Jean Doran Matua
Cars and spectators lined Main Street near the railroad tracks. The parking lot at the Kimball Fire Hall was full. Firefighters, paramedics, police and emergency assistance teams were at the ready. Train traffic was halted for an hour or so. Dozens of volunteers were poised to move. All for the first test of Kimball’s emergency preparedness plan.
On Wednesday night, April 17, the Kimball emergency siren sounded and everyone went into action. In this simulated disaster, an F3 tornado hit Kimball, derailing railroad cars and causing an ammonia leak from a tanker car. Volunteer “victims” in the area had to be evacuated before the ammonia “killed” them; one victim was pinned under a railroad car. The last victim was freed and taken to safety in 48 minutes.
Not long after this all started, the elementary school was evacuated. About 30 more young volunteers were instructed to cover their mouths and noses, and load the bus as quickly and orderly as possible. Within 30 minutes, a bus was dispatched, loaded, and emptied at a safe location.
Meanwhile, volunteer site coordinators – each assigned to a portion of the city – were sent door-to-door to notify residents.
The drill was a success on several counts: people knew about it, many agencies cooperated with the city, many volunteers participated, and the goals of the drill were achieved.
There were mistakes. Of course, that’s why we do drills: to identify weaknesses and work to fix them. Had this been a real disaster of this magnitude (a rather unlikely scenario), several people would have died. But Kimball is much more prepared today than a year ago for tornado season – or almost any other disaster, for that matter.
Key to a disaster plan is Kimball’s disaster siren. The current siren is not reliable and even for this drill had to be set off manually. A new siren is on order, and should be installed by summer. This new system is state-of-the-art, can be set off by radio signal from St. Cloud, and will have a battery back-up so it will still function aftera power failure.
Evaluations of this first disaster drill in Kimball are coming in, and a meeting will be scheduled to analyze them. Overall, those who participated in the drill gave a grade of “B” for the drill as a first-time effort, and “C- to D+” had this been a real disaster.