When news came this weekend that war broke out between forces from the Republic of Georgia and Russia, one Fayette man in particular was taken aback by the fighting.

Pete Nelms, the county’s emergency management coordinator, was scheduled to go to the Georgia capital in Tiblisi in the middle of September to assist the government’s development of an emergency management agency.

His week-long stay was to focus on 10 different areas of emergency management, ranging from public health, hazardous materials and search and rescue operations.

With the country at war as of Tuesday afternoon, the trip might be in question.

Worried he would not be able to make the trip, Nelms said Monday: “I’m disappointed because I felt like I could have made a big contribution there.” He has heard stories about Georgia’s lack of resources to respond to emergency incidents, which can make operations difficult.

Word came Tuesday that the trip has not been cancelled, so Nelms may get a chance after all to help the people in the Republic of Georgia.

Since 1996, Nelms has been chairman of the Local Emergency Planning Council, a group of private companies working in conjunction with local governments to assist with emergency preparedness and response issues when needed.

Nelms was selected for the Georgia trip by the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, and the trip was not going to cost Fayette County anything, he said.

Nelms is scheduled to fly into Tiblisi Sept. 12 and return home Sept. 19. The past few days he has been watching news coverage of the war to stay abreast of the situation.

Nelms noted that most of the Republic of Georgia’s emergency management functions are operated by the military, so he has wondered “what it would be like” if he had been in Georgia when the war broke out.

Georgia is located just south of Russia and abuts the Black Sea and eastern Turkey. It was part of the old Soviet Union.

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