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Multi-Agency Disaster Drill Coming Up

Emergency personnel in HazMat suits during the 2010 multi-hazard exercise (file photo).Rescue vehicles with lights and sirens blaring, men and women in HazMat suits, and uniformed National Guard soldiers will swarm onto the Frederiksted waterfront later this month, but there is no cause for alarm.

The V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency, V.I. National Guard, U.S. Department of Homeland Security and local first responders will be performing a two-day live drill on Nov. 19 and 20 designed to test and practice the territory’s’ response to rare, major emergency situations.

The first day of the exercise, local and federal agencies will respond to a mock potential hazardous material incident onboard Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas cruise ship at the Frederiksted pier. The second day will have emergency personnel respond to an armed shooter.

The exercise, Operation Tide Breaker II, will test capabilities like intelligence and information sharing and spreading, communications between agencies during an emergency, managing the site of an incident, emergency triage and pre-hospital treatment, medical evacuation, weapons of mass destruction/hazardous material response and explosive device response operations.

Both operations will take place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

VITEMA and the V.I. National Guard developed the scenarios and exercise objectives with support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program. Nearly 30 entities are slated to participate.

“National preparedness efforts continue to focus on homeland security as one of its highest priorities,” said VITEMA Director Elton Lewis in a statement. “Operation Tide Breaker II brings together multiple public sector entities and the private sector to exercise our response capabilities in regards to homeland security incidents. This type of incident would normally require exhaustive multi-agency coordination and response efforts, and the exercise allows us to determine how well we do it.”

As part of the exercise VITEMA will also activate two warning sirens at Frederiksted. The sirens, located at the government parking lot and on Emancipation Drive, will be activated twice each day. On each day, the first activation will announce the hazard and the second activation will announce an “all clear.”

For more information about the All-Hazards Warning Siren System, visit www.VITEMA.gov .

"We intend to use this exercise to rehearse our response procedures, as well as to identify any limitations within our capabilities,” said Col. Edward Richards, director of operations for the V.I. National Guard.

FEMA also continues to play a significant role in supporting the annual full-scale exercise. “Every time we exercise an emergency management plan, it becomes stronger," said Alejandro De La Campa, FEMA Caribbean Area Division director, in VITEMA’s statement.

Having the Royal Caribbean involved gives the territory a unique opportunity to engage the private sector and ultimately enhance preparedness, Lewis added.

Last year, VITEMA coordinated a similar exercise — Operation Tide Breaker — on the island of St. Thomas.

For more information, visit www.vitema.gov/tidebreaker2.

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