Foreign animal disease focus of training exercise

COLUMBUS -- A “what if” game was played by area emergency management personnel over the weekend.

About 65 people gathered Saturday at the New World Inn for a tabletop exercise to answer the question: What if the area was exposed to a foreign animal disease?

Emergency management personnel from 10 counties, including Platte, tried to come up with answers as to how they would respond to such a scenario during the tabletop exercise.

Jim Bunstock, public information officer for the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency, said the exercise was about how to prepare for and how various jurisdictions, such as emergency responders, county government agencies, law enforcement, and health officials, would proceed in that kind of an event.

Exercises, such as the one Saturday, are held often to help keep all those involved ready for any type of emergency from severe weather to disease outbreaks to terrorism.

“We try to plan for everything,” Bunstock said.

Platte County, which is part of the East Central Training Region, held a full-scale training exercise in October. During that exercise, participants dealt with a mock terrorist attack in east central Nebraska.

Bunstock said if a situation would arise that an animal disease such as foot and mouth disease would break out in the area, several questions would have to be answered, including where would the diseased cattle be put, where would displaced people be housed, and how would public information about the situation be communicated.

“They need to explore what they have in place and what changes or additions need to be made,” Bunstock said.

Other counties that took part in the exercise were Boone, Colfax, Merrick, Nance, Butler, Dodge, Saunders, Polk and Howard.