Justin Koch, new emergency manager for Murray County, had a couple of weeks to get his feet wet before being thrown into a water event. Koch feels very fortunate to have had some dry weeks prior to the recent deluge of water.
The area received anywhere from 5 inches in the majority of Murray County to almost 11 inches of rain in Avoca over a span of 48 hours. The event started Tuesday, September 10th into Wednesday. The heavy rain caused rivers to swell and run out of their banks. Numerous road closures were reported across the county. “Thankfully,” he said, “it wasn’t too crazy of an incident.” According to him, both Heath Landsman and Randy Groves were both great at communicating the need to have some roads closed, etc. The majority of the information was run through the Murray County dispatch center.
Koch appeared before the Murray County Commissioners, during special meeting held on Friday, September 13th, with a request to declare a ‘state of emergency’. Koch said he had been up to 2:00 a.m. with the flood situation, attended the all township meeting and then continued with the flooding event until 9:00 p.m. that evening. “Sometimes there are long days involved,” shared Koch, “but that’s the job. I’m here to serve the community in every way that I can.”
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