County emergency planner 'wants to help people'

Sitting on a shelf in a county building in north Kalispell, there’s a four-inch-thick binder full of nightmare scenarios for Flathead County.

Avalanches, earthquakes and hazardous material spills are included. There are sections for nuclear emergencies and terrorist attacks.

These disaster plans are drawn up by officials who calmly look at agency resources and determine the best course of action. They look at how equipped medical responders would be if an earthquake brought a mountainside into the center of Columbia Falls, perhaps.

“We have to sit and we have to look at those worst-case scenarios,” said Nikki Stephan, 30, the emergency planner for the Flathead County Office of Emergency Services.

In many ways, Stephan would be at the center of that emergency response. She calls herself a professional liaison.

Before, during and after an emergency, it’s Stephan’s job to coordinate different agencies and officials and efforts from a seemingly endless Rolodex.

The core of her job is a networking task, she said. But that’s a catch-all phrase for being able to communicate to dozens of law enforcement, fire departments, medical responders, search and rescue, hazardous materials and other agencies.

There are planning, review sessions and risk assessments happening all the time. Disasters can come from anywhere.

“This is a big responsibility,” Stephan said. “And I enjoy it.”

Stephan moved to Rollins when she was 7 years old.

An avid outdoorswoman, she’s lived in Kalispell for the last 11 years and doesn’t plan on leaving anytime soon.

At age 18, she started work as a dispatcher in Lake County.

“I’ve always been someone who wants to help people,” Stephan said.

After a few years of living in Kalispell, she landed a position with dispatch for Flathead County. It could be extremely stressful at times, she said. A lot of training goes into handling dispatch calls.

But it was also stressful for other reasons. Dispatchers speak to people who are often going through serious emergencies. Stephan said she remembers the first call she got involving someone’s death.

Even these days, being involved with all of the county’s emergencies in some way, she said that she’s thickened her skin a bit.

But her goal isn’t to become immune to the trials of county residents — real people affected by those incidents.

Stephan’s last shift as a Flathead County dispatcher was on Christmas Day 2014.

She had her eye on the emergency planner spot, and was already going to school for an emergency management degree.

“I want to know more about emergencies,” she said. “I want to know the law and I want to know the ethics.”

She’ll enter her last semester at Flathead Valley Community College this fall. After that, she’ll move onto the next emergency training project.

A job gets boring if there isn’t a continuous stream of learning, she said.

“Her job is critical because [she is] making sure everyone is working and playing well together,” said Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry, who is the director of the Office of Emergency Services. “[She is] making sure everyone is on the same sheet of music.”

That’s something that happens in and out of emergency situations, and it comes in the form of many roles.

Stephan is the chairwoman of the Local Emergency Planning Committee, an interagency group that meets quarterly to discuss emergency strategies. It’s a place where, for instance, the sheriff can make plans with a school superintendent for a disaster scenario.

She’s also a disaster and emergency services coordinator and liaison who often works with the Montana Department of Emergency Services.

Stephan responds to hazardous material spills and coordinates various agencies for the proper cleanup, if necessary.

She serves on a county risk assessment panel that helps create emergency plans.

She is also on a liaison panel between the community, Glencore and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the long-term shuttering and cleanup of the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company.

There are other roles, but one she’s proudest of is being a mother of two.

There are many hats she wears on a daily basis.

“She is very motivated and is doing, I think, an amazing job,” Curry said. “We are very lucky to have her.”

The job is busy and can pull a person in multiple directions at once, but that’s what Stephan said she likes about it. It’s constantly adapting to situations, laws, ethics and change.

Planning for a disaster is just part of the job. And it’s always something that can be improved. There are constant review processes after emergency responses that try to tighten up the next response.

But that’s all right with Stephan. Otherwise, things might get boring, she added.

Reporter Matt Hudson may be reached at 758-4459 or by email at mhudson@dailyinterlake.com.