11/02/09: Vigilant Guard Runs Tonawanda Earthquake Disaster Drill

BY NICKI MAYO
A New York National Guardsman covered in a protective suit held a woman with a bleeding face wound with one hand and walkie talkie in the other.
“Sir I need more assistance. Copy? Over,” he yelled in the receiver. “Ma’am we’re going to get you out of here,” he consoled the woman.
Thirteen-hundred New York National Guard troops are participated in the Vigilant Guard Earthquake emergency response at the rubble Pile in Tonawanda. Earthquake victims were pulled from the wreckage, decontaminated and rushed to a triage.
“Time is of the essence and you need to have absolute trust and confidence in each and every member of your team,” said Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Cooper looking at hundreds of New York National Guard Troops rescuing victims from an earthquake scenario. Cooper says seconds can mean the difference between life and death when disaster strikes.
“It could not only prevent you from getting the causality out but it could create an injury of one of your team members and they you’re becoming part of the problem not the solution,” added the Lieutenant Colonel.
Western New York’s Army National Guard is among the 150 agencies teaming up for the Vigilant Guard statewide disaster training.
“Vigilant Guard is likely the largest joint military and civilian disaster response exercise ever conducted in here in the state of New York,” said Brigadier General Michael C. Swezey.
This week 2,600 people from eight different states will participate in disater drills.
“It’s real. It you have an earthquake with unreinforced structures you’re going to have collapses with injuries,” said Lieutenant Colonel Cooper.
The emergency response exercise is a dress rehearsal in more ways than one. The men and women are putting on protective suits in an effort to enter into a building which has collapsed. Erie County officials say in the wake of the Flight 3407 crash, the Hepatitis-A outbreak and the October surprise storm, that it’s important to be prepare for any type of emergency.
“We need to plan, as we say in the boy Scouts ‘you gotta be prepared’ and this is another way of Erie County and our emergency prepared department being ready,” said Erie County Executive Chris Collins.