GUERNSEY — The title sounds like a caper you might see on Masterpiece Theater or Discover ID. But the “Guernsey Dirty Bomb Incident” was really a full-scale exercise held last week in Guernsey to give first responders a chance to find out just what it would require of them should it ever occur.
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GUERNSEY — The title sounds like a caper you might see on Masterpiece Theater or Discover ID. But the “Guernsey Dirty Bomb Incident” was really a full-scale exercise held last week in Guernsey to give first responders a chance to find out just what it would require of them should it ever occur.
Sponsored by Platte County Emergency Management, participants from all over the region were invited to participate in last Wednesday’s exercise. Because it was held on a weekday, many of the departments with volunteers had a limited number of participants but as Platte County Emergency Management Chief and exercise controller Terry Alexander told those gathered, “Things don’t happen when they’re always convenient. We have to be ready any day of the week.”
Participants were not made aware of any details of the specific problem at the scene until it was actually “go time” to make response times and actions as real as possible even though it was a training exercise.
To avoid panic or concern by the public, particularly in Guernsey where the “incident” happened, a reverse 911 was made to let residents know an exercise would be occurring Wednesday beginning around 9:30 a.m. Participants were also required to begin any radio transmission with the words “exercise, exercise, exercise” to let anyone monitoring emergency response channels that it was not an actual incident or emergency.
Participants met at the Guernsey District Volunteer Fire Hall on the east side of Guernsey for a pre-incident briefing but no specific incidnet details were shared at that time.
Camp Guernsey’s Art Lowther and Platte County Public Health’s Dutch Alexander served as the primary planners of the entire scenario and Alexander gave the primary initial briefing. Participants were told that safety was the priority of the day and that organizers wanted those participating to carry everything out in as real or normal a way as they might if it were an actual call.