An emergency management drill on Tuesday simulated the aftermath of an F4 tornado dropping down onto Express Grain Oil Mill in Greenwood.
The oil mill is located near other industrial facilities, the Buckeye neighborhood and River Road Extended, Greenwood Leflore Hospital and a key highway bridge crossing the Yazoo River on U.S. 82.
“It went really good,” Fred Randle said. Randle is the director of Leflore County’s Emergency Management Agency and served as coordinator for the mock tornado drill.
“All law enforcement were there. Greenwood Leflore Hospital, emergency medical responders, public works and Leflore County unit system workers, and directors and evaluators of Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) were there.”
Also on hand was a group of area Girl Scouts, volunteers pretending to be workers at the oil mill and neighbors living nearby, injured in the tornado.
The Salvation Army was on hand as well, bringing out emergency drinking rations for first responders fighting fires ignited by the F4’s deadly winds.
“It’s the first drill we’ve done in a while in the county,” Randle said. Leading up to the drill, Randle held four preparation meetings, some of which were not well-attended, but when tornado day arrived, most key players showed up to do their part.
An F4 tornado can have winds of 207 to 260 miles per hour and can cause devastating damage, such as throwing cars off the road and moving buildings from their foundations.
Greenwood and Leflore County rank at a very high risk level for tornadoes and have seen 116 since 1950. A February 1971 series of tornadoes left 14 dead in Leflore County.
In this imagined scenario, the oil mill, which houses chemicals to make biodiesel fuel, was compromised, releasing dangerous chemicals in a large explosion affecting the entire surrounding area.
Starting at 7 a.m., exercise participants, including officers from the Greenwood Police Department and deputies from the Leflore County Sheriff’s Department, arrived and took their places.
The Greenwood Fire Department was assisted by county volunteer firefighters, and medical personnel came from MedStat and Greenwood Leflore Hospital.
Afterward, a debriefing session at the Leflore County Agri-Center went over what happened, what failed to happen and what everyone learned from the drill.
Chelsea Hopson of MEMA facilitated the discussion.
Independent evaluators from surrounding counties told Leflore County responders and volunteers that they performed well.
“It’s good that you work well together, and it’s good you’re doing this,” Hopson said.
Hopson and others said the purpose of preparedness exercises like this one is to “connect the dots” or coordinate specially trained first responders to understand where they belong and what they must learn to be effective in the case of such an emergency.
One example brought up was learning the triage color code, a system to assure that everyone involved understands color signs indicating the seriousness of an injury.
Evaluators said all need to know their positions in the emergency response scenario — in this case with firefighters and emergency medical staff up front and law enforcement assisting by directing traffic away from the impact site and actively protecting the safety of those on the front lines.
Randle emphasized the need for an organized unified command that can dispense communications from one central location to all agencies involved, regardless of the radio systems they use or their function.
Dispatchers were also involved in the drill, taking the first emergency calls and gathering pertinent details to report to central command.
“Our No. 1 priority is saving lives and keeping people safe,” Randle said. “We have to protect the public while protecting ourselves and each other.”
•Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
