When Things Go Off the Rails

Valley County’s Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) held a tabletop exercise Feb. 15 at the Cottonwood. For three hours “players” from various local organizations confronted a fictional passenger train derailment to test their response capabilities.

Representatives from Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital, Valley County DES, Valley County Transit, Valley County Road Department, the Health Department, Dispatch, National Weather Service, the Sanitation Office, Long Run Fire Department, Bell Mortuary, the Sheriff’s office, Glasgow Police Department, Glasgow Fire Department, MDU, STAT Air, STAT Ambulance, the Red Cross, Glasgow School District, Valley View Home, KLTZ, BS Buzz, the Ministerial Association and members of the public gamed out a disaster situation.

“It’s about building relationships,” Patrick Gilchrist, Warning Coordination Meteorologist for the National Weather Service and member of the LEPC, told the Courier. He clarified, “We see who wants ‘to play’ and then we try to provide a role for each group.”

With the exercise involved entities are able to learn about capabilities and appropriate roles in a safe environment without real world risk.

Tabletop exercises such as the one last week afford an opportunity for different groups of Valley County to gather and learn of each other’s capabilities while making new connections that, while hopefully are never needed, will allow emergency responders to coordinate and fine tune their disaster response measures.

Similar tabletop exercises have proved beneficial with health care networks, who have implemented their lessons into real-world responses to the coronavirus pandemic. Such games are also common in the military. Gilchrist mentioned an exercise in the Fort Peck area involved the National Guard as an example of how many different groups come to “play.”

Valley County’s exercise this past week was modeled after the Amtrak derailment on the Hi-Line near Chester in September of last year. Gilchrist noted that a similar event occurred near Saco in the mid-’80s.

The hypothetical disaster incorporated a number of entities but Gilchrist said, “We really tested law enforcement the most with this exercise.”

The committee’s fictional train derailment dealt with a potential terrorism element with a backpack on the tracks near Tampico which caused the derailment. Responders in the game were confronted with hazmat elements with the train cars leaking fuel and oil, with the fire department tasked with extraction. Law enforcement was further challenged by a passenger refusing to leave the scene without their luggage and illicit cargo, necessitating the need to secure a crime scene, in addition to traffic control around the scene.

Gilchrist and cohorts made full use of holding the exercise in February, throwing in a freezing rain event which sent the Valley County Transit vehicle transporting passengers into the ditch.

Brandon Bigelbach, as a representative of the National Weather Service, said, “I truly enjoy getting to participate in Tabletop Exercises like these. As Meteorologists, we gain so much out of listening to how various groups plan for and respond to hazardous situations in our community, and in turn allows us to evaluate how we an better be of service to our partners and the public in the event that such a situation were to actually occur within our area of responsibility.”

In addition, local leaders were tasked with housing roughly 300 displaced persons during a sports tournament in which all the hotels were full.

The LEPC, mandated by law to hold an exercise yearly, attempted in their tabletop game to work out incidents within incidents that could occur, hitting a number of what-ifs, while also remaining within the realm of the possible. Gilchrist noted that members of the committee wanted to test “real world capabilities” while not delving into an absolute worst-case scenario.

Gilchrist noted that the committee is considering options for future exercises, “but what that looks like, we’re not sure yet.” Potentialities include converting the passenger train derailment tabletop into a full scale exercise, which would include live action role playing.

“You can imagine how much more planning that would involve,” he said.

Bigelbach told the Courier, “It is so encouraging to go to these exercises and see the dedication of the ‘Montana Way’ of working together to help each other in dangerous situations. The desire of officials and members of our community to come together to learn from each other and cooperate with each to plan for, and respond to, such hazardous events in northeast Montana is absolutely incredible.”

Regardless of what the next LEPC exercise looks like, Valley County residents can take comfort in knowing that a number of area responders stand by armed with the knowledge and connections gained from exercises such as this.

The LEPC meets the second Tuesday of every month. Contact Rick Seiler, [email protected], or Dirk Monson, [email protected], for more information.