It was only a drill

MT. PLEASANT — What if a gas pipeline leaks or even worse, explodes? How do emergency services handle such a situation? Tuesday morning Henry County Emergency Management hosted a simulated pipeline emergency drill where multiple emergency service agencies and TC Energy worked together to think through these questions in detail.

During an initial meeting at the Henry County Emergency Management building, a simulated scenario of a gas line leak at the pipeline located near Yarmouth was laid out before emergency personnel representing Henry County Sheriff’s Office, Henry County Ambulance Services, Muscatine Fire Department, Yarmouth Fire Department, and Emergency Management from Van Buren, Des Moines, Jefferson and Louisa counties.

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This simulation gave responders and the company managing the pipeline, TC Energy, the opportunity to walk through a whole scenario which included an injury, loose cattle, and even an eventual explosion.

During the exercise, the agencies walked through how large of a perimeter they would need to establish, how to contact those within the perimeter, where they would place those individuals, what to do with a drone flying inside the perimeter and how to handle loose cattle during the event.

While groups at the pipeline site on the border of Des Moines and Henry County answered questions on the ground, another group of emergency personnel took in information back at Henry County Emergency Management. This added the ability to practice efficient communication skills during the drill.

“The focus is to keep what needs to be in, in, and what needs to be out, out,” one of the TC Energy employees stated as they worked through the simulation.

When asked how the group would handle an injured person within the perimeter if they were close to a fire hazard, Hazard Material Specialist Rex Anderson took the opportunity to explain that while emergency personnel are trained to rush in and take care of people, he would tell them in some situations they might need to hold back and wait.

“We don’t want a situation where you too will need rescued,” Anderson said.

“We may have to ask them to stand down and stay back for safety reasons,” TC Energy’s local area expert Jared Plumber said during a debriefing following the drill. “I think these exercises do a really good job of helping them understand why we have to do those things.”

During the debriefing, the TC Energy team and emergency services people communicated with one another clarifying information such as avoiding using acronyms for clarity and which individuals in the group would be best contacts for information.

According to information gathered at the drill, an initial “holding statement” will be released to the press shortly after the incident takes place, and TC Energy will release additional information throughout an event.

Henry County Emergency Management Director Walt Jackson took debriefing time to inform TC Energy of needs for these holding statements to be more readily available than they were during the drill.

Overall, both TC Energy and local emergency personnel expressed positive opinions of the exercise.

“I can't say enough how impressed I was with everybody's men,” a TC Energy representative told the room. “I think we presented you guys with a difficult scenario and you were making the right moves every step of the way.”

Anderson expressed how impressed he was with the coordination of all the agencies saying in other exercises he hasn’t seen agencies work together so well and with such great communication.

“We’ve had incidents and had to cross county lines and work together, so, we’re used to working together,” Jackson commented.

Henry County Emergency Management will continue over the next week with additional trainings including a search a rescue training with canines at Oakland Mills Park and Operation Prom next week in New London.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com