By Sgt. Angela Parady
121st Public Affairs Detachment
BRUNSWICK, Maine (11/8/13) - A major winter ice storm bringing
nearly three feet of snow and frigid temperatures leaves hundreds of
thousands without power. An ice arena collapses with an unknown number
of people inside; later that night there is a suspected terrorist attack
at a major government facility. A suspected anthrax lab has been
reported, and hazardous material has leaked on a ship coming into
Portland International Marina.
This culmination of events was only an exercise to test the
preparedness of emergency management systems in Maine, but it could
happen. To be better prepared, emergency aid agencies and National Guard
soldiers from seven states, and first responders participated in a
Vigilant Guard exercise in Maine Nov. 5-8.
Every year, NGB and the U.S. Northern Command pick four
locations to host the exercise. Each location is in a different FEMA
region, so the likelihood of a state being able to host the event more
than once is rare. The goal of the program is to enhance both National
Guard and state emergency preparedness.
All of the participants work together to assess storm damage,
identify hazmat threats, decontamination, search and rescue, patient
extraction, triage, and other emergency-response measures. Working side
by side and being able to recognize one another helps develop
relationships before they are in the emergency situation.
Lt. Col. Diane Dunn, a Maine Army National Guard Soldier who
works for Joint Force Headquarters, said that the exercise has met every
goal they set out to accomplish, primarily networking and developing
resources.
"Every single time you get military partners working side by
side with civilians they establish relationships, and that is probably
the most important thing," said Dunn.
"Understanding who the leaders are, and what tasks belong to whom, so
when you have to support someone, you already know their strengths and
weaknesses and where you fit into that picture. Those experiences make
this exercise more valuable."
During the last 13 months, Dunn has worked very closely with
Maine Emergency Management Agency Exercise Officer Jeremy Damren. They
worked directly with NGB and NORTHCOMM to plan the event. He agreed that
communication is essential to developing working relationships.
"Many of our responders here would be the same people responding to
our neighboring states as well," said Damren. "So now, we recognize
these faces and can hopefully work a bit closer than had we just shown
up. I think anytime you exchange business cards before an emergency its
always better than doing it during the emergency."
Although Maine has not had anything to this scale happen yet, it
could happen. Emergency situations in New England, such as Hurricane
Irene, or Hurricane Sandy that required a multistate response, have
already happened, and this just helps train everyone to be better
equipped.
Dunn, a native of Newburg, said this training is the opportunity of a lifetime for the National Guard.
"It gives us the opportunity to not only understand the
resources and capabilities the civilians have, but also our role," she
said. "How we support our civilians, and where we would fit into our
communities and to make sure our families and our community members are
safe. Most importantly, that can help response efforts like this."
When a disaster strikes, trained, local emergency personnel
respond first. When the first responders have expended their resources,
the county comes in to assist. In a situation like Vigilant Guard, with
multiple competing priorities, whether it is sheltering people, clearing
roads, or just public safety in general, sometimes they too run out of
resources.
That's when MEMA enters the picture. It has a designated
planning staff that is responsible for responding to emergencies. They
can look at all the resources state wide and see where things can be
shared. After the state exceeds all of its resources, it requests
National Guard assistance, and mutual aid partners in neighboring
states, and federal agencies.
The military doesn't step in and take over the situation. They
are there to help aid and assist the first responders and other agencies
already in place, said Damren, who lives in Belgrade.
"The adjutant general, who manages both us and the Maine
National Guard, has said from the very beginning, that all disasters
start local. So this military takeover would never happen. What would
happen is we would work together."
Working side by side, military and civilian responders extract,
decontaminate and treat the victims at the collapsed building.
Meanwhile, other crews have been called in to respond to nearly 20 other
emergency events throughout the state, from cybersecurity breaches, to a
contaminated ship coming into Portland. It took nearly 1500 National
Guard soldiers, hundreds of civilian medical and first responders and
international partners working together to help mitigate the disaster.
Because events this extreme are not common in New England, this
was an opportunity to demonstrate the National Guard and civilian
agencies abilities to respond when called, and to train military
soldiers for their response, said Dunn.
"It gave us the opportunity to exercise our main job; to defend
our state and to respond in time of crisis," she continued. "It is not
something we do all the time, so its important that we dust off those
plans and are familiar with what our tasks are and how we need to
continue to train and prepare so we can meet the call when it comes in."
Similarly, Damren was very happy with the overall exercise.
"Being able to strengthen the military and civilian
relationship and reflect that we do all work together," he said. "It
doesn't matter what uniform you wear, we are all here to do a job, so
let's just get to work, make people safe, and save lives."
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