9/13/2006 – News

Melanie Moen loves her job. She has plenty to do, and she likes it that way. But the rest of us can only hope she doesn’t get really, really busy. That would be a disaster — literally. "My job description is planning for bioterrorism and weapons of mass destruction," Moen said.
Don’t panic. She’s on our side.
Moen was hired recently as the Ward County Homeland Security Planner. She works for Ward County Emergency Manager Alan Reynolds in the emergency management department at the Ward County Courthouse.
The position Moen applied for described planning for mass casualty, terror-type incidents in case such catastrophic events should occur in Ward County. But as she has already discovered, perception and reality often differ.
"As of what I actually do, I will do all that," she said, "But I look at my position as kind of an assistant emergency manager. Al (Reynolds) is so crazy busy, he doesn’t have time to sit down and write all these big-binder required plans. They were fortunate enough to secure some funds to create a position. So I kind of take care of all the big, white binders . . . all the required plans and things like that you have to have."
Moen is a Minnewaukan native and a graduate of North Dakota State University with a degree in emergency management and was only the sixth to graduate from NDSU with that degree. Her background included a stint with the Federal Emergency Management Administration, assisting victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Her main duties included assisting counties in the devastated areas to prepare plans for assistance, which she called "a great learning experience."
"I have a hazard mitigation background, and (Ward County’s) mitigation plan needs to get passed through the State Department, then it goes on to FEMA," she said. With the mitigation plan, she said, should there be a "big disaster," the state will take a percentage of public assistance money and give it back to the community to rebuild. Currently, Ward County has no plan in place, so that’s where a lot of Moen’s energy has been concentrated so far.
Not all of it though. She is also making plans to conduct her first large-scale exercise.
"One exciting thing that’s in the preliminary stages here is First District Health Unit, Trinity and myself, with the Ward County Emergency Management office, are planning a pandemic outbreak exercise," she said. Moen said the state itself and the city of Grand Forks have already conducted pandemic exercises, but not on the scale of the one she’s planning.
"We are planning a regional exercise," she said. "The whole northwest area. First District Health wants to test all their counties. It’s in the preliminary stages, but it’s going to be huge . . . It’s going to be really nice to do this exercise. I’ve participated in exercises, but I’ve never put one on, so this will be a great learning experience, getting out there and seeing what kind of capabilities we have in this area."
Moen said that by including all the counties, the drill would be more realistic, because the city of Minot is the anchor community on which the other counties will rely due to the presence of Trinity Health.
Although Moen’s position was created with funding from the US Department of Homeland Security, and her job title has those words included in it, she actually "takes her orders" from Reynolds and the Ward County Commission, not the federal government.
And it’s local concerns right here at home that take up all her time on the job.
Moen has also been involved in "tabletop" exercises recently to plan for any incidents that may affect the North Dakota State Fair — a timely subject, for sure. Moen said she and Reynolds had gotten together with fair officials, the Ward County Emergency Resource Council and other officials to walk through plans for situations such as severe weather situations and any type of mass casualty accident to make sure there are plans in place to handle those types of circumstances.
So in the event that disaster should strike, be it this week or any other time, rest assured knowing that although most folks are inevitably caught unsuspecting, Melanie Moen has been keeping herself busy — but not too busy, thank goodness.

Melanie Moen is pictured with her family, husband Ger and daughter Avianna. Melanie is a 1995 graduate of Minnewaukan High School. She is the emergency manager for Ward County. She is the daughter of Gwen Christensen of West Fargo, formerly of Minnewaukan, and the late Gary Christensen.