Cherry Point demonstrates destructive weather readiness

Photo By Cpl. Rashaun X. James | (From left to right) Robert Dockery, Richard Slappey, Lt. Col. Kenneth L. Asbridge, and Lt. Col. James M. Garrett respond to a simulated destructive weather threat during the Destructive Weather table-top exercise, May 26. Dockery is the Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron S-4 logistics officer-in-charge, Slappey is the Mission Assurance Program Manager at the Emergency Operations Center, Asbridge is the Air Operations officer with Operations Directorate, and Garrett is the Director of Operations for the air station.  

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, NC, UNITED STATES

05.26.2010

Story by Cpl. Rashaun X. James 

II Marine Expeditionary Force   

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C. - The Emergency Operations Center on Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point pulsed with an uneasy pressure as numerous orders and inquiries joined one another in a melee of undecipherable sound. EOC personnel knew something destructive and threatening was coming, which could threaten the lives of everyone aboard the installation. "Hurricane Gibbs" was closing in and the decision makers at Cherry Point's EOC had the responsibility to engineer a plan to guarantee the safety of the air station's personnel.

Luckily, the threat was only a simulated one, a destructive weather table-top exercise, conducted May 26 at the EOC, to test the air station's ability to respond to a real-life emergency weather scenario. Newly appointed installation emergency manager Tim Harvey said the training allows Cherry Point's different departments to become familiar with coordinating an emergency response.

"This exercise lets all the different support functions come together in one location and manage an entire emergency response event," Harvey said. "Every emergency event that occurs requires each directorate to come together like this."

The training is conducted annually during Hurricane Season, said Harvey. The station goes into what is called Destructive Weather Condition V, which lasts June 2 - Nov. 30 coinciding with the National Weather Service's Atlantic Hurricane Season.

"We need to be able to identify our strengths and weakness when dealing with an event like this," said Staff Sgt. Dustin G. Heflin, a forecaster with Cherry Point's Mission Essential Meteorological and Oceanographic Center. "Our goal is to return the air station back to normal operations as soon as possible in the event of an emergency weather situation. These events require flexibility."

Among the participants at the exercise were representatives from Cherry Point's security augmentation force, Fleet Readiness Center East, airfield operations department, the Center For Naval Aviation Technical Training, fire and emergency services and the commissary.

Phyllis Black, the store director for Cherry Point's commissary viewed the training as just one more way to stay ahead of the curve.

"As a support agency, we are taxed with keeping the community fed," Black said. "This training allows me to refine the processes we would utilize at the commissary in the event of a destructive weather scenario along with our regular tasks, such as keeping emergency supplies in stock."

Harvey said the exercises' main goal, along with exercising the air station's destructive weather order, was to familiarize all the participants with an application called WebEOC, which allows the various departments to keep and update an electronic log of all events that occur during a destructive weather situation.

"WebEOC is a chronological log detailing which events and how air station emergency services should respond to," Harvey said. "The director of operations should be able to turn to the commanding officer of the air station and be able to tell him exactly what is going on in an emergency situation."

Harvey said that even with several surprises in the scenario, Cherry Point's EOC had the situation well in hand from the beginning."

"They had no idea that the injects we introduced were coming," Harvey said. "The individuals here resolved every issue nonetheless. I think this training went extremely well."

For more information about MCAS Cherry Point's destructive weather preparedness and Marine Corps Air Station Order 3140.2N by visiting http://www.marines.mil/unit/mcascherrypoint/Pages/DestructiveWeather/imgs/P3140.2N.pdf.

• Date Taken: 05.26.2010
• Date Posted: 06.04.2010 10:41
• Story ID: 50846
• Location: MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, NC, US