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Don't panic, this is only a test

Local officials simulate oil train explosion, response and evacuation

Local officials Tuesday ran through what they would do if a dreaded occurrence happened in Hill County - a derailment of a train carrying Bakken crude oil and a resulting fire.

Some 31 local officials gathered in the Hill County Justice Center, where an emergency operations center would be set up if a county disaster occurred, to respond to a simulated derailment and explosion 1½ miles west of Gildford.

The group, in less than an hour, set plans for declaring an emergency, closing roads and rerouting traffic, which included evacuating people within a 2-mile radius of the simulated explosion. They also issued press releases to let the public know what was happening and what was being done to control the situation.

Hill County Disaster and Emergency Services Coordinator Joe Parenteau and Blaine County Disaster and Emergency Services Coordinator Haley Gustitis led the exercise.

It included officials from city and county government, law enforcement and the Havre Fire Department, volunteer fire departments, state Disaster and Emergency Services, Northern Montana Hospital, the public schools and BNSF Railway.

The group split into four smaller groups with specific duties under the emergency operations plan set up for the county.

An incident command team prepared a declaration of emergency protocol on contacting the state government to inform them of the situation.

Another team set up what roads would be blocked - U.S. Highway 2 from Havre to Rudyard was closed in the exercise, with through traffic rerouted through Big Sandy and one-way detours north and south of the incident set for local traffic and evacuations.

Yet another team planned the evacuation, setting the destination as North Star schools, with school district staff helping with the evacuation and registration of evacuees, and calling for assistance from other areas and agencies like the American Red Cross.

A final group worked to rapidly provide a brief press release to the media, with increasingly detailed releases to be worked on as additional information came available.

 

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