2004 Loudon County Wide Exercise
In a training session conducted this past Saturday that resembled a "who is who" among emergency responders in Loudon County, the experts in water emergencies gathered for the first time to share knowledge and experience with all the other agencies that have responsibility on the water.
All Loudon County Emergency agencies that have some responsibility during a water emergency converged for the first time Saturday to talk about their functions and areas of responsibility. There were fourteen agencies represented by the 45 persons in attendance.
They included Loudon County Dive-Rescue Team, Loudon County Fire/Rescue Squad, Lenoir City Fire Dept, Philadelphia Fire Dept. Loudon Fire Dept, Greenback Fire Dept, Tellico Village Fire Dept, Tellico Boaters Assistance Response Team, SeaTow, TVA Police, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Loudon County Sheriffs Dept, Loudon County Communications Center, and Rural/Metro Ambulance Service.
Each agency provided a spokesperson who described the structure of their agency, water specific expertise and tools and resources, as well as specific training that they had to offer. This pool of talent had gathered to describe their ability at this first of it's kind meeting with a common theme of improving teamwork and interoperability between agencies.
These agencies are frequently called upon to perform their jobs during water emergencies but seldom have the time to train all together.
This unique opportunity was organized through a group consisting of the training officers from several of the emergency responders getting together once a month to address the collective training needs of the county. This particular subject, being water emergency management comes on the heels of four drowning accidents the county has had thus far this year on our area lakes.
Lenoir City Fire Chief Richard Martin stated "It's unbelievable the amount of resources that this county has available to respond with in an emergency". "Every department that has to respond to the water in an emergency has their plan of action already thought out completely" Chief Martin said. "this is an opportunity to see how well the plans work together" he added.
"This morning session was one of the most informational gatherings ever presented in the county. The amount of talent that this county has at their disposal and can bring to bear during an emergency is something to be proud to be a part of" stated Howard Alexander, the Training Officer for the Loudon County Dive Rescue Team.
Lenoir City Training Officer Lt. Phil Terry conducted a session in the Incident Command System. The ICS is an organizational method commonly used by emergency responders to insure an effective use of resources with a systematic approach to managing emergencies ranging for vehicle accidents to multi-alarm fires.
After a break for lunch, the educational proceedings continued at the waters edge on Tellico Lake. The operations of the counties Mobile Communications trailer was demonstrated by 911 Dispatcher Kevin Walker. Recovery operations, techniques and practices were demonstrated by Loudon County Fire/Rescue Squad member Chris Martin. Loudon County Dive Rescue Team Assistant Team Leader Earl Poe demonstrated the on-scene working of the dive team and how to get a diver into the water and conduct search operations.
As well planned as the day of training was, the event was cut short for safety reasons when a unexpected thunder storm descended on the training participants. The remainder of the training will be conducted at a later undisclosed date. There was a realistic exercise planned as the finale of the day with all participants being called upon to organize a search for an accident victim somewhere on Tellico Lake, effectively communicate a plan to the responders and rescue a "dummy drowning victim" within a one hour time frame. Not a small task considering the 25,000 acre area covered by Tellico Lake
This training session is one of three planned for the year. The first was conducted in May and was centered on the principles of managing a search over land for a lost person. The topic for the next session to be conducted in October has yet to be determined, but will most likely be a large scale mock disaster.
