South Dakota Assisting With Hurricane Response

Cari Leidholt and Autumn Stout will be stationed in the state emergency operations center in Raleigh, N.C.

They will help North Carolina officials with coordinating requests to other states for assistance through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC). EMAC is a state-to-state mutual aid agreement that allows governors to send personnel, equipment and commodities to a requesting state that has declared an emergency.

North Carolina officials specifically requested that South Dakota send Leidholt and Stout.

“Both Cari and Autumn have taken in-depth training in EMAC operations and procedures,” says Emergency Management Director Tina Titze. “Between their emergency response experience here in South Dakota and their experience with EMAC in other states, I’m confident they will represent South Dakota well and will take some stress off the shoulders of their colleagues in North Carolina as they begin their recovery process.”

Last year Leidholt deployed to FEMA’s National Response Coordination Center in Washington D.C. as an EMAC Liaison during Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Stout recently returned from a deployment to Hawaii during that state’s response to the Kilauea volcano’s eruption, where she coordinated Hawaii’s requests to other states for assistance.

Both Leidholt and Stout will complete their deployments by October 3.

The Office of Emergency Management is part of the South Dakota Department of Public Safety.