National Guard training scheduled Tuesday at Silverwood Theme Park
Coeur d'Alene Press | UPDATED 9 years, 2 months AGO
ATHOL — Members of the Idaho National Guard's 101st Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team will be training Tuesday at Silverwood Theme Park.
The National Guard will partner with Timberlake Fire Protection District, Panhandle Health District, the FBI and various Kootenai County agencies during the training exercise. The training will assess the capability of supporting local municipal, county and federal response agencies in mobilizing and reacting to a potential manmade threat.
This full-scale exercise aims to challenge Kootenai County and other responders in executing a comprehensive response to a situation involving a covert dispersal of an unknown hazard in Silverwood during the October Scarywood season.
It will test Kootenai County's Emergency Response Plan and interagency coordination and communication functions while partnering with jurisdictional responders and the Idaho National Guard.
"This is another opportunity for local, state and federal organizations to come together, train, learn and grow as a capable interagency response force," said Maj. Anthony Vincelli, commander of the 101st WMD Civil Support Team. "The more training opportunities we take to exercise these functions, the better off we are when it matters most — and it's a matter of when, not if."
Exercise objectives include: demonstrating the ability of Kootenai County and other responders to recognize a potential hazmat threat and make appropriate notifications to protect the public; to deploy and implement resource capabilities in response to a threat; and to conduct medical operations and coordinate hazard and threat information with integrated responders and local, state and federal response agencies.
Silverwood will be closed to the public the day of the training. The exercise is expected to last until 9 p.m. and will culminate in an extensive after-action assessment, where key lessons learned will be captured and applied to the different agencies' best practices.