St. Louis hosts emergency drills in preparation for earthquake

An earthquake along the New Madrid Fault has just struck the Midwest, devastating several communities.

In St. Louis, bridges collapsed, roads buckled, and buildings crumbled. More than 40,000 people were trapped in Busch Stadium. Moments after the shaking stopped, hundreds of rescuers began searching and rescuing the city.

That's the kind of approach needed to save lives, said Maj. Kelly Hudson, project officer for the Michigan National Guard's Task Force 46, which this week helped lead an emergency response exercise in the St. Louis area.

“They’re someone’s mom or dad or brother or sister who’s trapped inside,” Kelly told the drill participants. “They could be you, too. So there’s a lot of empathy there. That’s one of the things you want to train for… I love that you want to run to the sound of gunfire, but we have to do it methodically so it’s like a marathon, not a sprint.”

With that in mind, more than 500 local, state and federal emergency personnel participated in disaster preparedness drills Monday through Wednesday to be prepared for an 8.4 magnitude earthquake across the New Madrid Fault.

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Hunter Smith, 17, of Sullivan, sits in the shade after undergoing a mock chemical decontamination shower during an emergency training exercise in dense urban terrain in downtown St. Louis.

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A mannequin hangs from a Busch Stadium sign during an emergency maneuver in dense urban terrain in downtown St. Louis.

The St. Louis Regional Response System also hosted the training.

“This has to happen,” said Jocelyn Evans, St. Charles County’s emergency preparedness planning officer. “When an earthquake happens, it’s going to be a very bad day for everyone. So whatever we can get our responders trained and prepared … is what we need.”

Under this scenario, paramedics carried victims from the stadium to a nearby parking lot. Hundreds of emergency responders and dummies on stretchers were doused with water in a portable shower to disinfect the chemicals.

“You can’t simulate these kinds of scenarios with just puppets,” said Farrell Flynn, one of the volunteer victims who was beaten. “We’re mostly playing live roles, acting as if we’re injured.”

Lessons Learned from St. Louis Major Disaster Training

Military helicopters and air evacuation planes trained on the route to local hospitals. There, health care workers treated simulated injuries caused by falling bricks and airborne chemicals.

Emergency personnel also practiced using an alternate route across the Mississippi River in case the Eads and Clark bridges collapsed. Army and National Guard personnel dropped portable routes from helicopters near the ferry dock in Grafton.

“We come here to train … to really put our hearts and minds into this,” said Sergeant Conrad Krueger of the Texas National Guard. “That way, when it happens — if it happens — we’re mentally, physically and emotionally prepared.”

Emergency management agencies from Missouri and Illinois participated, along with 40 local groups, including the St. Louis Police Department and fire departments. According to event organizers, the full-scale exercise was the largest military exercise ever held in St. Louis.

“St. Louis is likely to have an earthquake,” Hudson said. “We know the infrastructure is old, it’s not livable. If we have another earthquake like this, which diverts the Mississippi River, it could be catastrophic.”

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