Published: August 28, 2008 10:01 am      

Area leaders learn lessons through Wednesday drill

CLINTON — At 8:23 a.m. Wednesday a phone call came into the Emergency Operating Center in the Clinton County courthouse.

The message: A reactor at the Exelon nuclear generating plant near Cordova, Ill., was not getting water for cooling.

Phone calls immediately went out from the EOC to representatives of Clinton County areas that are within a 10-mile radius of Exelon.

By 9:26 a.m. they had all logged in and were taking part in a drill that would test various skills throughout the day. Present were the sheriff, county engineer, a state trooper, dosimeter officers, all three members of the board of supervisors, representatives of Clinton, Camanche and Low Moor and public health, the Red Cross, Area Education Agency and others.

It would be a long day.

Soon Exelon reported that radioactive material had been released and the wind was carrying it north — toward Clinton County.

Sheriff Rick Lincoln and County Engineer Todd Kinney began plotting evacuation routes. Then they received word there had been an accident in Elvira. A semi carrying molasses had been hit by another truck and had tipped over.

Molasses had spilled over the entire intersection. Other evacuation routes had to be found and coordinated with Scott County, which was also participating in the Exelon drill.

Then it was learned that the emergency siren in the Wapsi River area was not functioning.

Lincoln volunteered to have a deputy in a boat contact people who live in cabins on both sides of the river.

Meanwhile, the emergency responders were told some areas which had been contaminated by the radioactive plume might be uninhabitable for many years.

“We had to determine from the information they gave us,” Lincoln said, “how to keep people from going into that zone. I worked with the county engineer and state patrol to identify each intersection where we were going to place somebody for temporary traffic control or put permanent traffic control. It made us aware of the evacuation process and the reentry, recovery, relocation process.”

Meanwhile, public health, Red Cross and other agencies were working through their challenges.

When the drill was over at 4 p.m., Exelon’s representative on site, Michael Muth, said, “I feel they did a real good job. They were never in the dark. They knew what was happening. The release was obviously the big one, but then we threw in other things, like the traffic impediment when the sheriff was trying to get an evacuation route.

“We also threw in an inject about an evacuation school which was not going to be available because it was under construction. So education had to come up with a different location.”

Chance Kness, Clinton County Emergency Management coordinator, said the drill is done every two years and officials are evaluated for their response to simulated incidents at Exelon.

“We had to coordinate with Scott County for many issues and had to coordinate with state and Exelon for protective actions,” he said. “So there was a lot of back and forth.”

Two evaluators from FEMA were in the EOC throughout the day and others were watching drills in the region. FEMA representatives will present an official debriefing to the public at 11 a.m. Friday in the training room at Exelon.