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Exercise tests emergency workers
By David Goodwin
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The battered fuselage of a commercial jetliner smoldered near the treeline of a field usually dotted with football players or band members.
As night fell Thursday, the unmistakable shrieks of teenage girls cut across the Wetumpka High School campus. In the darkness, two student reporters and Elmore County’s school superintendent walked carefully through the smoke and darkness, their faces lit by the flashing colors of firetrucks, ambulances and police cars.
“Help me please,” a young, female voice cried out to them. The girl’s face and body were bloodied, her head resting against a Wetumpka Indians tackling dummy.
“Everything has been so realistic, it’s very unsettling,” Superintendent Jeff Langham said.
Though a sign just down the road assured drivers all the ruckus was a “drill only,” the county Emergency Management Agency’s full-scale exercise boasted enough lifelike details to unnerve even those who were in the know.
At about 5:30 Thursday afternoon, a 911 call was made reporting the crash of a commercial jetliner on the WHS practice field as band members practiced. Student casualties were widespread, with Elmore Community Hospital spokesperson Cindy Futral reporting 53 total injuries, including 20 fatalities.
Led by Wetumpka fire and police personnel, the response to the simulated disaster proceeded according to preexisting plans. County EMA Director Eric Jones called it an “excellent lerning experience.” Jones, Lt. Gary Edwards of the WPD and Langham all called the exercise a success, while noting the scenario highlighted some key areas for improvement.
To heighten the authenticity of the simulation, an actual airplane ” its wings and tail clipped for highway transport ” was laid on the field, and smoke machines and controlled fires created a believable scene of tragedy.
Students in the healthcare and drama programs at Elmore County Technical Center portrayed disaster victims, their faces and clothes dobbed in blood-red paint.
Anna Brooks, 17, was given a “red tag” by firefighters as she shrieked in agony. Brooks, who waited for a ride outside the hospital emergency room once her performance was complete, said her left leg had been amputated from the knee down, and she’d been treated for massive blood loss.
“I was just laying there screaming that I couldn’t feel my leg,” she said. “it was fun, crazy and exciting. It was surreal.”
While the simulated victims tried to stay in character, writhing or laying motionless on the dew-dampened turf became harder as the mercury fell, 16-year-old Sylvia Ephraim said.
“I was one of the last to leave,” she said, explaining the crash left her with multiple rib fractures and a broken arm.
“It was horrible,” Ephraim added and pulled a blanket tighter around her as she tried to warm up in the hospital waiting room. “It’s really bad, especially when it’s cold.”
Wetumpka High Principal Richard Dennis said the exercise taught him a lot about the proper response to an emergency situation. One key lesson, he said, is that once emergency personnel get on the scene, school officials are no longer in control of their campuses.
“This helped us learn how to work through the EMA chain of command,” Dennis said in a press conference he, Langham, Edwards and Futral held for local media near 9 p.m.
EMA has previously held full-scale emergency exercises in Holtville and Eclectic, but those school-hostage scenarios took place in the light of the school day.
“The darkness has really thrown us a whole new wrinkle to deal with,” Jones said.
Langham said it was helpfull to see, “in real time, where we need help where emergency planning is concerned.”
“This has been one of the more organized plane crashes we’ve had,” Langham said in the simulated aftermath of the catastrophe. “If this really happened, its valuable to see what we should do, because we won’t have time to think about it then.”
