FD 13 plans a windstorm disaster exercise

It’s been said that an ill wind blows no good.

In the case of the Skagit County Fire District 13 coverage area, which entails Swinomish Reservation and rural La Conner, a facsimile windstorm at the end of March is designed to do plenty good.

Planning has started for a March 30 Emergency Operations Center Windstorm Disaster Exercise and unified command strategy.

Captains Gary Ladd and Ted Taylor and Brad Reading of Shelter Bay summarized the training at the December commissioners hybrid meeting at the Snee-Oosh Road station last Thursday.

“The objective,” Ladd told the Weekly News, “is to establish a unified command to manage a windstorm disaster. This command needs to consist of the stakeholders, decision makers and those with financial authority. To us, that would be a fire commissioner from District 13, a senator from the Swinomish Tribal Community and a board member from Shelter Bay.”

The exercise scenario will assume a week of heavy rain with high winds predicted overnight. It projects downed limbs and branches and hazardous conditions, loss of electrical power and property damage, with trees uprooted and fallen on houses, power lines and cell towers causing major infrastructure damage to houses, buildings and places of business and no cellular or internet services and no power. With the 9-1-1 system overwhelmed, fire and police will have to self-actuate.

Shelter Bay Community Emergency Response Team members and volunteers will activate a disaster assistance center with generators, cots, blankets, water and medical supplies set up in the Shelter Bay clubhouse.

“The hope,” Ladd said, “is that notice will be sent out to all Shelter Bay residents asking them to participate as volunteers or victims and to put up placards in their front windows stating ‘HELP’ or ‘OK.’

If enough Shelter Bay residents volunteer, tents with generators for heat and power will be set up.

Commission chairman Bruce Shellhamer agreed. “I like the idea of having a windstorm exercise,” he said. “It’s good to practice before the game comes on.”

The ultimate goal is testing the district’s communications and unified command systems.

The effectiveness of staff training was seen earlier Thursday when firefighters and emergency medical personnel responded to a horrific motor vehicle crash on Reservation Road involving a teen driver whose vehicle struck a tree and caught fire.

The driver was removed from the vehicle and transported to John K. Bob Ball Park where a district crew established a landing zone for an emergency helicopter. The teen was then flown to Harborview Hospital in Seattle where she underwent successful surgeries.

“Our team really came together today,” said Fire Chief Wood Weiss. “We were handed a very tense situation and got someone headed to care.”

Badges were presented to firefighters Jackson Grande and Logan James at the meeting’s end. James is also an emergency medical technician.

Jan. 11 is the commissioners next meeting.