Clay officials take part in earthquake response exercise

Stacy Murphy (left) served as controller for the earthquake exercise in Clay County Wednesday, Nov. 18. Murphy is shown talking with, from left: Clay County coroner Paul Hoggard, judge Gary Howell and OES coordinator Travis Boyd. (Times photo/Tim Blair) [Click to enlarge]

Clay was one of 10 regional counties that took part in an earthquake response exercise Wednesday, Nov. 18. The Arkansas Shake, Rattle and Roll Earthquake Functional Exercise was designed to focus primarily on preparing emergency responders to effectively react to a catastrophic quake. And according to Office of Emergency Services coordinator Travis Boyd, the local effort went well.

Boyd, along with other emergency response officials, guided the county's response to the quake from the newly-acquired command post travel trailer. The unit, which is equipped with thousands of dollars in communication equipment, was set-up adjacent to the courthouse in Piggott.

From within the command post, local emergency response officials coordinated local efforts. They also remained in contact with Little Rock and other regional agencies as the event progressed.

The eight-hour exercise included federal, state and local agencies and focused on the initial field-level response to a 7.7 magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks. According to the event scenario, the strong earthquake occurred at 9:01 a.m. Monday, Nov. 16. The epicenter of the quake was located near Marked Tree and a rupture along the fault line extended to near Dyersburg.

Damage from the initial quake was widespread and catastrophic. Flooding, disruption of utilities and transportation routes along with a shortage of commodities were experienced. Early damage estimates included 127,000 displaced due to structural damage of their homes. Medical officials reported at least 5,000 casualties. Over 175,500 residents are presumed to be without potable water and nearly 95,000 residences are without power.

At 8:07 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18 a powerful 5.2 magnitude aftershock struck the region about five miles below the surface along with southwestern extension of the New Madrid Seismic Zone. This aftershock, much like the ones experienced in the 1812 quake, was the subject of the response exercise.

"We were already 48 hours into our response when the aftershock struck the region this morning," Boyd said of the event scenario. "Earlier we had a report of a partial collapse at Piggott Community Hospital with 35 staff and patients injured -- now we have gotten the report of buildings collapsing in Nimmons."

Stacy Murphy served as the controller and offered the "injects" or twists to the scenario as the exercise progressed. Myra Biggers with the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management was the observer and will be reporting on the effort.

"The response included police, fire and medical personnel from across the county," Boyd noted. "The sheriff's office, Arkansas State Police and even the coroner's office all have a role in such an event."

At the conclusion of the exercise the responders met and reviewed the local effort and, according to Boyd, things went well. "We were well pleased at the way the exercise went -- we had a good assessment," he noted. "The command center was a great asset, although it is still a work in progress. We're expecting to add a satellite telephone in either January or February along with a fax-copier machine," Boyd added. "But really, things went off without a hitch," he said.

Boyd said the exercise was loosely formatted to resemble the New Madrid quakes of 1811 and 1812. "The first quake struck the region in December 1811, but a lot of the devastation was from the aftershocks in January and February of 1812," Boyd noted. "Our response in this exercise was also to the strong aftershocks that usually follow a big quake," he added.

The exercise was designed as a no-fault, no-inspection learning environment for emergency operations personnel in the 10 counties involved. The next step will be a review of the "After Action Report" and discussion of an improvement plan. Boyd indicated the report on the review of the local effort will be made Dec. 17.