ALUMNI PROFILE
Emergency Management in the Aftermath of a Tornado
B
eginning on August 29, 2021, Hurricane Ida
a community that he had been serving since 2004 to
generated a tornado outbreak that devastated
determine how to support not only those residents
several communities across the United States
impacted by the storm but also how to restore essential
from Mississippi to Massachusetts. On September 1, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania was hit by an EF2
BELOW: Timothy Schuck ’19 surveys the damage after Upper Dublin Township, Pennsylvania was hit with a tornado on September 1, 2021.
town services. Though nothing could have completely prepared
tornado that hit a maximum wind speed of 132 miles per
Schuck for the devastation that the township
hour. One of the communities that faced the most severe
experienced, Schuck credits his education at Holy
damage was Upper Dublin Township, Pennsylvania.
Family University for teaching him invaluable
In the aftermath of the impact, Timothy Schuck
lessons on emergency management. While working
’19, then Fire Service Administrator of Upper Dublin
for the township, Schuck attended Holy Family to
Township, was on the scene surveying the damage to
complete his degree in Fire Science & Public Safety Administration and advance in his field. “I went to Holy Family to finish my degree when I was in my fifties,” says Schuck. “I spent five years going to night classes while working full-time. I enjoyed every minute. All of the Fire Science classes that I took helped prepare me for the role I am in now. My instructors, primarily Chief Thomas Garrity and Chief Theodore Bateman ’83, were well-versed in tactics and strategies, and everything we covered is paying off today.” “My training in emergency management and what I learned from Chief Garrity and Chief Bateman prepared me for what was going on,” explains Schuck. “All that training kicked in and it became automatic with what I knew had to get done by helping the Township Manager out by taking over the emergency management while he was taking care of the township.” One of the biggest challenges Schuck and his team faced in the aftermath of the tornados was communicating with not only those whose homes were devastated by the storms but also those who could provide help and resources. “Every municipality is supposed to have an emergency operations center, but we lost ours in the tornado,” remembers Schuck. “We lost everything from technology to paperwork.”
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SPRING 2022