Howard County has three fire departments, four law enforcement agencies, a county health department, and city and county governments. It’s up to two men to streamline communications between them and the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).

Bryan Kunze and Bill John have been doing just that, running Howard County’s Emergency Management Agency since 2006. Before that, the two were long-time police officers in Fayette. Kunze was Chief of Police here for 24 years until he retired in 2010, and John was Assistant Police Chief. He retired in 2016.

“I didn’t expect to be so busy in retirement,” Kunze joked Thursday.

He and John have been putting in considerable hours since the coronavirus was declared a pandemic by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the second week of March. The two have kept local departments and governments up to date on the ever changing guidelines passed down from the state. 

“Whenever they send out information, we relay that to 911 and the health department,” Kunze explained. “The state needs one person from each county to contact them.” Not one person from each of seven different agencies.

Typically, requests to SEMA are made through a web-based Emergency Operations Center, or Web EOC. But, Kunze said, this time is different. “We have one lady at SEMA who takes care of 13 counties. So whenever we need something, Bill and I get on the phone and call her.” John said he had been on the telephone with her already three times Thursday morning before 10 a.m.

That’s not the only thing that has changed. Typically the state and cities must reach certain financial loss thresholds before state and federal assistance may be obtained. But those thresholds have all been waived in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.

As of Tuesday morning, 25 out of 114 Missouri counties had at least one person test positive for COVID-19. Howard is not one of those counties. A few people have been tested, but all have so far been negative. “I think overall most everybody is handling it pretty well. I think everyone has followed what we’ve recommended really well,” John said. “I hate it for our restaurants. They’re suffering.”

A year ago Howard County endured terrible flooding. The EMA office has trained for floods, ice storms, tornadoes. But never a disease outbreak such as COVID-19. “We’ve never lived through anything like this,” John said.

Kunze said the manual on how to react to a worldwide disease outbreak is pretty thin. “The part about pandemics is about two paragraphs long,” he said.

But Howard County is in pretty good shape. The EMS office decades ago purchased personal protective equipment (PPE), which is still in good shape. And the county has put in place protocols so that first responders are prepared when answering calls. Callers to 911 operators have to answer a series of questions to determine whether the disease is suspected. “If you start answering ‘yes’ to some of those questions, then it kicks over to this infectious disease alert,” Kunze explained.

Further protocols are in place to protect first-responders during emergency service calls suspected to be infected.

In the meantime, John and Kunze ask that the public show patience and adhere to the guidelines from the CDC throughout this unprecedented time. That means wash your hands, practice social distancing, and refrain from hoarding supplies at grocery stores. “By us following the guidelines that they’re putting out, we’re helping ourselves,” John said. “We’re keeping our social distancing and that’s working great. Just stay positive and we’re going to get there.”

They also warn of believing everything you read on the internet. Rumors run rampant on social media. Any information to be made public by the county EMA will be done so through reputable news outlets such as this newspaper.

One recent rumor suggested the National Guard had been called to Fayette. “The National Guard is not responsible for law enforcement, unless it gets to a point in time where all the local law enforcement resources are exhausted,” Kunze explained. “Then the governor steps in.

“If you don’t see it in the newspaper don’t necessarily believe it.”