Ben Frizzell, Emergency management spokesman dies

Tuesday, May 16th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Ben Frizzell, who worked with both the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state Department of Civil Emergency Management as a public information officer, has died of apparent heart failure.

Frizzell, 47, died Monday at his home in Norman.

Before joining the state agency in 1995 after the Oklahoma City bombing, Frizzell was a public information specialist with FEMA's Disaster Assistance Reserve Cadre. He provided assistance during the Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles in 1994, the midwest floods in 1993 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

He received FEMA's Meritorious Service Award in 1994 for contributions to disaster assistance programs and video documentary production.

He was lead public information officer for the response and recovery efforts after the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and had most recently served as a steering committee member for the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism.

Last year, Frizzell was the state's lead public information officer about the May 3 tornadoes that killed 44 people and destroyed or damaged more than 8,000 houses.

He was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary, Civil Air Patrol and served as inspector general and historian for the CAP's Oklahoma wing.

Frizzell was in radio and television news before joining FEMA. He worked with stations in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas. He also worked for KOTV Channel 6 in Tulsa.