The goal for Emergency Management across the state of South Dakota is to protect the citizens and their property from the effects of natural, man-made, and technological disasters.

 

Preparedness, Respond, Recovery and Mitigation are recognized as the four phases of emergency management.

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The Director of Emergency Management's duties is to provide preparedness plans, write and maintain homeland security grants, be a point of contact to local fire departments, ambulance services, and law enforcement agencies, and also be the point of contact with state emergency management offices, state fire marshal offices, and federal emergency offices such as FEMA and National Weather Service. 

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​Weather spotting falls under the office's duties as well.  Weather spotters in the field report their observations to the director which is then transmitted to the National Weather Service Office in Aberdeen.  

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The director makes sure important equipment such as emergency radio towers used by emergency services are running correctly within the county.

 

The Director of Emergency Management has to go through some federal training such as Incident Command System (ICS).  

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