by John Dowd
Last Wednesday morning, from 9 a.m. to noon, Ravalli County emergency responders and various state organizations met at the fairgrounds to test their communications capabilities during a hypothetical major emergency. Such an exercise is referred to across the country as a “shakeout” exercise, based on new prompting from recent earthquake data. The exercises seek to “shake out” any problems within the system, bringing them to responder attention, and to provide a real-world scenario where teams can break out their equipment and test their efficacy during a proposed scenario of any kind.
It was also a fantastic opportunity to field the county’s new mobile incident command center. The joint operation included the involvement of the Department of Emergency Services, Rocky Mountain Lab, county and state health services, Ravalli County Sheriff’s Department, Highway Patrol, the Department of Environmental Quality, the Ravalli County Office of Emergency Management and several more.
One of the organizations to participate was the Montana Army National Guard Mission Command Team. After arriving at the fairgrounds Tuesday afternoon, they set up for a simulated earthquake that Lieutenant Colonel Tony Lecce explained was said to have occurred 24 hours earlier. According to Lecce, the exercise determined the earthquake was a very high 7.5 magnitude, and it would be assumed that nearly all of the traditional communications infrastructure would have been damaged. This would include fiber optic lines, radio and cell towers, internet and phone lines and more. With all the communication lines severed, teams like the National Guard unit would be bound only to their emergency communication systems. According to Lecce, as per the exercise, his team would be contacted in the circumstance where local services are overwhelmed, which in this case would be assured.
After being notified of the disaster and the need, the team would assemble and try to organize a way to arrive on location to provide aid. The National Guard team posted up in their incident command trailer at the fairgrounds, set up a satellite dish and started broadcasting to units in the area.
As per the exercise, prior to their arrival, information was sent to the guard and it was hypothetically confirmed that a way into the county would be open for their entry, as the road network may have also been compromised along with traditional communications. This entry point would also be an avenue for evacuation and supplies. In other cases where no ground entry point could be created, or such a point was inadequate, additional supplies may also be available through airdrop, Lecce explained.
Of the many things that would happen, the integrity of the various water dams would be in question. This was one of the National Guard’s communication points over air during Wednesday morning’s exercise, among many other things. The team reached out to the DNRC, which responded that they would do a hypothetical flyover to check the structural integrity of the various dams.
This communication capability provided by the National Guard is one of the main ways they aid in emergency relief. “If someone lacks a capacity, we plug in and provide that capability for them,” said Lecce. According to him, the Guard can respond within 72 hours of an incident, and in the case of an extreme emergency, like Wednesday’s exercise, they can do so in just 24 hours.
Another big asset in these circumstances, explained Lecce, are HAM radio operators. These are highly trained private persons who, via hobby, have sought out the understanding and certifications necessary to create and operate complex radio systems. “What’s great about HAM operators is that they are experts in their field that love what they do and they are willing to volunteer,” said Lecce.
One such volunteer was Doug Mason, a member of the Corvallis American Legion and Amateur Radio Club. He has been a HAM operator for several years, and explained that the entire exercise snowballed from the club’s practices several years before. According to Mason, they were working on improving their capability in case an extreme earthquake, or other such disaster, were to occur and word got out. Soon, other state and local organizations started doing the same and looking into their own capabilities.“Hopefully, we never have to do any of this stuff,” said Mason.
According to a representative from the Rocky Mountain Lab, all of it came from the release of a recent study published on the Bitterroot Fault. As Roger Laferriere, the emergency preparedness coordinator for Rocky Mountain Lab (RML), explained, the study confirmed that the possible magnitude of an earthquake in the area could be far higher than previously understood. Laferriere said that his part in the exercise was to represent the lab and what their policies would be for such an incident. He said that there is a possibility their facility could be damaged during such an event and they would need to work to inspect everything and make the area safe. This is especially crucial, Laferriere explained, because of the dangerous nature of many of the biologicals the lab researches.
The RML facility is one of the top of its kind in the world, and sees to the containment and research of numerous high-level biological substances. Laferriere said that one of their top priorities would be to disinfect much of the area and lock down the facility. Many of the most dangerous biologicals are locked away in an extremely secure area that “we think will survive an earthquake, but you never know,” said Laferriere. “We have the same concerns as everyone else. We include 600 members of the community.”
Laferriere also highlighted the importance of the HAM operators, saying, “This HAM radio group is really a serious asset to the community.” He added, “At the end of the day, our preparedness will be better than it was before this exercise.”
This was the same idea echoed among the various participating groups, especially those with the Ravalli County Office of Emergency Management. The office was especially excited to take the training wheels off their new mobile incident command trailer. According to Erik Hoover, the emergency management director for Ravalli County, the trailer changes the game. When asked how it would have worked before, Hoover said, “Honestly, before somebody would be sitting in their car, or a group of cars, doing the same thing.”
The trailer has been in a relatively deployable state since July and was created using available COVID-19 and grant funding. “We tried to keep those funds in our local community, instead of sending it back to the federal government,” said Hoover. The trailer was created in a partnership between the Office of Emergency Management, Public Health and the Ravalli County Sheriff’s Office, all of whom are able to use it for various incidents. “In hindsight, it’s probably something we’ve needed for years,” added Hoover.
The process to create the trailer, which includes very similar systems to those found in the Army National Guard’s incident command trailer, took over a year. According to Jeff Rodrick, deputy emergency manager and the one responsible for creating the trailer, “We needed an all purpose thing that we could deploy anywhere throughout the valley.’’
The idea came from setting up an off-site flu clinic for Public Health during COVID-19. The trailer is equipped with Starlink internet, its own power source, several forms of radio communication and more, which allows them to cover all the public safety channels.
“It can be deployed as a basecamp for anyone that needs to work out of it,” explained Rodrick. He said that it could be used by law enforcement for situations like manhunts, by search and rescue for things like lost hikers, by public health for events like were seen during the COVID-19 epidemic and much more.
“There was always a need and a want, it was just perfect timing,” said Rodrick about the funding and the teamwork. Hoover chimed in on the county’s inter-agency teamwork, adding, “It just goes to show how well we’ve done it. That’s something our residents can be proud of!”
Both the men of the Office of Emergency Management also threw out their thanks to Mason and the HAM operators. “We’re really appreciative of Doug and his group,” said Hoover. The county had been working with the HAM operators to set up the communications system used by the mobile incident command trailer. The process of setting everything up and testing throughout the morning was not free of issues, and Mason was an asset in rectifying many of them.
“We’ll learn from this to make sure that we’re more prepared when something really happens,” added Rodrick.