EMA holds emergency training simulation
The Highland County Emergency Management Agency, along with countywide law enforcement, emergency and public utilities personnel held the Emergency Operations Center annual exercises Thursday evening, simulating a multi-vehicle crash on a bridge that led to a hazardous materials incident.
Highland County EMA Director Jim Lyle said they are required by the State Emergency Response Commission to hold the exercise once a year, to see if they reach objectives in their response plans.
The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is located in the North High Business Center, and the center was staffed Thursday night as if it were an actual emergency. A separate team simulated radio traffic from a pre-set emergency scenario for the EOC to respond to and communicate with.
Lyle said their scenario simulated a tanker truck carrying anhydrous ammonia crashing into a church bus while they both attempted to cross the bridge over Clear Creek. The bus flipped on its side, while the tanker went into the creek, possibly leaking hazardous materials into the water near the Hillsboro Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The emergency personnel had to assess and treat injuries, as well as react to the hazardous materials event. The location of the simulated event was in close proximity Southern State Community College, Shaffer Park, and the EOC, which were all deliberately taken into consideration when setting up the scenario.
Highland County EMA, Fayette County EMA, Clinton County EMA, Highland County Health Department, Highland District Hospital, Greenfield Adena Medical Center, The American Red Cross, Highland County Sheriff's Office, Hillsboro Police Department, Paint Creek Joint Fire and EMS District, Lynchburg Area Joint Fire and Ambulance District and the Greenfield Water Department all participated in the exercise.
Highland County Heath Department Director Jim Vanzant also worked on communicating with the media and getting the word out to the public regarding the safety hazards, as would be necessary during an actual event. For instance, there was a simulated boil order, and evacuation of the EOC due to an anhydrous ammonia cloud. Operations then moved to a mobile unit.
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"The EOC is to provide resource management, instead of the incident commander taking care of everything," Lyle said. "This also tests our communication with other counties."
When it comes to exercising their plan, they have the options of doing a "functional test" as they were conducting on Thursday, a table-top event, a full-scale event or an actual event, according to Lyle.
Kevin Clouse, a state evaluator for the exercise, said this training allows the emergency responders to practice working together so they are not going through the procedures for the first time during an actual emergency.
"It's training," Clouse said. "The philosophy I have when I look at it is that we're learning how to work together now, and seeing how the systems work, so we'll be ready when something really happens."
For this particular exercise, Clouse said they concentrated on the following elements: initial notification, the emergency operations center, resource management, traffic and access, and hospitals.
Other evaluators for the exercise included Jason Oyer of the Red Cross, and Mike Jones and Terry Kerr from the Clinton County EMA.
When the incident concludes for the evening, all the participants will have a debriefing on what occurred during the simulation. A report will be prepared, and in a few weeks the group will meet again to discuss the results of the report and how they measured up against their objectives.
"It's not pass/fail," Lyle said. "It's exercising the plan we have in place."