Officials, agencies gather to prepare for future
By SUSAN LEATHERS
Brentwood Home Page
One year after floods devastated parts of Brentwood, Williamson County and the greater Middle Tennessee area, and one week after tornadoes left a path of destruction from Mississippi to Virginia, emergency service providers and stakeholders from 11 organizations across Williamson County gathered Monday to participate in a disaster preparedness exercise. Hosted by the City of Franklin, Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) facilitated the day-long program.

Bill Akin, foreground, listens at the start of Monday's Disaster Preparedness exercise. Lt. Ricky Knight of the Brentwood Police Department is in center.

The “tabletop exercise” was designed to evaluate available assets and resources in comparison to those needed to manage a large-scale disaster, explained Sgt. Charles J. Warner, spokesman for the Franklin Police Department.

One of those participating from Brentwood was Lt. Russ Peterson of the city’s Fire & Rescue Department.  He explained that the scenario addressed Monday was a repeat of the May 2010 floods with the addition of a tornado. 

“There were a high number of fatalities and a higher number of injuries, as is to be expected.  Add to this trees and wires down, roads closed and water systems interrupted, and it was a challenge to manage,” Peterson said. “ Since the disaster occurred in Franklin, Brentwood's role was supportive in nature through the provision of mutual aid personnel and technical rescue resources.”

In addition to Peterson, the Brentwood contingent participating included Lt. Ricky Knight and Sgt. Jeff Moorehead of the Brentwood Police Department.  Brentwood resident Bill Akin attended on behalf of the Williamson County Red Cross’ disaster relief team.

Though the exercise had been in the works for some time, Franklin City Manager Eric Stuckey called last week’s tornadoes “a very sobering reminder that it can happen at any time and we must be prepared.”

 “It is those times when it’s critical we’re able to respond,” he said in his opening remarks.
At  the end of the exercise, Peterson said three primary lessons had been learned:

“First, we learned a lot from the May floods about working together and that has improved our ability to respond; second, that emergencies that are widespread and impact a large number of municipalities (such as flooding) are particularly hard to manage due to a limit on the availability of local mutual aid; and, finally, the importance of the city, county and state EOC's working together to effectively utilize the implementation of personnel and resources.” 

Peterson noted that Monday’s “tabletop” addressed only the operation of Franklin's EOC, “but it was easy to see the conduits that would emerge in the event that the disaster were to spread into adjacent communities.”