Photo By Chief Petty Officer Patrick Gordon | PATUXENT RIVER, Maryland (April 17, 2019) - Patrick Paulsen, NAS Patuxent River ...... read more read more
The 2018 Atlantic hurricane season produced 15 named storms, including eight hurricanes, and will be remembered most for hurricanes Florence and Michael, which caused significant damage in the southeastern U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. For the fourth consecutive year, hurricane activity began prior to the official June 1 start of the season.
As this year’s hurricane season approaches, the Navy is gearing up to conduct HURREX/Citadel Gale 2019, its annual hurricane exercise designed to prepare the Navy to respond to weather threats in coastal regions and maintain the ability to deploy forces, even under the most adverse weather conditions.
“This year’s exercise will involve a simulated storm system developing and intensifying to Category 3 hurricane strength before making landfall southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina,” said Pat Paulsen, supervisory emergency management specialist at Pax River.
All Navy commands with personnel in Navy Region Mid-Atlantic, Naval District Washington and Navy Region Southeast – ashore, afloat, in port and underway – will participate. The exercise, which takes place April 15-26, will also evaluate and test Pax River’s capability to prepare, mitigate, respond and recover from a hurricane or similar incident causing life/safety concerns and disruption to infrastructure.
“The first week is going through all the preparation steps to get ready for the hurricane,” explained Paulsen. “There’s a lot of information sharing and decisions to be made, such as do we close the base and evacuate personnel, should aircraft start leaving for other facilities, etc. One of the first areas I’d contact if I see anything coming is Air Operations because they’re our primary liaison into Test Wing and they handle all the squadrons. They’re one of our tenant commands that we want to make sure we communicate with early.”
Week two of the exercise incorporates response and recovery from the hurricane and, here at Pax, scenarios will include a hazmat spill at the West Basin; EFAC [Emergency Family Assistance Center] drill for displaced residents of Lincoln Military Housing and the barracks; barracks roof collapse with Sailors trapped inside; and a power outage, among others.
“The first thing we’d do immediately afterward is a damage assessment,” Paulsen noted. “Can we get the roads open, what buildings are still up, how is our functionality – what have lost in the areas of utilities and infrastructure. Problems might also include debris and flooding; electrical power lines down but charged, which makes it more hazardous to clear debris; and the potential for fires from electrical ignition or natural gas.”
Participants in the exercise include the core of the Incident Management Team (IMT) – security, fire and emergency services, , and public works, to name a few.
“In a real life incident, not all of us would need to be here to be useful,” Paulsen added. “We can practice what’s known as the ‘virtual IMT,’ which means we’re not physically here, but still can get things done from cell phones and computers. That’s why everything is on laptops in the emergency operations center, so we can pick up and leave. If necessary.”
Though various departments and tenant commands across the installation will participate in the exercise, impact to Pax River personnel is minimal.
“Personnel will receive messages via AtHoc and other sources regarding specific exercise incidents during the two weeks, and some personnel may be told to do an ‘order to account’ in NFAAS [Navy Family Accountability and Assessment System], but this won’t affect gates or major traffic roads,” Paulsen said.
While a few military bases have fallen victim to direct hits by hurricanes over the years with devastating results, Paulsen noted that there hasn’t been a direct hit on Pax River since the mid to late 1800s.
“Geographically, we don’t tend to get direct hits,” he said. “I’m not saying we can’t, we just don’t tend to. Mostly, our main problem here will be rain, wind and flooding. But that’s why we do the exercises – so we’re prepared for whatever comes our way.”
| Date Taken: | 04.19.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 04.19.2019 12:34 |
| Story ID: | 318819 |
| Location: | PATUXENT RIVER, MD, US |
| Web Views: | 92 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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