‘Ice storm’ to test emergency management

With Environment Canada having issued information that a simulated “ice storm” has hit the region as part of Emergency Management Ontario’s “Trillium Response 2008,” Fort Frances will be tested to see how it does its part in the emergency exercise.
Fire Chief Gerry Armstrong, who also is the Community Emergency Management Co-ordinator (CEMC), said a local weather-related incident will be announced by the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre sometime this week to prompt the town’s emergency control group to jump into action.

Precisely when such an incident occurs remains a secret so the situation will be as close to a real emergency as possible in order to test all the response organizations. But Chief Armstrong stressed the public has no need to worry if they hear reports of a weather-related crisis here.
“There’s going to be a simulation and it will be playing out as if it were real,” he explained, noting the public may see emergency vehicles convening at a particular location or an evacuation centre set up at the Memorial Sports Centre.
But it’s not likely residents will be inconvenienced by road closures or similar interruptions to daily life.
“It’s not going to be anything major, by any means,” said Chief Armstrong. “It’s not going to be anything unsightly or anything along that line. It’s fairly low-key.
“It’s more about when they arrive at the scene, who takes control?” he explained. “How that goes and the communication between the site and the EOC [Emergency Operations Centre]—that’s our major objective.”
Chief Armstrong said he’s playing a major part in the scenario as a “controller,” and based on the “ice storm” conditions announced yesterday by Environment Canada, he is having briefings with town management to review things they may want to think about prior to the local incident being announced.
Once the local incident is announced, participants (including police, fire, and ambulance services, town administration, Public Works, Fort Frances Power Corp., the Canadian Red Cross, Rainy River District Victim Services, Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board, B93fm, Fort Frances Times, various other emergency control group members, and other volunteers) will be contacted, and be expected to respond as if there was a real emergency.
During the exercise, the following objectives have been set to test the specific components of the local emergency plan:
•activate the community control group call-out system;
•activate and set up the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) at the Civic Centre;
•declare a state of emergency;
•test telecommunications and radio communications between the EOC and the incident site;
•activate the evacuation centre at the Memorial Sports Centre; and
•make effective use of the media to provide public information and updates.
As first reported in last Wednesday’s Times, Emergency Management Ontario’s “Trillium Response 2008” exercise is based on each municipality’s annual requirement to conduct an emergency exercise for testing components of their respective emergency plans.
To assist in evaluating the local response, evaluators have been chosen to observe and comment on specific components of exercise activities.
They include International Falls Fire Chief Jerry Jensen, CN Police Cst. Pete LeDrew, Grace Silander, patient safety/risk management co-ordinator for Riverside Health Care Facilities, Inc., and Nettie Kaufman of the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Chief Armstrong has been working with Fort Frances CAO Mark McCaig, and alternate CEMCs Capt. Joe Bobczynski and deputy town clerk Kathy Lawson to put together the local exercise.