Two-day training exercise at hospital

PALMER — Don’t freak out if you see cops with gas masks and guns in the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center parking lot this weekend.

According to an Alaska State Troopers press statement, troopers and other law enforcement officers will be at the hospital Friday and Saturday participating in a multi-agency training exercise.

The officers will be in their uniforms, carrying guns and probably wearing gas masks. Troopers say motorists will likely be able to see the exercise from nearby roads and should not be alarmed.

Agencies mentioned as participating in or helping to plan the event include the hospital, troopers, Wasilla and Palmer police and the borough’s emergency services department.

The borough plans to include its large, white field communications van in the exercise as a dispatch and command center.

Hospital business will go on as usual, troopers say, with patients and guests alerted to and directed away from the exercise.