Disaster awareness exercise brings agencies together and pulls outside help

[October 07, 2016]  LINCOLN - On Wednesday, local emergency response departments and support agencies set themselves hard to work on a mock natural disaster. 'The bad day' event was a massive tornado that tested all departments and agencies providing services in debris cleanup, law enforcement, medical, fire and rescue, school safety, food and shelter, public works, and death.

The preparations for this year's annual exercise began as soon as last year's exercise ended.

Response departments conduct in-house exercises all year to train their employees. But this exercise conducted by Logan County Emergency Management Agency offers the opportunity for everyone to bring their departments together to test how they will do in unison.

Exercising tests everyone's preparedness and helps sort through potential real-life issues while in working together. It helps law enforcement learn to know when to step aside and another agency such as firefighters do their work, and visa-versa.

This year's full-scale exercise included opening and fully staffing the Emergency Operations Center and several field exercises all done in real-time.

Field portions of the exercise took place near the Logan County Fairgrounds, the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital and the Lincoln Developmental Center.

The exercise also tested the public information delivery system, and there was a tour and news conference for media during the exercise.


Approximately 35 departments and agencies from six counties – Tazewell, Macon, Champaign, Piatt, Douglas and Logan - were involved.

The State of Illinois and other counties provided evaluators who watched various aspects of the exercise.

The exercise is self-paid by every department that participates. It is conducted during the week so that departments avoid over-time or backfill, which keeps expenses to a minimum. EMA provided a light breakfast and lunch, and a few processing expenses.

On Wednesday, media had the opportunity to see the action taking place in what is call the 'Blue room' which is the center of decision making.

A few of the participants were Logan County EMA, Sheriff’s Department, Coroner’s Office, Paramedics, Department of Public Health, Mental Health, Disaster Intelligence Team; and city of Lincoln Police Department, Streets Department; Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital, Salvation Army, Red Cross, representatives of large populations and schools, and mutual aid from other counties and the state of Illinois.

Community officials joining department heads in decision-making this day included Logan County Board Chairman David Hepler, Vice Chairman Robert Farmer, State’s Attorney Johnathan Wright; and for Lincoln Mayor Marty Neitzel, city of Lincoln Administrator Clay Johnson and Alderman Rick Hoefle.

During response to a major event there are a lot of communications that take place, often all at once or on top of one another. The Blue Room was controlled chaos with messages steadily coming in and going out, between agencies in the EOC, the mobile communications unit and radio room.

Year after year, everyone learns from the experiences, and time and again, everyone learns the challenges of communications, whether it is with the field, within their department or between agencies.

The exercise provides a multitude of opportunities including learning to work with all the other agencies and improving all communications.

When asked if the exercise was a success, EMA Director Dan Fulscher said, “Yes, everyone involved showed up and were fully involved as though this were a real situation. All agencies worked well together sorting out what to do and how to do it together.

He added, “There will always be unmet needs and communication flaws to learn from for the next exercise or for a real-life situation. ”

Fulscher said, “Kudos to everyone and to the media. Everyone showed up and put themselves in as the events occurred.

[LDN]