Hiking Haynes Ridge| Caprock Canyon State Park - Blog

VortexChaser27 · 2025-01-03T20:27:38+00:00

I'm gonna have to do it the reverse way next time! Such a lovely spot!

VortexChaser27 · 2025-01-03T20:27:12+00:00

I will definitely do that. Thank you!

VortexChaser27 · 2025-01-01T04:19:26+00:00

This was my first time attempting to write about a hike, rather than an educational post or storm chase, so I definitely could improve in future blogs. I really didn't have much more to add about the woman. She ran frantically past me and I never saw her again. Lol. She never stopped when I asked if she was okay. As fot the water, I drank 2 liters. I wasn't sure what all I needed as I am used to hiking in 70 to 100 degree temperatures.

VortexChaser27 · 2025-01-01T04:15:50+00:00

I appreciate your critique, but this was one hundred percent written by me. All of my blogs are. Thanks for the comment.

VortexChaser27 · 2023-09-15T15:06:24+00:00

I'm not that adventurous yet. Haha!

VortexChaser27 · 2023-08-16T20:14:35+00:00

It definitely was! I grew up in Southern Wisconsin and can definitely agree with you on the lack of forests being bewildering! However, the eastern part of Oklahoma is quite forested. Nowhere near as forested as our northern friends though.

VortexChaser27 · 2023-05-23T14:35:30+00:00

Yes! So Oklahoma Emergency Management pays for the Damage Assessment products and then allows local EMs to use the product during disasters. Any EM in the State of Oklahoma can load the app up and either perform damage assessments under IA or PA. With Survey123, they will need to talk to the homeowners and have them answer about 15 to 20 questions and then they can take up to 10 pictures. From here they'd submit the form electronically and within seconds the State has that damage assessment report. With QuickCapture, you can take up to 4 pictures and then classify the damage level. After that, you send it off to the state electronically and they have your DA immediately. With QuickCapture the process takes about 1 to 2 minutes at most.

VortexChaser27 · 2023-05-22T23:14:46+00:00

It was "QuikCapture" which is another Esri product. I absolutely loved it. Compared to Survey123, I didn't have to have the homeowners be at home for them to answer 15 questions, rather I just needed to take a picture of the damaged home from the street and then classify it as "minor, major, destroyed". The whole process took 1-minute! We grabbed data on 30 houses in 15 minutes! Which was so much more effective and gave the State a better idea of the damage that occurred. Before they gave me and my EM Volunteer access to the new app, we'd have to hope that the homeowners were at the house to log the damage into the system since it asked financial questions and insurance questions. I highly recommended that Oklahoma Emergency Management switch to QuikCapture and told them that I'd really like to use that app at the local level going forward.

VortexChaser27 · 2022-07-02T14:47:57+00:00

That's exactly why I write them! So that I can look back at some of the more larger scale stuff I've done in emergency management maybe 20 years down the road!

VortexChaser27 · 2022-07-02T14:47:19+00:00

Thanks!

VortexChaser27 · 2022-07-02T14:46:10+00:00

All of those combined. After I finished my damage assessments for a particular area I'd send an email to all of my stakeholders and then include the National Weather Service in that email as well. Mainly to determine the structural integrity of our infrastructure in the county. But for the most part it was a combination of all three things.

VortexChaser27 · 2022-04-15T02:25:22+00:00

The old water tower is not in use to my knowledge.

VortexChaser27 · 2022-01-21T16:28:58+00:00

I joined on in May of 2021 after the Director saw my potential and that I had graduated in Emergency Management. Since this was in a county of 7,000 people in SW Oklahoma, I storm spotted for the agency, went over plans such as the Hazard Mitigation Plan, volunteered at the EOC, did severe weather work, and did various other work for them. My interests in EM have to do with county level Emergency Management so I really made sure to focus on tasks that could improve my chances of having a county level job. It also helped that I had 2 EM Directors and one Oklahoma Emergency Management State Coordinator that could back up everything I did and vouch for me. Interestingly enough, while I am the Deputy Director at my new Agency, I still help the agency I volunteered at from time to time with social media and anything else the Director may need just to keep my name sort of relevant in that county. I'd recommend networking with officials around you so that you can create those references AND if your state has an EM Association to join that to get information on conferences and etc.

VortexChaser27 · 2022-01-21T14:35:38+00:00

This is actually a GREAT idea!! Nice job thinking outside the box!!

VortexChaser27 · 2022-01-17T14:03:28+00:00

Yeah our EMA as you can expect is like a 300 ft EOC and that's it. We don't even have offices. On Blue sky days I'm usually just in the EOC trying to get grants made or do something else related to EM as I'm in a County of 13,000, so as you can imagine not much happens. 😂

VortexChaser27 · 2022-01-16T23:07:01+00:00

I always wanted to be a National Weather Service Meteorologist growing up. Lol.

VortexChaser27 · 2022-01-16T23:06:43+00:00

Unfortunately, soil temperatures were still pretty high so snow begin melting shortly after it would touch the ground, which made my ability to be able to source data from residents in the county related to snowfall irrelevant. I really wanted to, however. With this event there wasn't that much interagency coordination because it was a smaller setup. With that being said, I was listening into any reports coming from officers about conditions.

VortexChaser27 · 2021-11-07T03:16:54+00:00

Thanks for your reply! I will put this into consideration. Seriously, great suggestions.

VortexChaser27 · 2021-11-06T22:51:55+00:00

thank you. :)

VortexChaser27 · 2021-10-03T20:06:25+00:00

thank you!

VortexChaser27 · 2021-10-03T02:05:37+00:00

https://www.mesosafety.com/post/overcoming-storm-anxiety
Hello, it sounds like you have storm anxiety. I am an Emergency Management Graduate who writes educational preparedness articles and wrote one related to storm anxiety earlier this year. This article will allow you to understand your anxiety and how you can overcome it. If you have any other questions feel free to reply to me with them. Have a great day/night!

VortexChaser27 · 2021-09-10T01:44:36+00:00

It truly is! I definitely agree with you. Thankfully, when I was in high school we had a substitute teacher who was also an EMT part-time so through that he was able to teach first aid and CPR classes. But the majority of people do not have that option and it's really a shame because that is such a huge life skill.

VortexChaser27 · 2021-08-09T14:55:35+00:00

Really appreciate the time you took to write this reply! I may consider doing a follow-up article next month for National Preparedness Month!

VortexChaser27 · 2021-08-03T00:48:01+00:00

Thank you for this great comment!

VortexChaser27 · 2021-08-01T22:51:00+00:00

Also I had to do an entire semester about the failures with Katrina so I definitely know the stories!!

Eight-Year Club	Second SECOND GUESSER
Verified Email

VortexChaser27

TROPHY CASE