Editorial: Community can count on responders
Published 12:00 am Thursday, July 14, 2005
Emergency responders, law enforcement and disaster support groups such as the Red Cross, public health, amature radio groups, parents and students participated in a training drill last week and met Wednesday to assess what worked and what didn’t.
We would like to commend the people who participated, making the event as real as possible even though in this case, a great deal of planning went into staging the drill.
The mock incident involved a shooting and chemical release from a stray bullet at the high school.
Aside from the glitches in communication &045; a recurring issue &045; a false start and an &uot;actor&uot; who adlibbed which caused some confusion, the drill should be considered a success because of the lessons learned and the cooperation evident between the various groups.
The communication glitches, in no small measure, boiled down to a shortage of money. A lack of up-to-date communication equipment put a kink in the responders’ ability to work efficiently in tandem &045; something the city and county must consider as the governments begin budget planning for the coming year.
Still, should the community experience a real incident, the staged training drill will help the emergency and support teams work more efficiently for the benefit of the victims and the community.
One outsider observer noted during the debriefing Wednesday that Freeborn County and Albert Lea are ahead of the pack in planning such drills &045; many counties don’t conduct these community training sessions on such a broad scope.
All in all, in a disaster, we would trust our responders and support groups to handle the situation with professionalism, proficiency and sensitivity as the situation warranted.