Center oversees first responders during disasters
The tinny, robotic voice that takes over Las Vegas’ airwaves before a storm or other emergency event is as synonymous with bad weather as a thunder clap.
City of Las Vegas emergency management officer Carolyn Levering’s voice is likely a lot less familiar.
She’s long been the only city-approved human allowed on-air for emergency broadcasts, but Levering has found that the National Weather Service robot doesn’t take many sick days.
“The last time I had to launch a live voice alert was 2009,” she recalled. “We had a chemical spill during morning rush hour. The fire department called me up, told me what was going on.
“It was 6 a.m., so I’m at the gym. I went to the women’s locker room and did it from there, at the 24 Hour Fitness downtown.”
Roughly 130 city employees have access to offices Levering oversees at the city’s multi-jurisdictional Emergency Operations Center.
The facility is meant to house a handful of city clearances alongside emergency management personnel from neighboring municipalities and guests from NV Energy, Southwest Gas Corp., Boyd Gaming and the American Red Cross.
The facility is at an undisclosed address near Cheyenne Avenue and Buffalo Drive .
During emergencies, the parking lot fills, radio antennae perk up and the center’s wrought iron-spiked fences disappear behind a sheet of automatic metal storm shutters.
Around the same time, hundreds of EOC-TV, radio and phone lines light up with up-to-the-minute weather and seismological alerts, chatter from first responders and a steady stream of real-time traffic camera footage.
Those coordinating post-disaster response arrive at the EOC within minutes of the event, but their real work doesn’t begin until after the sirens die down .
“We stay until it’s over,” Levering said. “What we do is more consequence management . We’re there to pick up where response (teams) leave off — with food, water, medication and clothes for those kicked out of their homes — so we’re working on getting facilities built for staying (overnight).”
Most days at the EOC are fairly quiet: City finance employees do quarterly number crunching or grant writing while operations crews hone response plans and work on training exercises.
Like most with an EOC clearance, Levering finds herself drawn to emergencies, though the former Red Cross coordinator said she had a soft spot for behind-the-scenes budget work, despite its challenges.
“Last year, we got $1.8 million from (the Department of Homeland Security),” Levering said. “This year, we got nothing, but the terrorism threat is very real to us, despite the feds saying we’re not worth funding. This year, it was especially obvious that tourism-based economies were not a priority. That’s a concern to me.”
Federal cuts more than halved Levering’s operating budget in 2013. Emergency dollars headed to one of the world’s five most popular tourist destinations now amount to less than one-tenth of the $10.4 million earmarked for Las Vegas in 2004.
Clark County has fared better, partially because of the Strip’s location within its unincorporated borders.
Clark County Fire Department Chief Fernandez Leary, Levering’s counterpart , agreed it is nice to be closer to the federal feeding trough but said no Southern Nevada agency could function without plenty of help from other agencies.
“This job is all about collaborating to help people,” Leary said. “This (Carpenter 1) fire proved that. We worked very close with the city’s EOC and everybody, from the Red Cross to the Metro , pitched in.”
Contact Centennial and North Las Vegas View reporter James DeHaven at jdehaven@viewnews.com or 702-477-3839.
