$9,000 awarded to the Department of Emergency Management in Crawford County.

More than $9,000 has been awarded to the Department of Emergency Management in Crawford County. In a release Monday, the emergency management department announced they received a $9,043.74 Computer and HazMat Response Equipment grant. Officials said the money will be used to buy a “suitcase repeater” as well as hazmat supplies. Following this year’s train derailment near De Soto, the department’s follow-up report identified an area for improvement regarding communications. Mutual aid partners from Iowa do not use national standards for radio programming, which presented challenges during the multi-agency response to that incident. The suitcase repeater allows responders to use what’s called “interoperability channels” at a longer distance, regardless of the agency they are a part of. Officials believe this will strengthen their capabilities during future incidents.