Mission Statement
Our mission is preparing for and carrying out disaster response and recovery as may be necessary or proper to prevent, minimize, repair, and alleviate injury and damage resulting from disasters occurring by natural or man-made causes.

About the McLean County Emergency Management Agency
McLean County is the largest county in the State of Illinois - encompassing 1,184 square miles of land. The Agency’s primary responsibility is to coordinate disaster relief within the county. Additional responsibilities beyond disaster relief include maintaining the county's disaster and hazardous materials plans, coordinating the Search and Rescue Team, providing alternate power and lighting sources, performing damage assessment for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA), providing incident communication, fulfilling Incident Management Team (IMT) positions, maintaining the county's Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) equipment, and coordinating the county’s weather spotters in the weather spotting network.

The McLean County Emergency Management Agency was originally referred to as the McLean County Civil Defense (C.D.). The purpose at the charter of the Civil Defense organization was to coordinate disaster relief in the McLean County area as it related to enemy attack. In 1956, the Illinois Civil Defense Act was amended to include defense against both hostile enemy action and man-made disasters.

In order to better reflect its expanded responsibilities under the Illinois Civil Defense Act, the Civil Defense organization was renamed to the McLean County Emergency Services and Disaster Agency (ESDA). As an ESDA, the Agency was responsible for duties that extended beyond disaster response. The McLean County ESDA stewarded the county’s disaster and hazardous materials plans, coordinated Ground Search and Rescue (GSAR) teams, maintained an emergency response fleet, provided scene lighting and electrical generation equipment, maintained a Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) trailer with medical supplies for large-scale incidents, and coordinated the county’s weather spotting network.

Today's Emergency Management is significantly different than the Civil Defense era following the Cold War. Today we take an all-hazards approach to mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery of significant emergencies, disasters and catastrophies.  Incients such as the Oklahoma City Bombing, the terrorist attacks of 2001 and Hurricane Katrina have brought the discipline of Emergency Management to the forefront of large-scale incident management.

McLean County EMA prides itself on its extensive network of partnerships within the public sector (police, fire, EMS, public health, etc.), within the non-government public sector (American Red Cross, Salvation Army, civic groups, etc.) and within the private sector to ensure the citizens of McLean County mitigate, prepare for, respond to and recover from natural and man-made emergencies.