ST. PAUL, Minn. - In 2008, Terry Zien, St. Paul District program manager and Silver Jackets team coordinator, collaborated with the Minnesota State Hazard Mitigation Officer to form a Silver Jackets team in Minnesota
and formally coordinate existing interagency disaster planning and recovery efforts from the August 2007 flood in southeastern Minnesota.
The Silver Jackets program helps federal and state agencies build relationships with each other, while providing enhanced emergency planning, mitigation and response activities to counties, municipalities and tribes for natural and man-made disasters.
The St. Paul District Corps of Engineers participates in Silver Jackets by holding emergency management action plan workshops throughout the year to help communities identify local, state and federal resources and plan emergency response efforts.
“For many communities, the most difficult part of emergency planning is getting started,” said Zien. “During workshops, we help community
representatives understand how to plan and act so they can effectively respond to emergencies and obtain county, state and federal assistance.”
The Silver Jackets not only fund projects like workshops, they also help coordinate interagency response to emergencies. According to Zien, the threats most communities ask for help with are floods and high-speed wind events like thunderstorms and tornadoes.
Recent Silver Jackets projects include coordinating responses to the spring 2019 floods state-wide and the 2018-19 wave events that destroyed the harbor in Duluth, Minnesota.
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