This article was written in August of 2003. Since then Bob Tarrant has moved on to head up a program of emergency management for the Michigan State Police. Our new Emergency Management Coordinator is Brad Deacon. While the names have changed, this article yet fairly describes a day in the life of MDA's Emergency Management Coordinator.

Imagine a train traveling through a rural part of Michigan. All of a sudden it derails. The tankers that the train was hauling careen off the tracks. Hazardous materials begin to leak all over the land along the railroad tracks in cornfields, pastures and neighboring streams. Perhaps crops are harmed. Animals that graze on that pasture may eat some of the hazardous materials. No one is quite sure where that stream runs or who exactly could be affected by the contaminated water. Who is responsible for being prepared for such an event?

Bob Tarrant, the Michigan Department of Agriculture's emergency management coordinator, will be one of the first people contacted in such an event. It is Tarrant's job to act on any emergency or event that occurs in Michigan and affects agriculture in any way. Whether it is a flood, fire, snowstorm, tornado, plane crash or bio-terrorist act, Tarrant knows which experts he needs to contact to make sure the agricultural impacts of that event are kept to a minimum.

This job would be difficult anywhere, but Michigan has a special set of challenges. It is a large industrial state with a huge agricultural economy. It has an international boundary. Michigan boasts a unique system of rivers and waterways, as well as being bordered by four out of the five Great Lakes. This means there are many ways an emergency, or "event," as Tarrant refers to it, involving agriculture could occur.

Tarrant is not a newcomer to the stress and procedures of being an emergency management coordinator. In 1998, Tarrant retired from the Michigan State Police after 25 years of service. At retirement, he was commander of the Emergency Management Division and deputy state director of Emergency Management. In these roles, Tarrant was responsible for state and local government planning, preparedness, response, and recovery from large-scale emergencies and disasters. Tarrant also advised the governor and coordinated all federal, state and local resources during these events. Tarrant also served as chair of both Michigan's Emergency Response and Community Right to Know Commissions and the Michigan Task Force on Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Since the Emergency Management Division began about 25 years ago, the state of Michigan has seen 47 events where the governor declared the incident a disaster. During Tarrant's service as deputy state director of Emergency Management, Michigan experienced 11 Governor's Disaster Declarations and four Presidential Disaster Declarations.

Prior to accepting his current position at the Michigan Department of Agriculture, Tarrant worked with the Michigan State University School of Criminal Justice in emergency management projects, including the development of "Critical Incident Protocol - A Public and Private Partnership." He has also provided consulting services related to emergency preparedness and response to both public and private sector clients through his firm, Tarrant and Associates, Inc.

There is no "typical" day in the work life of Bob Tarrant, due to the wide scope of the duties his position entails. One of the most important aspects of an emergency management coordinator is organization and knowing exactly where the resources are when needed at critical times. Each of the divisions within the Michigan Department of Agriculture has an emergency liaison. Tarrant coordinates and educates these liaisons regarding their responsibilities in the event of an emergency.

Each liaison acts as both the emergency management subject matter expert within his/her division and as the specific division subject matter expert to the Emergency Management Program. In partnership with Tarrant, these division liaisons are responsible to develop and maintain division emergency response capability.

Tarrant stresses that the first step in an event is contact. An essential key in the organization of emergency management is ensuring that critical people can be contacted, whether it's noon on a workday, three o'clock in the morning, or on a Saturday afternoon. One of Tarrant's first tasks in his current position was to create a database that keeps detailed record of contact information for individuals, including office phone numbers, home phone numbers, cell numbers and pagers. Drills are conducted periodically to ensure that the contact system is correct and would work in case of an actual event.

Tarrant also coordinates the Agriculture Emergency Operations Center, or AgEOC. This is a center similar to the state's EOC, where division liaisons and other key MDA staff would assemble in case of an event. There are telephones, computers and televisions in the AgEOC so news can be monitored and orders can be distributed from one central location. The main AgEOC is located in Constitution Hall, in Lansing, which also houses the MDA. However, there are sites throughout Michigan in case resources at the Lansing offices are unavailable, such as the recent power outage that hit the state.

In addition to coordinating the AgEOC and the division liaisons, Tarrant represents the MDA and Agriculture Director Dan Wyant on many boards throughout the state, including the State Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Commission, and the Michigan Hazard Mitigation Coordinating Council. Tarrant is also very involved in Michigan Homeland Security initiatives on behalf of the MDA.

Tarrant also trains and gives presentations to people throughout the state related to emergency preparedness. These presentations are provided for both internal and external groups, such as the Michigan State University Extension, the Michigan Agriculture Aviation Association, the Pesticide Advisory Committee, and the Michigan Administrative Officers. In these presentations, Tarrant explains that in today's world, the typical hazards and events are very much the same as what we have always faced. Yet there are also many different hazards that present themselves today. Previously, people had not planned for two different events to occur simultaneously in two different parts of the state. Tarrant now has to prepare for events that are more intentional, widespread and multi-locational. It is the scale and scope of the event that is different, not the cause of the event.

Another important aspect of Tarrant's job is to work with federal agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Federal Emergency Management Association, to obtain appropriate federal disaster assistance for farmers and other agribusiness individuals and groups.

One of the key factors of being an emergency management coordinator is mitigation, or lessening the impact of an event. Tarrant has to be prepared for every possible event and ready to respond if and when that event occurs in order to strengthen the recovery process. He is ready to act in any situation that may arise and is prepared to coordinate the process of ensuring the safety and well being of Michigan citizens and agriculture.

Click here to learn more about the Michigan Department of Agriculture's role in food safety issues during an emergency.