Disaster drill runs smoothly
Saturday, April 05, 2008

When a major disaster strikes, emergency responders and relief workers each have a job to do.

Some will register victims and their pets at emergency shelters set up to provide a safe place to stay, others will provide medical or mental health care to those who need it, still others will ensure supplies are available and onsite, and some will simply be making food and handing out beverages to the hungry and thirsty.

"Everybody does have a job," Hillary Roberts, director of emergency services for the Pine Tree Chapter of the American Red Cross, said Friday night.

She spoke as she was finishing a dinner prepared by volunteers using a generator for power during a sheltering drill at the Brewer Auditorium. The drill was hosted by the Penobscot County Local Emergency Planning Committee, the city and local disaster relief partners.

The emergency drill’s scenario was that a giant water main broke, leaving an entire housing development without water and electricity. With temperatures below freezing, residents of the development needed a place to stay.

"It’s really important for us to do a sheltering drill like this because it’s a real opportunity to test our abilities" to provide emergency shelter during real emergencies, Roberts said.

Brewer Auditorium recently became certified as an emergency shelter and city officials wanted to test its capabilities, said Fire Department Capt. Gary Parent, who is the city’s deputy emergency management director. The building is equipped with about 100 cots and blankets, has a place to take showers and cook food, and has a generator, he said.

"We really did not have a designated shelter" beforehand, Parent said. "This place is perfect."

For the drill, an emergency clinic was set up on the first floor and a separate area for pets was created.

"Pets are a big deal nowadays," Parent said. "You really should have a pet area because pets can’t be with people due to allergies."

The disaster "victims" included a group of 75 or so local Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts and 25 or so college students from the University of New Brunswick.

"Victims" were registered when they came through the door, "so we know who’s here in case someone calls looking for them," Parent said.

Then they were fed.

Directly after eating a dinner of spaghetti, salad and cookies, the younger "victims" were having too much fun playing basketball and dodge ball in the gym to look the part.

A few of the older Scouts, however, took time to help wash dishes and sweep up after dinner, including Patrick Pelletier, 17, of Bangor, who said he just wanted to "help out."

He said later in the evening he and the other older Scouts would be helping their younger counterparts work on earning their emergency preparedness and first aid badges, which he already has.

The Penobscot County Emergency Management Agency, Red Cross volunteers from all over the state, Brewer Parks and Recreation Department, along with local firefighters, ambulance personnel and police officers assisted with the exercise.

"What we’re doing this for is to determine that we can do this," Parent said, adding: "It’s working out good so far."

The drill began at 6 p.m. on Friday and was to end at 8 a.m. today.

A copyright article from the Bangor Daily News, Saturday, April 5, 2008.