TULSA, Okla. — Half a dozen Ukrainian emergency management and public health leaders visited Tulsa through the Tulsa Global Alliance to immerse themselves in American disaster preparedness and response.
2 News Oklahoma's Mike Grogan sat down with them to answer questions about 2 News' role as a TV station and weather team during natural disasters.
WATCH: Ukrainian leaders visit Oklahoma to gain insights on Disaster Preparedness and Response:
While their professional lives are often consumed by the Ukraine-Russia War, they are finding ways to be resilient to other threats they face from Mother Nature regularly.
2 News spoke with Olha Brezetska, the Deputy Director General of their Regional Center for Disease Control & Prevention. Through her interpreter, we learned what impressed her about our disaster response network.
“I was pleasantly surprised to have learned, uh, how serious, uh, uh, preparedness, asset preparedness is taken in the United States, uh, and that a lot also is, um, implemented through private-public partnerships. It's not only the government's role, but also private entities are willing to collaborate with government agencies.”
That type of collaboration was explored further with their visit to the Tulsa Fire Department Training Center and the Norman Regional Moore Hospital, hit previously hit by an EF-5 tornado.
Oleksandr Kharchenko, the Head of their State Emergency Management Center, shared his takeaway, “So the most interesting for me was to have learned how the federal government actually transmits warning messages to the population, how people get informed about upcoming disasters, and what recommendations are given.”
While mass warning systems are also used in Ukraine for the war, this is something this crew hopes to refine for weather-related disasters based on what they learn here.
The U.S. Department of State International Visitor Leadership Program funded the Ukrainian group’s visit. To learn more about the Tulsa Global Alliance, click here.
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