Are we prepared if disaster strikes?

A Simulated Emergency Test was performed Sunday in order to test the responses of county-wide agencies. The drill included a mock airplane crash at Warren E. Eaton Airport in Norwich and a coinciding test included a chemical spill at Kerry Bioscience. The following news article covers the simulated drill, and is not an account of a factual emergency crisis.

NORWICH – County-wide emergency personnel responded to a multi-scene crisis Sunday, involving first a plane crash and secondly a bio-hazard leak at Norwich’s Kerry Bioscience facility leaving one dead and seven injured.

The call, placed by airport employee Robert Stevens, rang into the local 911 emergency center just after noon and within minutes the Norwich Fire Department began arriving to assist with transportation and to see to the aircraft, which had begun to leak fuel from its wing.

The scenario played was part of a training operation for fire departments, hazardous material teams and other emergency crews county-wide; to test the vulnerability of the county’s resources.

“The concept, born in October of 2007, was to develop an emergency drill and involve as much of the community and community resources as possible,” said Emergency Simulation Coordinator and Director of Tactical and Strategic Intervention Services (TASIS ), Robert Benton, who directed the drill.

 By the time a second emergency call rang out for a chemical leak at Kerry Bio, locate on state Rt. 320, multiple-aid units from Sherburne and Oxford were already on the runway helping transport victims to Chenango Memorial Hospital (CMH), while crews assessed the aircraft’s condition and safety.

Benton, who had a command post headquarted at the airport as well as a crew of people assisting with the drill, said the idea was to test and evaluate the capabilities of the emergency crews. “This drill isn’t like what they have done in the past, not only will they have one crisis, but crews will be responding to another one including a bio-chemical leak,” he said.