This month Wyoming, Ohio, held its annual disaster exercise, which brings together key personnel from all city departments. Most of the department heads were fresh from NIMS training, so there was more enthusiasm. This was especially true of the directors of the public works and building departments, who recently completed NIMS 300 and 400.
The exercise scenarios have varied over the years, but usually centered on incidents that potentially could befall the community. In the past these have ranged from a train derailment with evacuation of the downtown business district to a snow and ice emergency that slows activity to a snail’s pace.
This year, the Wyoming City School District joined the combined exercise. The scenario was relatively simple: a tornado struck during school hours, cutting a square mile swath through a residential area and damaging an elementary school and nearby high school. Some students at the elementary school were reported to be injured by flying glass, and the normal routes to the school were blocked by downed trees and power lines.
The exercise covered the initial response of fire, EMS, police and public works: incident command, damage assessment, public information, resident relocation and community recovery. The school district had to deal with anxious parents, decide to maintain students beyond dismissal to ensure they remained in a relatively safe environment, and close a school and relocate the affected students.
The city dealt with the assessment of damage and habitability by the building department and the coordination of state and federal resources in the recovery process. The damage and debris field was mapped out at the EOC as crews simulated the assessments of the destruction with 20 homes with severe damaged, 120 homes and one elementary school with moderate damage, and 70 homes and the high school with minor to moderate damage.
The exercise simulated the plan of several 12-hour operational periods, the need for administrative records and financial tracking, and the transition of command from the response to the extended recovery period. While several weak areas, including communications, clearly needed improvement, the exercise successfully enabled the city to review its current disaster plan and coordinate its future responses with the school district.
One of the lasting benefits to the exercise was that the city and the school district were able to network key people who would be a part of any actual incident. By providing an opportunity to think, plan and learn from one another, planners can begin to overcome major barriers in any future emergency operation. Plans already are underway for next year’s disaster exercise to include more area partners.
When was the last time your disaster plan was dusted off and exercised? With the need for NIMS compliance within the next year, has NIMS training taken priority over any actual disaster exercise?
