Disaster training exercise July 14 on Pelican Lake

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Friday, July 6, 2007

A plan on how best to respond to a local disaster should be in place well in advance of any emergency. If that is not the case, and if an emergency does happen, there’s not enough time to coordinate all of the safety practices that will be needed.

To that end, the Grant County Emergency Management team held a tabletop demonstration and discussion Wednesday evening at the Ashby Fire Station. An actual on-site disaster training exercise will be held Saturday, July 14, along the road near two Magellan Pipelines near Pelican Lake south of Ashby.

“Tabletops are designed to initiate discussion and to begin the thought process of how we would respond to a disaster,” Grant County Emergency Management Assistant Tina Lindquist said. “ It doesn’t provide all the answers but it helps those involved to get the right mind set.”

On hand Wednesday evening at the Ashby Fire Station for the tabletop exercise were all of Grant County’s fire chiefs (from Ashby, Barrett, Elbow Lake, Herman, Hoffman and Wendell) as well as the Dalton fire chief (Otter Tail County), Evansville fire chief (Douglas County), local law enforcement officials, the Red Cross, Magellan Pipeline representatives and West Central Environmental consultants.

“Tabletop exercises get you thinking about all the steps that need to be taken,” Lindqust said, “including what resources will be needed and all the documentation that will need to take place. The actual event on July 14 will be incident driven.”

She said the discussion at the tabletop greatly helps the incident commander and others involved. A total of 35 people were in attendance Wednesday evening at the Ashby Fire Station. They discussed incident command, what resources would be needed to respond, evacuation procedures and staging options.

The scenario for the on-site exercise on July 14, concerning a Magellan Pipeline leak, includes a would-be 85-degree day, 40-mph northeast wind and an accident at 8:30 a.m.

A Ness Backhoe Company truck, as part of the scenario, is hauling a full-swing hoe with two passengers in the vehicle while heading south along County Road 57. They speed off the road, hitting the two Magellan Pipelines that travel over Pelican Creek. There’s gasoline and fuel leaking into Pelican Creek which heads straight into Pelican Lake.

Two passengers sustain injuries. Approximately 175 people are staying at the Ashby Resort and Campground. One hour after the pipeline leak, a secondary call — a structure fire — is reported just outside of Ashby.

Participants for the on-site exercise will include fire departments from Ashby, Barrett, Elbow Lake, Herman, Hoffman, Wendell, Dalton and Evansville.

Medical teams will include the Ashby Ambulance crew, ELEAH and Hoffman Ambulance.

State agencies that will assist during the on-site exercise will include the DNR, MPCA and Minnesota Office of Pipeline Safety. Ashby School officials will be involved along with the Salvation Army and American Red Cross.

Private Organizations will include Magellan Pipeline, WCEC and area news media outlets.

“Our objectives,” Lindqust said, “will be to test Grant County’s notification and evacuation protocols, coordinate communications and incident command and test our county’s contingency plans for fire departments while coordinating fire protection during an emergency.”

The on-site demonstration also will include water patrol on Pelican Lake south of Ashby, operating a mobile EOC for incident command on-scene and deploying a boom to contain the leak.

“A total team effort is needed when it comes to emergency preparedness,” Lindquist said.