Preparing for a worst-case scenario, emergency responders from across DeKalb County burst into action Thursday morning, drilling on what would happen if a pair of tornadoes touched down just miles part.

Ground zero for the pair of disastrous twisters were Green Brook Park and the County Fire Hall on King Ridge Road. The drill was part of an emergency preparedness exercise to get first responders, law enforcement and ambulance personnel on the same page should a real disaster happen.

“As part of the disaster exercise, we simulated a tornado touchdown by the DeKalb County Fire station on King Ridge Road with several injured people in the parking lot,” said DeKalb County Emergency Management Coordinator Charlie Park. “Per protocol Central Dispatch sent out an all-call page to notify all emergency responders and to request their assistance in gaining access to the area and also to look for victims. Upon arrival responding, personnel surveyed the scene for safety hazards, and attempted to locate and identify victims.”

The victims in the case of the drill were resuscitation dummies that were strewn about the disaster sites. Their locations, sometimes in unusual locations, proved to be one  of the major challenges facing first responders as they had to scan the surrounding area of injured. In the case of the fire hall, several wrecked cars were at the scene, prompting responders to not only check the surrounding landscape but also to check the tangled wreckage for victims. In the case of Green Brook Park, one victim was even hung up in the barbed wire atop the security fence.

“What we’re looking at is how well we do our job,” Parker noted. ”We have to do a disaster exercise annually. One of the primary reasons for this is for the hospital to get their joint commission accreditation but we also do it locally to practice certain protocols of our emergency responders and other agencies. We try to keep it realistic as far as things that might actually happen in our area. We have had several tornadoes here within the last few years.”

Parker suggests that local businesses and organizations do readiness exercises. “I would encourage each agency to enact their current response plans as if this were an actual disaster and practice the amount of time it takes to notify and or relocate people in your facility of an approaching tornado.”