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By Leon G. Russ
HOMETOWN NEWS
The Town of Pacolet teamed up with the Red Cross and Spartanburg County Emergency Management personnel and held an emergency disaster preparedness exercise on Saturday.
The exercise scenario was an explosion and fire caused by the collision of two trains directly across from residential housing and very near the Pacolet Library, Pacolet Elementary School and a senior apartment complex.
Red Cross volunteers were called upon to set up a simulated shelter in Pacolet Mills Baptist Church at 385 Stone Street.
Kelly Stafford, Piedmont Chapter Emergency Services Director, said, “This is a chance for the Red Cross Disaster services volunteers and staff from Spartanburg, Cherokee, and Union to practice and prepare in the event a disaster strikes within our area.”
When Pacolet town officials were first informed of the exercise they decided to stage their own exercise as well.
“We feel this is an excellent opportunity for us to fine tune our own emergency preparedness response,” said Pacolet Mayor Elaine Harris. “If we are trained in how to respond to emergency situations, the success rate for us to keep our citizens safe is much higher than if we have to randomly act.”
Linda Burns of the Red Cross said they would use the drill to see how the emergency response shelter and volunteer staffers would perform.
She noted the Red Cross has a two-hour window to be on scene but has a Disaster Action Team (DAT) on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week that acts as a quick response team.
Cherokee County’s Becky Mullinax is a Red Cross Health and Safety Education Coordinator and she was on hand at Pacolet Mills Baptist Church seeing that volunteers properly did the Pre-Occupancy Walk - through of the shelter and the registration and aiding of disasters victims, whom the Red Cross calls “customers.”
The drill allowed Pacolet to see they don’t have enough emergency shelters available. Burns said Pacolet Elementary School and the church are the only shelters currently in use. However, in preparing for the drill they’ve already had offers from other churches.
The drill raised a communications issue for the Town of Pacolet. The leaders who would oversee the response were at the Fire Station. When they attempted to contact the shelter at the church they found cell phone communication sporadic.
Harris noted these issues were part of the reason for having the drill. She said it would aid the town in “fine tuning our emergency response plan which is one of (Police) Chief (Robert) Ivey’s goals.”
Harris also said Pacolet needs “to be sustainable until help arrives” from other agencies in the county should an incident arise.
The Town of Pacolet’s Fire Department is staffed with two full-time personnel and an additional 26 volunteers. The Pacolet Police Department has 11 officers. It will fall on these men and women to hold the fort until help arrives and Harris is confident they can do so.
Lt. Heath Brown of the Pacolet Fire Department believes his department is up to the task. He provided a tour of the Mobile Command Unit that can be utilized and driven to the disaster scene.
Brown explained the unit “is outfitted with everything we need” in the event of a disaster
Doug Bryson, Spartanburg County Emergency Management Coordinator was on hand to assist in the drill. He explained how a response would work. He stated 911 would get the call and the Pacolet Fire Department would be dispatched and take the lead. The Pacolet Police Department would also respond and then Spartanburg EMS would be called in to support them and provide assistance as needed.
He said, “The first responders access the site and determine if it exceeds their capabilities. If it does they call for assistance.”
While many of these types of drills involve hundreds of people role playing, this was more of a desk top session to determine how Pacolet can better cope with and coordinate with other agencies.
Bryson hopes for the drill were that “a town specific plan (would) be implemented.”
That was Harris’ hope also. “What I’d like to see come out of this is that we get our own plan developed,” she said.
All agreed it was a good first step on the way to the town developing an emergency response plan of its own.
lruss@hometown-news.com
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