County holds biannual federal nuclear disaster exercise

Oct 22 - Republican & Herald (Pottsville, PA)

If there is a disaster at either of the two nearest power plants, Schuylkill County would provide mass support for evacuees. An emergency operations center was opened Tuesday at the Schuylkill County Communications Center to make sure emergency personnel are prepared for such an incident.

The emergency operations center is part of a biannual exercise evaluated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station in Luzerne County . Schuylkill County also supports the evacuation of Dauphin County residents living near Three Mile Island and participates in similar biannual exercises for that.

"It's a constant planning effort on our part," John Blickley , deputy emergency management coordinator, said Tuesday. "The plan is really a living document. It needs to be updated continuously."

The exercise involves cooperation of local, county and state resources. About 30 people made up the emergency operations center Tuesday and included staff from the county sheriff's department, planning and zoning, emergency communications, emergency management, Intermediate Unit 29, Schuylkill Transportation System, American Red Cross , Pennsylvania State Police , state Department of Transportation and local emergency service volunteers.

The emergency operations center provides command, control and communications support for the evacuation and sheltering of residents from Luzerne and Columbia counties. The center had six different stations.

Planning took care of mapping; logistics was in charge of commodities and staffing; operations managed fire, police and other emergency personnel; messaging center answers the phones and logged information; finance and administration would order additional supplies if needed; and the command station oversaw operations.

About 20 municipalities fall within the 10-mile radius of the power plant. Each one had a similar emergency operations center Tuesday. Luzerne and Columbia counties also had an emergency operations center set up as well as the other supporting counties, which includes Northumberland , Montour , Union , Lycoming , Wyoming and Lackawanna counties.

FEMA started the drill at 6:48 p.m. by stating that an unusual event had occurred at the power plant. All the emergency operations centers then played through the four different states of emergencies.

When the power plant declares that an unusual event has occurred, Schuylkill County is made aware of the situation.

Upon issuing an alert, Schuylkill County activates its emergency operations center with minimum staff and contacts outside agencies advising that their response may be required.

Next is a site area emergency. That is when Schuylkill County brings its emergency operations center to full activation and contacts outside agencies to become operational within their own facility and ready to be deployed to their field locations.

Finally, a general emergency is declared. At that point, Schuylkill County staffs the center for 24-hour operations and advises outside agencies to activate their field locations for 24-hour operations, as well.

A general emergency was declared at 7:51 p.m. Tuesday . That is when Schuylkill County would start accepting evacuees.

If there is an evacuation of residents living within a 10-mile radius of the power plant in Luzerne and Columbia counties, a reception center will be opened at Mahanoy Area School Complex . Blickley said the county will receive about 3,000 evacuees. He said other support counties will have about the same.

After going through monitoring and decontamination, evacuees are then sent to other county schools for sheltering and care. Evacuees will first be sent to Shenandoah Valley , then North Schuylkill and Tamaqua . The remaining evacuees will stay at Mahanoy Area .

The drill Tuesday was for hostile activity at a nuclear facility. Other scenarios that FEMA evaluates over eight-year periods include ingestion pathways and plume exposure.

John A. Rice , senior technical hazard specialist for FEMA , evaluated the exercise Tuesday. He said these types of exercises only started after the incident at Three Mile Island in 1979.

"These plans are now being modified throughout the country for various situations," Rice said.

John Matz , emergency management coordinator, said similar exercises are held in the county for all types of emergencies, including floods, winter storms and hurricanes. When disasters do occur, recovery can take months and also includes things like damage assessment, he said.

"Every disaster ends up being months of extra work," Matz said. "Our job is to go out and find the resources needed to help individuals."

Commissioners George F. Halcovage and Gary J. Hess were also part of the command team for the exercise.

"Communication is so important," Halcovage said. "You hope you never have to run into this situation, but to be prepared for it is important."

Hess said that as a former mayor of Schuylkill Haven , he knows how important it is to be prepared for everything from flooding to nuclear disasters.

"Planning is essential because you never know what is going to happen," Hess said.

The second part of the exercise will be at 7 p.m. tonight and includes the reception, monitoring and decontamination procedures at the Mahanoy Area School Complex .

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