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    Colorado National Guard joins local forces for winter emergency preparedness exercise

    EL PASO COUNTY, CO, UNITED STATES

    01.09.2016

    Story by Staff Sgt. Michelle Alvarez 

    Colorado National Guard

    EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. - Thirty-one local and state agencies, departments and organizations participated in a statewide joint exercise simulating emergency response, search and rescue recovery processes during a major winter blizzard.

    The exercise, named Deep Freeze ’16, was part of a state wide effort to evaluate and improve tactics, response time and coordination during a winter blizzard emergency. The training operation involved simulated portrayal of stranded motorists and other real world scenarios that would overwhelm available assets in the event of a crippling winter storm. First responders and emergency management teams, to include the Colorado National Guard, worked together to coordinate the identification of stranded motorists, their location and process to get them to a shelter or hospital, which were also set up as part of the exercise.

    "This is a great opportunity to coordinate resources and capitalize on the strength of different agencies in order to provide a unified response,” said Capt. Warren Wade, 240th Civil Engineer Flight, liaison officer for Joint Force Headquarters Colorado.

    The objective for the exercise was to simulate unified command with anticipated demands and force coordination decisions as would be encountered during a significant blizzard. To emulate a real world environment, El Paso County North Group established an Incident Command Post at Black Forest Fire/Rescue to function as the unified command. Emergency Operation Centers were setup at designated locations throughout El Paso County to process and track requests for additional resources as mass demands outweigh available resources.

    "Involving the National Guard is really important because the community is very supportive of the military and the military wants to return that support in any means they can. As military members, we naturally want to help and this provides a means for us to provide additional support needed by local authorities. We have a lot of assets and resources that can enhance the response time and effectiveness and we are eager to provide those as needed,” said Wade.

    “The cooperation and coordination, to include the National Guard, for this event has been amazing. Everything in the Incident Command Post is running very smoothly and I anticipate it is the same out in the field” said Bryan Jack, Fire Chief, Black Forest Fire/Rescue.

    “The National Guard is already a structured unit that is trained and has an identified specific capability. Our interactions in the past have been primarily in the field, for example during the wildfires, but the opportunity to have National Guard representation in our Incident Command Post has been critical to myself and my team to see how the National Guard can be integrated into our incident command structure.

    Through the understanding we have gained from this exercise and the planning leading up to it, we would be more inclined to expedite our requests for National Guard resources versus waiting as long as we may have in the past,” said Jack.

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 01.09.2016
    Date Posted: 01.12.2016 09:16
    Story ID: 185985
    Location: EL PASO COUNTY, CO, US

    Web Views: 28
    Downloads: 0

    PUBLIC DOMAIN