On March 25th, 2015 the Arkanasas Department of Emergency Management, FEMA, and the Arkansas National Guard began a two day drill that took place at the Jacksonville Fire Training Center. The Arkansas/ FEMA region six resource distribution rehearsal of concepts drill was held with much of the attention being on the Walnut Ridge Regional Airport which will serve as the state’s Northeast commodity distribution point.
The state focused on a mock earthquake in th New Madrid seismic zone. During such an event the military expects to land C-130 cargo planes loaded with emergency supplies and several types of military helicopters.
In attendance for the two day drill was Mr Lloyd Clark of the Walnut Ridge Airport Commision, Michelle Anthony manager of the Walnut Ridge Regional Airport, and Buddy Williams director of the Lawrence County Office of Emergency Services.
The purpose of the drill was to coordinate state and federal assistance and manpower that would be coming into the area including up to 3,000 responders that would be housed on the Walnut Ridge Regional Airport property. Also the concept of a military fuel farm with some 30,000 gallons of fuel would be brought into the facility and used to fuel state and federal vehicles as well as aircraft.
The drill focused on three modules the first being the immediate response phase which is the first 24 hours after the event. The second module was the deployment phase which included the first 72 hours. The third phase which is described as the employment phase which covers from 72 to 168 hours after the incident. These modules describe in great detail how the state and federal resources will coordinate with the local officials during a mass destruction incident.
Concepts developed during this two day drill will be evaluated by the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management and changes to the response plan will be implemented during the next region 6 resource distribution drill to be named at a later date.
