Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Darke County participates in two-state, multi-county disaster drill

On Saturday October 31, 2009 several Darke County emergency professionals traveled to Monroe, Indiana, to participate in a full-scale disaster exercise. What made this drill different is that it included six counties from two states.

Ohio counties participating included Darke, Mercer and Van Wert; and the Indiana counties were Adams, Allen and Jay.

“Theses counties have been meeting for several years knowing that state boundaries cannot stop emergency response,” stated Mindy Saylor, Deputy Director of the Darke County Emergency Management Agency. “In the event of an emergency near or on that state line, we would have to work together and this exercise was a way to test those capabilities,” explained Saylor.

Participating for Darke County was Greenville Area Rescue, Ansonia Rescue, Arcanum Fire, Sprit Medical Transport, Wayne Hospital, Darke County Sheriff Communications, Darke County Emergency Management and Darke County Commissioner Diane Delaplane attended.

In all, more than 400 people attended from all six counties.

Representatives from law, fire and ems departments, county communications coordinators, Ohio State Patrol, Indiana State Police, National Weather Service, American Red Cross, Ball State University, Amateur Radio, county Emergency Management agencies, area hospitals, Ft. Wayne Airport, Indiana Emergency Management, Ohio Emergency Management as well as the Federal Emergency Management.

The scenario allowed for emergency crews to do some live firefighting and medical triage of 64 “victims.”

“We knew going in that communications was going to be an issue,” stated Brandon Redmond, Darke County 911 Coordinator. “We worked with officials from both States and Counties to come up with a plan that will be used in any real-life cross borders event,” said Redmond.

“This was a great experience and training opportunity and we are very thankful to everyone that participated.”

“Darke County is very fortunate to have our first-responders that are dedicated and committed to the safety of Darke County,” stated Saylor.

All six counties and both state are meeting in December to discuss and review the exercise.

8 comments:

  1. It is Greenville Township Rescue, not Greenville Area Rescue.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It was Greenville Area Rescue long before it was Greenville township rescue, they serve the Greenville area, they also get funds from Greenville and not just Greenville township residence.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My apology. Old habit that I need to get corrected, nothing political about it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. To: 6:46PM, You are an idiot! No one in their right mind cares!

    ReplyDelete
  5. To November 5, 2009 5:59 PM. You are an idiot. Maybe you don't care, but thats because you are a stupid ass. You proably don't care that you are a loser either.

    ReplyDelete
  6. TO November 5 2009 @ 9:01PM OK genius! You’re wasting away here on the DJ. A talented person like you should put those journalistic skills to work and make some big time money…hey who knows…..do I smell a Pulitzer? If you haven’t figured it out….I’m being factitious. Have a good day!

    ReplyDelete

Featured Posts

/* Track outbound links in Google Analytics */