Drill prepares agencies for possible disaster scenarios

Tabletop drill participants were asked to imagine an emergency scenario in which a train collided with a minivan on Otero and Chaparral Road.

Four rail cars were overturned, and one of them seemed to have damaged the water treatment facility. Additionally, the train’s engine was blocking road access at Otero. At that time, it was unknown whether there were any injury victims.

“That’s what you see when you arrive, so what are you going to do?” Jason Everett, local emergency planning committee chair, asked the twenty or so Socorro County agents who attended in a tabletop emergency drill last week.

A tabletop drill is a discussion-based exercise where agencies are given a developing scenario, and participants play out their responses during an emergency in real time.

“Our goals are basically to practice working within the ICS command structure to make assignments, gather information, developing an incident action plan for this incident. This is a fairly complex. We’re talking about how we’re stabilizing the incidents, mitigating hazards, and protecting the public in the environment.” Everett said.

He said another goal was to identify any communication challenges between agencies.

“We want to increase awareness of the challenges and limitations of our local resources so we can make improvements in the future,” Everett said.

Participants for the drill came from the State Police, Socorro Fire Department, Socorro County Emergency Management, City of Socorro, Socorro General Hospital, Socorro Electric Co-op and New Mexico Tech Police.

As participants went step by step through the scenario, they were encouraged to act out each step with face-to-face conversations and radio communication. Although tabletop drills are regular training methods, they hadn’t been conducted in Socorro since before COVID.

After the exercise, participants debriefed and commented on the experience. They discussed areas that needed improvement, what they forgot to do and what they learned.

Jerry Wheeler, Emergency Coordinator, shared suggestions for their next tabletop, including working on their specific roles and breaking down the exercise more.

Socorro Fire and Socorro General Hospital representatives said they learned more about resources they could pool from each other and came up with ideas on how to improve their responses to emergencies.

“It’s always a learning process. And that was the goal, to just start to figure some of this stuff out,” Everett said, “This is an opportunity for us to just think and talk through the problems.”

He emphasized the importance of the training given the three trail derailments this year so far in Socorro, Jarales and Gallup.

LEPC is scheduled to have a field drill to be announced in September for more information please contact Jason Everett at 206-229-8491.