The Alaska branch of the Army National Guard will be closing down four blocks in Soldotna next week as part of a statewide Alaska SHIELD exercise.
Director Scott Walden with the Borough Office of Emergency Management…
Walden: “The event will be centralized in the Soldotna area, it’ll include several Borough buildings, from the Emergency operation center to the Borough Building to a few other places. In the state it will be in 13 different communities so it’ll be all over the place.”
The two day drill will start March 31 and continue April 1, but it’s not an April Fools Day joke.
There will be three modules, one of which will be a simulation of an active shooter so members of the public may notice local emergency agencies active in the area near the Borough building.
Organizers are asking members of the public to spread the word that this is a drill and not to get involved with the simulation in any manner.
Pegge Erkeneff with the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District…
Erkeneff: “Particularly for this exercise, [we’re] working with conjunction with the borough to spread the word that this is going to be a drill.”
The other components of this year’s Alaska SHIELD drill in the Kenai Peninsula Borough will include a simulation of a cyber attack and testing borough employees on their ability to work outside their usual office spaces.
Director Walden says the Borough’s Office of Emergency Management is continually updating their crisis response plans but often the best way to see if those plans have holes is to practice them.
Previous Alaska SHIELD exercises include:
2007: Terrorism Exercise
2010: Earthquake Exercise
2012: Cold Weather Exercise
2014: Reenactment of the 1964 Earthquake using today’s infrastructure and population
Click here for more from the Alaska Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
