Training helps prepare for emergencies

A four-hour emergency preparedness exercise involving 17 southeast Iowa counties, known as Region 5, and more than 90 organizations from 12 disciplines will be March 25.

The exercise, nearly a year in the planning, centers on the Register?s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa excursion in southern Iowa and a biological event. Oddly, the scenario was written in June, long before the actual RAGBRAI route was announced. The actual RAGBRAI event will take almost an identical path as selected for the exercise.

?With RAGBRAI actually coming to southeast Iowa this year, there is a heightened awareness in planning for the real event,? said exercise director R.D. Keep, who is the regional education and exercise coordinator for public health, community health centers and hospitals in Region 5. ?This could certainly be a dry run.?

Cyclex 09, as the exercise has been named, is sponsored by local public health agencies, community health centers, regional homeland security and 13 hospitals, including Jefferson County Hospital. The organizations hired Highmark Associates from Ames to assist in the development, conduct and evaluation of the exercise.

?This is a great opportunity for our local agencies to test the plans and procedures on which they have been working for the past seven years,? said Keep. ?It is crucial to test plans and procedures to ensure the ability to correctly respond to emergencies and coordinate and cooperate with other organizations.?

For the complete article, see the Wednesday, March 18, 2009, Fairfield Ledger.