Master of Disaster Steps Down

WAUPACA – Andy Carlin, the county’s safeguard against chaos and catastrophe, is retiring. He has served as the Waupaca County Emergency Management Director for 23 years. During this time, he’s dealt with blackouts, handled toxic chemical spills, searched for crashed military aircraft in the middle of the night (didn’t happen, the caller was confused) and investigated earthquake activity when Clintonville was hammered by a series of mysterious booms.
Over the years, none of these adventures particularly stand out. He has a hard time explaining the work he does. To Carlin, it’s not what happens; it’s how you react to it and he responds the same way every time: follow the plan. “Every incident is the exact same thing, it’s just got a different title,” said Carlin.
Much of his job is assessing risks and hazards, writing plans for them, testing the plan and updating the plan and sharing it with people who need it. He sees this work as a team effort and is humble of how it is created.
He’s developed emergency plans for all school districts in Waupaca County. Carlin works with administrators to assess risks and they have yearly meetings. Besides schools, he’s also networked with the county’s seven electrical utilities to navigate long-term power outages. Once a logger dropped a tree on an energized line and knocked out power in Fremont.
In the spring, there is a threat of wildfires and he coordinates with the DNR and local firefighters to face that risk. “Most of our day is spent with first responders whether its police, fire, EMS or public works,” said Carlin.

Carlin previously worked as a paramedic and one disaster put him on course to take on the emergency management position in Waupaca County in March 2002. It was the Weyauwega train derailment that occurred on March 4, 1996. As a member of a county hazmat team, he was an officer on the incident command team for 21 days. “That’s what pushed me into emergency management—that train derailment,’ said Carlin.

Local to federal
“We don’t do to house fires. But if the entire block is on fire, we go to that,” he said. “When the tornado hits, we go out there. How do we get us back to normal? That’s working with elected officials, our state office, FEMA if we have to. If they can’t find the resources, we find the resources. We go right up to the state level to get resources.”
He points out the Wisconsin rarely gets any FEMA funding. The state was approved only once during his tenure and that was for the summer storms of 2019. He applies for FEMA aid on the county level but there is a threshold—an area must incur around $12 million in damage before the Feds even consider the emergency.
Once instance where Waupaca failed to meet the disaster criteria was the April blizzard of 2018 where around 30 inches of snow came down fast and hard. “We tried to get FEMA declaration on that one. You have to have a snowfall that is ten percent greater than your last record. We blew that out of the water, and we had to meet our county-dollar threshold. We met all that [criteria]. We sent it to FEMA and FEMA says, ‘Ah, you guys live in Wisconsin. You’re used to that. We’re not going to give you anything.’ What frosts me is the way they said it. What about New Orleans? What about their hurricanes and flooding? That happens to them all time,” said Carlin.

It was the same for a subzero arctic blast that happened around a decade ago that resulted in massive damages in frozen pipes and sewer lines. Same dismissal from the Feds: It’s Wisconsin—what do you expect? Carlin points out that if a disaster happens during an election year, getting a FEMA declaration is easier as it makes the current party on the campaign trail look good in the public eye.
He’s on the lookout for what he calls the “ripple effect,” such as something happening in a distant city that makes its way to Waupaca. For example, a school shooting with heavy media coverage could inspire another one on the other side of the country. The ripple effect is following trends such as during the Covid pandemic, many people fled the cities and stayed in their northern cabins during the off-season.

The Waupaca split
Sometimes it looks bad but it’s not so bad. A tanker carrying nitrogen once crashed on U.S. Highway 10. A gaseous miasma covered the area. “But it’s just nitrogen. Its part of the air we breathe. It’s not a big deal. But it looks bad when you’re driving by and see this big cloud around this truck,” said Carlin. Waupaca County has a Type 3 hazmat team which means they called upon to help out anywhere in the state.
Waupaca has some low-threat characteristics. Besides the recent breach of the Manawa dam and annual high water on the Wolf River, Waupaca isn’t prone to heavy flooding.

There is also an unexplained phenomenon of storms splitting off in Portage County before they reach Waupaca and they edge around the county. “Nobody can explain it to me. Honest to God. I’ve heard it’s the granite in the soil, like a magnetic field. I’ve heard of atmospheric pressure from Lake Winnebago. I have no idea. I like it. We’ve avoided a lot of stuff. I’ve had so many split and go around us. We get a lot of storms but a lot of them miss us, too,” said Carlin.

The Protégé
His last day is Jan. 29. His replacement is Zac Van Asten, a natural fit as he grew up in a family of first responders. He’s a Waupaca High School grad and studied fire science and emergency management training at Fox Valley Technical College. He started in mid-December and is shadowing Carlin until his departure. Not that it’s necessary as he said he’s known Carlin forever and has followed his work his entire life. He’s been a firefighter for seven years and a hazmat team member for ten years. He’s taken a number of continuing education classes in emergency management and both men point out that that’s a big part of the job. “I’ve very humbled. Andy has built a legacy here. I don’t want to change it—I want to grow from it,” said Van Asten. Both got their ham radio licenses and they speak highly of Waupaca’s ham radio community, Waupaca County ARES (amateur radio emergency communications) and see them as a huge asset in county-wide emergencies.
Carlin has loose plans for his retirement—some woodworking, some motorcycle riding, maybe a part-time job. “Andy doesn’t sit still,” said Van Asten. This winter you might bump into him on Nordic Mountain where he is longtime volunteer ski patrol member.