Alabama is home to tornadoes, hurricanes, windstorms, floods, wildfires, occasional winter storms and other natural disasters. A recognized expert in preparing for those calamities, some would say THE expert, died Monday.
Lee Helms had been the director of the state’s Emergency Management Agency (EMA). He then formed a consulting firm and partnered with dozens of city and county governments to prepare their emergency plans and resources.
Helms was 68. He had suffered cancer.
Helms was credited with the idea of placing the state’s emergency management headquarters in a protected and partially underground bunker in Clanton, close to the state's geographical center. It remains the EMA headquarters to this day.
Helms got his start in Alabama disasters in 1979 when Hurricane Frederick devastated Mobile County and surrounding areas. He then went to work for the Disaster Housing Office. From 1987 to 1994, he was the director of operations of EMA.
He was appointed EMA chief by Gov. Fob James in the 1990s.
He served as president of the State Employees Association.
He later served on the Montgomery City Planning Commission.
In community service, he was chair of the PTA of Jefferson Davis High School.
Helms ran for the Alabama Public Service Commission, Place One, but lost.
Tales of Helms during disasters run from the serious to the humorous. During the second James administration, while Helms was EMA chief, there was a serious flood in downtown Elba – one of many over the decades. Elba is in the Southeast Alabama Wiregrass on the banks of the flood-prone Pea River.
Gov. James happened to be in Florida with wife Bobbie on a short break. When Helms informed him of the flood, the first couple headed to Elba in their own car with no security and no staff. Typical Fob.
Helms headed from Montgomery southwards to Elba with the governor’s chief of staff Jim Main.
When all arrived on the scene, they found the downtown seriously underwater. Only steeples and tops of taller buildings were visible. The governor and party arranged a boat and took a tour of the town. They needed to see why two levees protecting the city had been breached.
Gov. Fob quickly noticed something unusual.
“Lee, what are all these men doing in their pleasure boats riding around with shotguns and rifles?” the governor asked.
“Governor, the last time there was a bad flood, some thieves got scuba gear and dove down, robbing the jewelry stores and other valuables. The local menfolk decided that would not happen again.”
Gov. Fob seemed pleased. The underwater robberies did not happen again.
Now, Helms and Fob were properly attired for a rainy, messy outing. Jim Main was wearing his typical fancy pants — starched khakis, starched Oxford cloth shirt and dressy shoes. When they got finished, the draft on the boat was too deep to get to the shore. Their boat stuck some yards from land. Fob and Helms promptly waded ashore. Jim Main, in his nice clothes, hesitated.
Main finally rolled up his pants and held his shoes high above his head, wading ashore.
Fob remarked to Helms, “Now, that’s reminiscent of General Douglas McArthur wading ashore as he returned to the Philippines. I shall return.”
Arrangements for Lee Helms will be announced.
“When disaster struck, Lee Helms was ready and guided us as to what to do.” __Donnie Claxton, Press Secretary to Gov. Fob James
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler writes about Alabama’s people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at ZeiglerElderCare@yahoo.com.
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