Emergency services tested

Ann Bryant/Sun Journal

Franklin County Emergency Management's Public Information Officer, Clyde Ross, left, mans the Emergency Operations Center located in the Franklin County Courthouse in Farmington Thursday while Tom Walsh of Virginia, whose company works in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security, observes how the center handles an emergency test.

 

 

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- Ann Bryant/Sun Journal

FARMINGTON — The atmosphere was calm but emergency management personnel were handling a 24-hour test seriously Thursday as they dealt with an ice-storm scenario.

Franklin County Emergency Management Agency joined 14 other county agencies across Maine to test the work of their Emergency Operations Centers. The test began at 8 a.m. Thursday and will end Friday morning.

A storm with ice and 14 to 20 inches of snowfall has struck Franklin County, said Clyde Ross, spokesman for the operation center located at the County Courthouse. Wilton has no power or phone contact but is using amateur radio operators to communicate. Along with power loss, there have been road closures reported around the state but none so far in Franklin County.

It sounds like something that could happen. This time, it was staged to observe the emergency personnel's actions.

Tom Walsh of Alexandria, Va., whose company works in conjunction with the Department of Homeland and Security and an evaluator, Andrea Hatch of  Vermont, were observing the roles of the emergency crew, what their needs and requirements were, how they handled requests and interacted with police and other agencies. They also were watching to see if there was an adequate back-up plan, he said.

By late afternoon more and more outages were being reported and the office was hectic, said Franklin County EMA Director Tim Hardy.

Updates and changes were sent into the center from the state Emergency Management Agency, creating false events similar to what the crew might actually experience in Western Maine, Ross said. These arrived by e-mail, phone and ham radio, he said.

By early Thursday afternoon the test was going smoothly, with the local workers doing a good job handling requests and coordinating efforts. Ross did observe the difficulty of the basement office being in two rooms across from each other and the county's radio operation located on the third floor of the courthouse away from the center, he said. If the storm took out power, communication would be two floors above the center hub without access to the elevator.

Communication is key, Ross said, in responding to a county-wide emergency such as a difficult winter storm.

abryant@sunjournal.com