Every Butler County municipality should critique its response to Wednesday night’s flooding emergency.

And the flooding and associated power outages, which affected more than a thousand homes and thousands of county residents, should be the basis for officials of every municipality to re-evaluate existing emergency-response plans and coordination between emergency services and agencies.

In the City of Butler and other communities, was the situation adequately monitored beginning with the start of the rain during Wednesday’s daylight hours? Did everyone know who to call and in what order, to ensure maximum effectiveness of the response when needed?

For at least part of Wednesday night, city police reportedly experienced a shortage of flares to keep people from dangerous areas. Likewise, there reportedly was some initial uncertainly about when to fully mobilize the emergency effort that eventually was launched.

Frank Matis, the county’s director of emergency services, said he and other emergency services directors across the commonwealth held a conference call Wednesday with the National Weather Service to discuss the troubling forecast.

“We all were expecting rain, and the western counties were to get hit hardest,” Matis said. “We were expecting 3 to 5 inches of rain and that’s about what we got.”

Having knowledge in place about the havoc that remnants of Hurricane Frances wreaked in states south of Pennsylvania, all the way to Florida, there no doubt were expectations that many road closings due to high water were imminent. But with the large-scale new-housing construction and other development in this county over the past decade, it was hard to fathom what a storm of Frances’ punch might inflict.

Now officials know, with the uncertainties of Hurricane Ivan still looming.

Improvement of local-level monitoring procedures seems to be one of the big needs, based on what was witnessed Wednesday. In some instances, rescues might not have been necessary, if officials had reacted earlier-on and responded more quickly to the needs of flood-prone areas.

Fortunately, no deaths resulted from the slow-moving storm. Perhaps the entire situation was helped by the fact that during the past couple of weeks leading up to Wednesday, the region wasn’t plagued by the persistent rain activity that dominated 2003 and much of the spring and summer this year.

But not even a much-lower water table as Frances approached could have kept much of what happened Wednesday and into Thursday from occurring.

There is a natural tendency to allow preparedness to erode, especially in places like Butler that don’t have to deal with the weather woes of places like the coastal regions of Florida, the Carolinas, Louisiana and Texas. Wednesday was a rude wake-up call, both looking ahead to the possibility of Ivan and whatever else the remainder of the 2004 hurricane season might hold.

It would seem appropriate for emergency officials across the county to convene a meeting to not only discuss their individual experiences Wednesday, but to hear what tips emergency officials from the state or beyond can offer.

Meanwhile, efforts should be mobilized by concerned county residents on behalf of those who suffered serious damage to homes or other possessions. And, other forms of aid also should be explored.

Butler County was not a disaster area, based on what occurred on Wednesday, but Frances was more than enough to wash away any disaster-related complacency that might have taken hold here.

A critique is definitely in order, followed by steps to fix whatever is found to be in need of improvement.