Huge disaster drills slated for next week

MAT-SU — The Valley’s emergency response officials want to make this very clear: if you hear some troubling things on your emergency scanner late next week or see the National Guard rolling by in Humvees taking pictures, do not be alarmed. It will likely be part of a staged disaster.

The Humvees and the people will be assessing imaginary damage from a make-believe earthquake. The radio traffic will similarly relate to response to that imaginary catastrophe. It’s all part of this year’s installment of Alaska Shield, which, at least in the Valley, will mean quite a few large-scale drills.

As 2014 is the 50th anniversary of the Good Friday Earthquake, the drills will simulate a scenario with the same size quake as the one in 1964 — magnitude 9.2. Making sure Alaska is prepared for the next big quake is part of the commemoration of the last one.

And since the earthquake 50 years ago also generated a tsunami, the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer is getting in on the commemoration event, opening its doors from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday for an open house.

Palmer Police Department Chief Tom Remaley said his department will be among those making extra noise on emergency band radios March 27.

“We want to do everything as realistically as possible,” he said.

If, say, the script he’s written calls for the old Carrs building to have collapsed, then responders are going to be sent there

“We’re going to have people go over there in the parking lot and radio back some information about what they see,” Remaley said.

The radio traffic will be dispersed among the regular daily chatter. The pages will each begin with a disclaimer — “exercise, exercise” dispatchers will say — but, he said, people don’t always hear the whole page, so he wants to get the word out early.

“I don’t want to panic the public because they hear something in scanner land,” he said.

Meanwhile, over at the Mat-Su Borough, emergency manager Casey Cook said he’s helping organize drills that will bring in hundreds of people and last from March 27 to 29.

“We’ve got close to 500 people coming into the borough for three days of exercises,” Cook said.

Those people will come from all over.

“The count that I got last week was 32 different agencies,” Cook said.

Exercises include a number of things. There will be a 250-patient hospital on the Alaska State Fairgrounds by the Alaska National Guard.

Responders also will do damage assessment.

“We’ll have three National Guard Humvees, as far as I know, coming out and they’ll be driving all through from Moose Creek to Talkeetna,” Cook said. “If people see Humvees driving through the neighborhood on Thursday and Friday, don’t be alarmed. It’s part of an exercise.”

Oh, and don’t forget the hazardous materials drill.

The borough, in collaboration with a group from the National Guard in Nebraska, will run the exercise, which will include all the bells and whistles such as large decontamination tents.

“On Saturday, (Fire) Station 5-1 by the hospital will have an actual hazardous materials scene set up, so there’ll be a lot of activity — helicopters landing at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center and National Guardsmen, as well as Mat-Su Borough EMS,” Cook said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270

or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.