hinton has been helping Bartholomew County secure personal protective equipment for local front-line workers — gowns, masks, gloves, face shields and eye wear, disinfectants and hand sanitizer.
Competition for these items, including from the federal government, has been fierce.
She found and purchased highly sought-after Lysol wipes on a Monday. The disinfectant wipes were gone the next day on Amazon.com.
“You need to jump on it,” said Hinton, who is a member of the Bartholomew County COVID-19 Task Force.
She helped the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. secure hand sanitizer and reusable gowns and gloves in preparation for the opening of the school year. She also purchased backup masks in case students would lose or forget theirs.
Most recently she has been working on getting more Lysol spray and wipes.
“It’s ridiculously expensive,” Hinton said, sometimes paying three to four times what Lysol had cost before the pandemic.
It took three to four months to receive all of the supplies she ordered, kept in storage in labeled boxes. While supplies are sufficient now, that could change once the cold and flu season starts.
“We’re not going overboard, but we want sufficient stock,” Hinton said. “We’re trying to anticipate whether or when there will be another (COVID-19) uptick.”
Her department is also responsible for notifying residents of more routine matters such as severe weather alerts, although much of that communication is automated through the Everbridge system, which has nearly 26,000 local subscribers out of 32,000 households.
Nevertheless, Hinton has a weather radio at home and a phone charger next to her bed.
“I’m one of those people who like to be out on her porch watching the storm come in. It’s the firefighter in me,” she said.
Hinton knew at age 12 that’s what she wanted to be.
The Greensburg girl was captivated by a 1986 made-for-television movie, “Firefighter,” starring Nancy McKeon (Jo from “The Facts of Life”). It was based on the true story of Cindy Fralick, hired in 1983 as the first female firefighter for the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Hinton didn’t know it at the time, but neighboring Bartholomew County was well ahead of Los Angeles in breaking such gender barriers.
Kay Finke, executive director of the American Red Cross in Bartholomew County, also led the county’s Emergency Management Agent from 1981 to 1991. Finke’s background included being an EMT, medic and volunteer firefighter for the Clay Township Fire Department in eastern Bartholomew County.
Moats took over Emergency Management from Finke in 1991, leading the agency until Hinton stepped in 24 years later as director.
A big part of the emergency management director’s job is planning, but emergencies don’t arrive on a particular schedule.
“It’s great to have a plan,” Hinton said before breaking into laughter. “Sometimes you have to go with the flow.”
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Age: 46
Hometown: Greensburg
Residence: Columbus since 1995.
Professional: Bartholomew County Emergency Management Agency director, since January 2016; field coordinator for District 8 with the Indiana Department of Homeland Security’s Emergency Management Agency, 2008-2016; Firefighter and EMT with the Wayne Township Fire Department in Bartholomew County, 1995-2014, holding positions of captain, second assistant chief, lieutenant and training officer; deputy director, Bartholomew County Emergency Management Agency, 2002-2008.
Education: Bachelor’s degree in emergency management from Trine University, 2014; multiple certifications in firefighter and emergency medical technician training; international certified emergency manager status from the International Association of Emergency Managers.
Organizations: Bartholomew County Local Emergency Planning Committee, International Association of Emergency Managers
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Contact Tom Jekel by email through editorial@therepublic.com.
