Weather postpones training exercise

By Brooks Taylor, Mt. Pleasant News

Henry County Emergency Management?s large-scale search-and-rescue training exercise planned for Friday night and Saturday at Oakland Mills has been postponed, according to Walt Jackson, county emergency management director.

Jackson made the decision yesterday to pull the plug after talking to National Weather Service meteorologists.

?I was told that we are supposed to have thunderstorms Friday night continuing into Saturday morning and then rain on Saturday,? Jackson related. ?You can?t have people laying out in the weeds during a thunderstorm.?

Because of the large number of people involved, Jackson said he had to make the decision on Thursday. ?You can?t wait until Friday to make the call, so I had to pull the trigger.?

Jackson said he will reschedule the event but doesn?t have a date in mind. ?We definitely will have it. I just have to talk to the people involved and get their thoughts.?

He said that because of the heavy involvement of the county fire departments in the exercise, it may be difficult to reschedule this spring. ?A lot of the firefighters are farmers and soon they will be in the fields (planting), so it will be tough to get it yet this spring. And then you are into June?I just don?t know when we will have it.?