A few hours before I had to get up at 5 a.m. Thursday, I awoke to the sound of crackling thunder and my bedroom window curtain violently flapping. Rain could be heard battering the house and a cool breeze gushed into my small apartment. I recall mechanically rising as if my body was apart from my consciousness and shutting the window. A glance at the clock revealed it was just shy of three in the morning. Though I didn’t know at the time, this was life foreshadowing my work day.

When daylight came, I would learn that as I was doing my best to fall back asleep in Norwich, a tornado was touching down in Pharsalia. When I got back up for work, there was a text message telling me the Emergency Command Center (EOC) in Norwich had been activated due to flash flooding.

As I came into the office, I was also greeted by a very awake and excitable Melissa Stagnaro who informed me she had heard of a number of structures being knocked down by the storm’s strong winds in McDonough.

A walk across a parking lot and I found myself in the EOC, located on the second floor the Norwich Police Station. The center’s walls are lined with computer workstations and the screens depict all kinds information through maps and graphs. When mobilized, all emergency responses in the county are directed from it.