Volunteers pretend to be injured in a bus crash at 183rd Avenue Southwest and Sargent Road.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
ROCHESTER – As hundreds of people were imagined to be fleeing a tsunami on the coast this morning, emergency management officials and responders tested their abilities to coordinate a response in Thurston and Lewis counties.
The large scale exercise included folks gathering as early as 7:30 a.m. in a new emergency coordination center on Tilley Road, practicing opening a shelter for evacuees at the former Maple Lane School in Grand Mound, testing communications at Lewis County’s emergency operations center in Chehalis and providing support from Riverside Fire Authority’s main station in Centralia.
In the midst of the drill, a simulated bus crash drew deputies and fire departments to Rochester where as many as 20 civilians pretended to be injured.
One of the incident commanders, Olympia Fire Department Assistant Chief Pat Dale, said they role played accepting three or four bus loads of coastal residents at Maple Lane, the shuttered juvenile incarceration facility in Grand Mound.
“We did that from here and it went pretty well,” Dale said as the exercise wrapped up just before noon.
The exercise conducted by Homeland Security Region Three – comprised of Lewis, Thurston, Grays Harbor, Pacific and Mason counties – was titled Pacific Panda.
Organizers described the event as a way to test communications, citizen sheltering, incident management and mass care. Homeland Security Region Three Coordinator Jesi Chapin said last week although it’s not the most likely natural disaster, it’s consequences would be widespread.
Responders from several fire and police agencies practice assessing and treating passengers from an imaginary bus crash
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Pretend patients wait to be transported following a mock bus wreck in Rochester
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
This so called rescue drill is not for a disaster. It’s for the NDAA bill that was passed by Bro-Bama. Maple Lane will be used as a FEMA camp in the near future… Wake Up this was federal funding the Government is providing for Stazi Type police officials that take illegal orders just for a paycheck…….All over Thusrston County tou see signs that say “Stop Taking our Land” Look up Agenda 21……..Rescue Drill my Arse…..FEMA TSA take over…Sharyn do your homework…….LOL