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State EMA Director visits
County
By M. Dirk Langeveld
, Staff Writer
Friday, March 30, 2007
PARIS - He may be barnstorming the state, but he's
looking to save lives rather than get votes.
Robert McAleer, director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency, visited
Oxford County on Thursday. McAleer is visiting each of the state's 16 counties
to check their capabilities on a local, county, and state level, according to
Scott Parker, director of the Oxford County Emergency Management Agency
Maine's most recent large-scale disasters have all been natural. An ice storm
struck the state in 1998, and severe flooding affected the county in the spring
of 2005. Oxford County EMA sent support to York County in September to assist
with a flooding emergency.
Parker says the flood season is approaching, though the lack of heavy ice, rain,
or snow should lessen its threat.
McAleer and Parker met in the county EMA offices for a private discussion.
Parker says the topics included the organization's capabilities to respond to a
disaster, as well as the county's upcoming full-scale exercise to test the units
in a mock disaster.
Following the discussion, Parker accompanied McAleer on a tour of four of the
EMA's response vehicles, three of which are located in trailers. The vehicles
had been consolidated in the Paris Fire Department.
One of the trailers, for use by the County Emergency Response Team and the
Amateur Radio Emergency Service, is garaged at the Paris Fire Department. Two
other vehicles were brought in from the Northern Oxford Regional Ambulance
Service in Mexico. The last vehicle, the DECON Strike Force trailer, is usually
housed at the Oxford Fire Department.
The DSF trailer is part of the Oxford County Decontamination Team, which acts in
conjunction with hazardous materials responders. It has 30 members based in
Norway, Paris, and Oxford who are alerted to any emergency by the Regional
Communications Center. When 10 to 15 members have responded to the call, they
deploy to the scene of the incident with the trailer.
The team is trained and certified in decontamination procedures, and the trailer
contains necessary supplies such as protective suits.
The CERT/ARES trailer contains several ham radio sets that can connect to
various frequencies. Two-way radios are the EMA's primary form of
communications, but the trailer acts as a backup. Due to their limited number,
the county emergency plan allocates them to communication with county and state
emergency operating centers, hospitals, and mass care shelters.
The trailer has made appearances at ham radio conventions, and Parker says this
is part of a promotional effort to get people involved in CERT.
"It's coming together by bits and pieces, and there's a
lot more we want to do with it yet," said Norman C. Clanton, who demonstrated
the trailer's capabilities.
"It's a communications resource that I can focus at key locations during an
incident," said Parker of the trailer. All of the radio operators are CERT
trained, which means they can assist with disaster efforts if the radios are not
needed.
Also present was the Mass Casualty Incident trailer. Oxford County's limited
emergency medical services limits a mass casualty incident to five victims or
more, but the MCI trailer is capable of setting up a triage point to care for 50
victims. It is used whenever an incident exceeds the capabilities of local
responders, and is prepositioned at events expected to have 5,000 or more
people.
"That's tremendous," said McAleer, praising the MCI trailer's ability to set up
a triage rather than focus on limited treatment while waiting for evacuation of
victims.
The trailer has been put on display at the Fryeburg State Fair, but has yet to
be tested in the mock disaster simulating an emergency at the same location.
Parker finished the tour of the vehicles with the Incident Management Assistance
Team vehicle, a modified SUV that operates as a command and control center at
disasters. It is deployed to incidents requiring major coordination efforts, or
if requested by the Oxford County EMA.
The IMAT vehicle has several communications facilities, including satellite
phone, Internet, and radio, as well as disaster resources, maps, and medical
supplies.
Parker praised McAleer's efforts to better know the county agencies.
"I think it's nice that he's taking the initiative to see what we have and what
we can do," he said.
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Oxford County
