Mock drill Tuesday at college

Monday, August 17, 2009

On Tuesday, an emergency/crisis training exercise will be conducted on the McCook Community College campus from 9-11 a.m. The planned training event is to test the coordination, cooperation, and interaction between local fire, police, hospital and college personnel.

The exercise will involve a shooting incident and possible fire at locations in and around the MCC campus. "This will be a live action, real-time event," said Dari Olson, Director of Safety at McCook's Community Hospital. "We will try to make the exercise as close to a real world event as possible." There will be actual victims, responders, and assessors who will critique the various groups.

"One of the concerns in running the drill is making it too real to college neighbors and the rest of the community," said Michele Gill, Area Dean of Student Life and the college's senior representative in the exercise. "We will do our best to personally notify our neighbors and hope the rest of the community learns that the exercise is just a test. We certainly don't want to create a real panic and will do everything we can to make sure the public knows we're conducting the exercise."

Those groups participating are: City of McCook (Department of Public Works, City Manager), Community Hospital, Good Samaritan Ambulance Service, McCook City Schools (observers), McCook Community College, McCook EMS McCook Fire Department, McCook Police Department / Dispatcher, Media (radio/newspaper), Nebraska Department of Roads, Nebraska Fire Marshal, Nebraska State Patrol, Nebraska Public Power District, Red Willow County Coroner, Red Willow County Sheriff's Department/Emergency Management, Richard Murphy (Scene Safety Officer), Source One, Southwest Nebraska Public Health Department, Emergency Manager, West Central Medical Response System Coordinator, and Work Ethic Camp (evaluators).

Once the drill is completed, the group will meet with observers and the assessment team to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses exposed during the exercise.

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