As the Cold War shifted towards an end, Civil Defense organizations started to decline in importance, instead being replaced by civilian agencies with the goal of protecting from the most common disasters, floods, fires and the like, instead of the fallout from all-out war with the Soviets. Discussions started in the mid-80's amongst County Administrators who got to work creating the concept that would eventually become Shiloh County's Emergency Response Team. At the inception, the team was a small force of ten employees, all hazards specialists hired from the general public, as well as loaned to the ERT on agreements from emergency response agencies in the county. These specialists were tasked with ordering what would become the ERT, developing policies, responses and coordination, but also primarily to ensure all county residents had teams available to assist in emergencies above and beyond the normal call of duty. 

The SC-ERT was therefore officially formed in 1987, designed as a coordination and specialist response team, not with the goal of being an emergency management organization. This of course changed as the needs of the county grew, and it became clear it would be better suited to coordinate all resources between departments rather than to try to duplicate specialist resources in some areas to make up for areas lacking those. Departments operating in the county were required to assign a specialist liaison officer to help in this management of their county's emergency resources. 

During the period of 1987-1994, ERT liaisons and staff worked on various mutual aid policies, agreements and areas of improvement, assisting in mergers throughout the county, particularly in the way of Fire Departments. Many communities were feeling the pinch of budgetary constraints due to decreased tax bases, and the ERT organized takeovers of departments that were financially unable to maintain the necessary standards now being imposed by County Government. This led to some animosity towards the ERT and its members during this period.

In 1994, following significant political pressure to cut budgetary waste, the SCERT reorganized into an all county-employee organization, replacing department liaisons with one field liaison for each Fire, Medical and Law Enforcement. These changes streamlined operations in the organization, however caused animosity to continue in smaller departments who had now lost their direct voice at the ERT, and instead had to liaise through an organization member. 

In 1997, in an effort to improve emergency response and efficiency, all emergency response agencies participated in an ERT led drive to take over 911 and county dispatch communications. From the period of 1997-2000, all agencies able to respond to emergency calls were required to take dispatch services from ERT County Communications, and all 911 calls were routed through a single call centre. This greatly improved emergency response times, consistency and was widely praised by all parties involved, despite concessions made throughout the process in agency authority. During this time the ERT also opened its first state-of-the-art Emergency Operations Centre, located in their new headquarters. 

In 2000 the ERT opened their first purpose built building since their inception, complete with multiple apparatus bays, conference centres, an EOC, 911 Communications Centre and a helicopter pad. During the uncertain times following the 2001 terrorist attacks, ERT worked closely with FEMA, and later DHS in adjusting its mandate to preparing for man-made disasters more closely, as opposed to just natural disasters. In 2005 the ERT was restructured to create a director of communications, reporting to director of emergency preparedness, following specialist dispatch and tactical operations communications for multiple agencies being absorbed into ERT's 911 Communication Centre. 

Following restructuring directed by FEMA, ERT created 4 distinct specialist task forces to support major emergencies and provide additional capabilities to response teams in the county and statewide. With the changing landscape of risks, with more common and severe natural disasters, but also more violent man-made disasters, the ERT has become more and more important in county coordination to responses. 

The ERT's trademark bright yellow has been joked as an eyesore, but comes with rationale behind it. In the late 80's and early 90's, county administrators wanted a way to make ERT vehicles and crew easily identifiable and visible on an emergency scene. With their stated purpose being for serious emergencies only, black uniforms and white or red cars would get lost in the sea of similar units. Combine that with radios that were not interoperable, and non-coordinated responses, visibility was key. Yellow painted cars and matching yellow uniform shirts, sweaters and jackets made ERT members stand out, even if it became a joke within the emergency response community. 

While ERT has graduated from the yellow uniforms, opting for more common black uniforms, due to cost and preference, the traditional yellow still remains on the majority of vehicles.