Steinbach's Emergency Coordinator says he is confident that his team is ready, should it ever be called into action.

Denis Vassart made that comment following last week's mock disaster in Steinbach, which put the city's emergency plan to the test. The exercise took place along Loewen Boulevard involving a car, school bus and pickup truck pulling a tank of anhydrous ammonia.

Vassart admits not everything went according to the script. But, he says it was a great learning experience and very successful when you consider it took the effort of 125 people to pull this off.

The Emergency Coordinator says there were some lessons learned. For example, he says they need to tweak their contact methods with Southern Health. He says they also need a better understanding of what is going on in the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) through the common log that is kept.

Vassart says there were many positives. He notes it was great to see the interaction of all the emergency response teams. He notes another positive was being able to set up a communication link between their reception centre and EOC.

Vassart suggests another thing that worked well was the Steinbach Alert Now system. They were able to pinpoint 16 residences needing to be evacuated. The message was sent out and Vassart says 11 of them responded within three minutes.

"That was good," he says. "And we didn't have anybody outside of that area give us a response, so our message didn't reach anybody outside of what we wanted to pinpoint."

Vassart notes this was the first test for that part of Steinbach Alert Now and it looks like it will hold up and work.

Those involved in the drill took part in a debriefing meeting following the scenario. Present was a representative from Emergency Measures Organization. Vassart says she felt the exercise went well and that emergency teams took it seriously.

"She said we did very well in her estimation and she thinks we would be able to handle a real event based on what we showed in the exercise," says Vassart. "Which gives us a little more confidence and makes us feel better."

And Vassart says he agrees that his volunteers could pull off a real-life emergency.

Meanwhile, Vassart says he can not imagine what it must have been like to respond to an emergency before there was such a thing as an emergency plan. These were mandated after the New York terrorist attacks in 2001. Vassart says an emergency today would be more devastating and more difficult to recover from if there wasn't such a thing as an EOC team.

"When something has happened you can't be looking for twenty people to come in and set up your Emergency Operations Centre and make it work," he stresses. "We need them in place beforehand and they should all have an idea of what their role and what their responsibilities and what is expected of them when they come in there."

The city of Steinbach would like to thank the following organizations for their participation: Hanover School Division, Southern Health and Bethesda Regional Health Centre, Steinbach Fire, and RCMP. Also special thanks to the Public Works Department, Steinbach Lions Club, Emergency Operations Centre team volunteers, Steinbach Towing, Patterson Grain, Subway, Grace Mennonite Church for their volunteers, Steinbach Mennonite Church for the use of their facilities, Stonybrook Middle School students and staff, and the students from SRSS Drama Club for portraying crash victims. The city would also like to thank the public, especially those that live in the immediate area, for their patience and cooperation during the exercise.

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Emergency Teams Pull Off Mock Disaster In Steinbach