Communication is a problem during mock-disaster drill

More than 50 officials attended the after-action review of the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives training exercise held Nov. 7 at four spots in Burnet County. 

Radio communication between personnel at emergency site command posts and the Emergency Operations Center in the Burnet County Sheriff’s Office proved to be the biggest problem during the drills, said Capt. Jim Barho, the sheriff’s emergency management coordinator. 

“Our communication was severely challenged,” Barho said. “We don’t have enough (communication) resources, and that is what we are fighting for.” 

But other than the communications situation, officials said the drill went well.

“It was a good exercise,” Barho said. “I think everyone benefited from it.” 

The Governor’s Division of Emergency Management chose Burnet County as the site for the one-day exercise months before the drill. 

Fire, emergency medical services and law enforcement personnel from Burnet, Bastrop and Llano counties participated in training with CBRNE teams from Austin, Hays, Travis and Williamson counties. 

“We are so very fortunate that Burnet County was selected,” said Burnet County Judge Donna Klaeger during the review held Friday at the Sheriff’s Office. 

“Our local responders are awesome,” Klaeger added. “They did a great job.” 

Chief David Bailey from the Austin Fire Department’s Homeland Security and Special Operations Division designed four mock-incidents for the exercise, and he evaluated the CBRNE teams for “timeliness” and “completeness” as they mobilized to support local responders for each simulated catastrophe. 

As the exercise got under way, there was a report of a hazardous material leak along the north side of Wirtz Dam near Granite Shoals, followed by an explosion on the south side of the dam near Cottonwood Shores. 

Also, there was a single-engine plane parked on the airstrip near Granite Shoals with a spray rig loaded with “bad stuff” attached to the wing, and “bad guys” holding stolen biological goods and shooting at bomb squads and firefighters as they held hostages inside Granite Shoals City Hall. 

“The point was to show you a big ugly event, and how to manage it with multiple-jurisdictions,” Bailey said. “Our goal was to put you in a situation where you had to ask hard questions, and I think we did that.”

Different responders had trouble communicating with each other during the exercise because their radios were transmitting over different frequencies. Also, channels were lost to due to physical obstructions at emergency sites. 

The EOC needed more antennae, console and telephone lines to handle the volume of radio traffic, officials said. 

“Communication was a major problem,” Sgt. Archie Hollingsworth said. “In some cases, (the EOC) didn’t receive enough information from the field. This was a very good lesson for all of us.”

Early during the exercise, there was “tons of confusion” between CBRNE teams and local responders over the airwaves, Bailey said. 

Barho praised the Marble Falls Area EMS Inc. for opening up more channel frequencies to restore communications and allow the exercise to proceed. 

“Even with all the glitches, we found a way to handle the communication issues,” Barho said. “That’s the way the real world works.” 

The Capital Area Council of Governments has already approved grant requests by Burnet and other counties to the federal government for more emergency communications gear, according to Ed Schaefer, the CAPCOG director of Homeland Security. 

“Responders need to talk to each other,” Schaefer told The Daily Tribune.

It takes roughly 18 months for any local agency to receive approval for any of their federal aid requests, Schaefer added. 

Yet, emergency communication has improved every year since Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists crashed hijacked jetliners and killed thousands, officials said. 

“We keep working on it, and we get better,” Schaefer added. “We have come a long way. We have a robust capability. The people in this area are well-served, and the Homeland Security dollars have been well spent.”

The CBRNE exercise was probably the most complex incident  one could imagine for Burnet County, Schaefer said. 

“We demonstrated we could meet a very big challenge,” Schaefer added. 

“Five years ago, we could not have communicated. We would have needed smoke signals or runners,” he added. 

raymond@thepicayune.com