Originally published on Cavalier County Republican
Cavalier County Emergency Management arranged a full-scale exercise for area responders on September 23. The exercise started at 6:00 p.m. and took place in the 4th Avenue and 5th Street area. Local law enforcement, fire department, Emergency Medical Services (ambulance), hospital, county health, Maple Manor, 911 and dispatch were invited to participate in the exercise which consisted of a mock accident with a hazardous material (HAZMAT) and victims brought to the hospital.
“Exercises like these are on a rotation with the beginning being a tabletop or discussion-based exercise and culminating in a full scale [reinactment],” said Emergency Management Coordinator Karen Kempert. “The exercises are also a time to learn without threat to life [or] safety.”
The exercises help all the agencies involved to test and develop familiarity with their plans and procedures. “It is really good practice,” said Ambulance Director Chris Sanders. “It taxes the system under near real conditions. It lets us test our surge capacity at the hospital and see how our system is going to react if we get a surge of patients. It allows us to work with outside organizations and coordinate with them, and test that system as well. We hope there are never any issues, but this let’s you uncover them if there are any plans that need improvement.”
“The biggest benefit is that it is nice for all different groups to practice and hear how everyone sees emergencies from their perspective,” said County Health Nurse Steph Welsh.
The nature of the exercises varies based on the hazards faced by the first responders. “A few years ago we did a full scale in Munich with a tornado scenario,” said Kempert. They have also completed a Langdon tornado exercise and an active shooter exercise at the school.
“We do them as we can get grants to assist with the cost,” said Kempert. Cavalier County was able to do this exercise with a Federal Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness grant that she wrote in 2019 and was awarded. There is a local match that comes from fees that are collected by the state from hazardous materials warehouses and vendors that is partially distributed back to counties.
The tabletop portion of the HAZMAT exercise had been completed earlier. The full-scale exercise was delayed due to the number of Covid-19 cases in the area. The full-scale exercise was scaled back a bit in order to get it completed before the end of the grant cycle.
“We have had hazmat incidents in the past, however, nothing that has been an extremely hazardous material,” said Kempert. The most common hazardous materials are glysphosate (the chemical found in Round Up herbicide), anhydrous ammonia, and simple gasoline. The first step in any emergency is to call 911, including an emergency that involves a hazardous material.
