CARLSBORG — Emergency responders from Clallam and Jefferson counties will descend upon this community on Oct. 12 as part of a planned drill.
It will take place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Clallam County Fire District No. 3’s fire station at 70 Carlsborg Road.
The scenario for the drill, called “Operation Alligator,” will be a chemical attack on a school, represented at the fire station by four 40-feet-long shipping containers, said John Szymanski, coordinator for Homeland Security District 2, which includes Clallam, Jefferson and Kitsap counties, and which organized the drill.
About 30 Port Angeles High School students will participate as mock victims.
They will be triaged on site, and then transported by Clallam Transit buses to Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles, where hospital staff will simulate treating the patients based on what level of injury they are supposed to have.
The state is organized into nine homeland security districts, which handle emergency preparedness funds from the Department of Homeland Security and coordinate districtwide exercises.
Also participating is Kitsap County, which will have to respond to another mock terrorist attack, Szymanski said.
Carlsborg gathering
In Carlsborg, 28 agencies and organizations will participate — including the Sequim and Port Angeles police departments, Clallam County Sheriff’s Office, Clallam County fire districts 2 and 3, Olympic Peninsula Red Cross, Olympic Medical Center and Clallam Transit.
Four employees of the Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management also will join the drill.
Jefferson County Emergency Manager Bob Hamlin said they will bring a communications trailer and assist Clallam County emergency responders in coordinating personnel.
Won’t know details
None of the participating agencies or personnel will know what exactly will happen during the drill beforehand.
Only two people, with a notebook containing the plan in hand, will have that information.
Emergency responders will learn of key parts of the drill, such as how many victims there will be and what levels of medical care they will require, as the exercise takes place.
Not even the Clallam and Jefferson emergency management departments will be privy to that information beforehand.
Hamlin and Jamye Wisecup, Clallam County Emergency Management Department program coordinator, both said that is how such exercises should be done.
This way, they will have to work on their feet, Wisecup said.
“I don’t know even know what could go sideways,” she said.
Wisecup said normal emergency services will not be disrupted.
She said flyers will be distributed to Carlsborg residents to notify them of the drill.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
