Emergency management agencies use drills to prepare for the worst

Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.

For Linn and Benton county emergency management agencies, failure is not an option.

At 8:30 a.m., Linn County emergency planners got a call that there was a fire at the Duane Arnold Energy Center just north of Palo.

As the drill went on, the 45 people at the agency's office learned that the fire had caused a steam leak outside the plant. They would have to evacuate 18,000 students from area public schools.

To make things worse, a train had “derailed” at the intersection of Blairs Ferry Road and Interstate 380. Evacuees would have to find a detour.

Of course, it was all just a drill. County and state emergency workers do them four times a year with the Palo plant to test their effectiveness during a real emergency.

“These drills are protective actions for the public as well as our employees,” said Renee Nelson, a spokesperson for NextEra Energy at the Duane Arnold Energy Center.

The DAEC hasn't seen a real emergency over its 35 year history, but that doesn't mean something like this couldn't happen.

“We do this to make sure that communications flow and internal and external orders are coordinated and so that information and equipment orders flow the way they're supposed to,” said Mike Goldberg, Linn County's Emergency Management Agency coordinator. “We learn something we could be doing better every time we do it.”

Goldberg said coordinating information and orders across federal, state, county and local authorities isn't easy, but as the flood of 2008 showed, it is essential in a time of crisis.

“Sure the flood last year wasn't a radiological problem, it was a natural disaster,” Goldberg said. “But we were prepared to handle the flood because we train as if anything could happen.”