RAVENNA TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Portage County’s new state-of-the-art emergency management facility is open and already preparing for natural and man-made disasters.

It’s been an unusual year for Portage County, with several flash floods and a confirmed EF-1 tornado in April.

Damaged homes, road closures after a tornado touched down in Portage County on Wednesday

RELATED: Damaged homes, road closures after a tornado touched down in Portage County on Wednesday

Portage County EMA Director Ryan Shackelford said the new facility should help tremendously with response times and faster communication between partners and key agencies.

Shackelford couldn’t help but be excited as he showed off the county’s new $4.4 million emergency response unit.

“You’ll notice the ceiling is 10-inch concrete slabs, 1,600 pounds each, so it’s meant to withstand a very specific event,” Shackleford said.

Shackelford is excited because, for the first time in decades, the county now has the space and updated technology to gather information faster, alert the public faster and work together under one roof in emergency situations.

“When push comes to shove, this building is meant to bring all the key entities together to respond to our worst day here in Portage County, whether it’s man-made or natural disasters,” Shackleford said.

The EF-1 tornado earlier this year had winds of 110 miles per hour and tore off a porch, toppled trees and tore one family’s home in half.

While the cleanup from that tornado took months, the 6,000+ square foot facility now has a centralized call center for all key partners in the area, such as fire, police, EMS, power companies and hospitals, to to assemble in case of emergency.

“University Hospitals, Portage Medical Center, Portage County Public Health, Kent Public Health, right behind them is Mass Care, Portage County Family Services, American Red Cross and Job and Family Services,” said Shackelford.

There is also a garage for vehicles, trailers and equipment for hazardous materials, collapse searches, incident management and search and rescue missions. There are designated areas for press conferences, the Red Cross and temperature-controlled storage areas in case of another health-related pandemic.

“Because we’re centrally located, someone could walk into this gate, dispense whatever they’re dispensed, a vaccine, water, food, and walk right out the front gates on SR 59 and then they’re gone,” Shackelford said.

The COVID-19 pandemic and solar eclipse were major catalytic events where the need for a modernized space became even more apparent.

“Our previous space only had 12 tables, not a lot of technology, not a lot of infrastructure, so we didn’t have a lot of space to accommodate all the partners we had during COVID or during the solar eclipse to accommodate any large scale. disaster,” Shackelford said.

While the space hasn’t been needed since opening in early October, Shackelford knows the space will be snapped up in just a matter of time.

“Even though we’re considered a small rural county, we have 163,000 people,” Shackelford said. “There are a lot of dangers. There’s a lot of things going on and a lot of public events, and we need to have a facility like this in case we have a bad day like you see in North Carolina and other counties in Ohio.”

Throughout the year, Portage County EMA will also run test scenarios so all key partners can practice real-time responses to any emergency.