Vigilant Guard Full Scale Exercise brought to Albany

ALBANY — Vigilant Guard, a Homeland Security NORTHCOM and National Guard Bureau-sponsored exercise program, brought a full-scale event to Albany with the shared goal among the participating agencies to determine what they are doing right and learn from what they are doing wrong in responding to emergencies.

Exercises are held in a different state each year to test the ability of the NGB Homeland Response Force and its components to integrate and support agencies in disaster response and recovery efforts through Defense Support to Civil Authorities.

In the Albany scenario, a train consisting of 40 cars — actually 10-12 for exercise conduct — carrying a mixed load, moving west to east on the Georgia/Florida Main Line and intersecting Johnson Road, became disabled near Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany and Johnson Road due to multiple vehicles colliding with one another and the train.

One vehicle erupted into flames after colliding with a railcar carrying chlorine. The fire under the pressurized railcar caused it to begin venting. The car vented at the dome, and mechanical failure of the valve did not allow it to close.

Several people in the area were overcome by leaking chlorine, including a school bus carrying middle school children and occupants of a vehicle requiring extrication.

Ron Margulis, spokesman for the railroad, said most derailments do not involve cars carrying hazardous materials. In the event a hazardous material is involved, he said there is an aggressive priority to bring contractors into the process and make sure the parties involved are safe.

He added that if agencies and individuals are brought together in the interest of preparedness, they can work much better in a unified effort.

“Exercises may not make perfect, but it does make better,” Margulis said.

Those attending to the vehicle occupants found themselves responding to several victims.

“We don’t get to see this every year, but when we do it we gain knowledge,” said John Thompson, a HAZMAT tech with the Albany Fire Department. “Every year, we learn something new.

“You gain a little more experience and learn from mistakes you made.”

AFD Lt. Jonathan Wilson was also part of the HAZMAT response team. He and Thompson were dispatched as back-up, suited up and went in with stretchers to retrieve victims.

“Chemicals change, and every day there are new techniques and new tools (to handle) these situations,” Wilson said. “The drill went good. There are a few things we could have done better, but it went well this year.”

One the things Wilson noticed was that the boots were too small for him, which somewhat compromised his mobility and the time it took for him to respond — so that may be something that needs adjustment in the future.

The events faced on Wednesday did not compare to the real-life response scenario created by the severe weather in January, during which there was rescue after rescue in a more widespread area. Even so, there was one thing the two incidents have in common.

“We try to switch our emotions off,” Wilson said. “There is a certain switch in the brain that works that way. You can have a mental breakdown when you come out, but (when the breakdown comes sooner), we can’t help you.

“(I learned from the exercise that) this is a slow process. You have to know what you’re dealing with when you get in.”

The AFD led the joint-agency operation, with cooperation from MCLB-Albany and Georgia-Florida Railroad. Roughly half of Johnson Road was blocked off, while nearby residents, unaware of the exercise, tried to figure out what was going on.

Officials later conducted a Joint Information Center training and operation at the Dougherty County Emergency Operations Center as part of the exercise, where public information officers from the participating agencies had the task of collaborating for all the relevant information concerning a disaster to get out to the public in the event of a real incident.

Among those public information officers was Carolyn Maschke, who represented the Southwest Public Health District. In addition to her role at JIC, she helped to prepare about 45 people Wednesday morning so they could take part as role players in the exercise.

The JIC, she said, allowed public information officers to come together as they would in a real emergency in which it would be imperative for need-to-know information to get out quickly.

From the Public Health standpoint, this communication helps to make sure people know how to protect themselves in the event of an actual chlorine leak, and what the long-term health impacts of exposure might be.

“It helps more with the dynamics of it when all the agencies are working together,” Maschke said. “(For Public Health), it is all about health. It is about getting information out that is going to make people healthy.

“We think differently from law enforcement. We think about it in a broader way than a hospital would.”

The Georgia Vigilant Guard Exercise was supported by Federal Emergency Management Agency Region IV NGB assets. In the state exercise, a Category 3 hurricane made landfall on the Georgia coast and moved into Tennessee, and the state worked with regional partners, federal forces and civilian authorities to identify and provide resources for emergency response.

In all, about 400 people were involved in the Albany exercise, officials said.