Reporter participates in Cowley County Emergency Management full-scale exercise

As a journalist I mostly observe and ask questions about any event I cover, but Thursday I had the opportunity to actually participate in the Cowley County Emergency Management department’s full-scale exercise as both an observer and a role player.

A full-scale exercise is held every year to test the capabilities of CCEM, its volunteer groups and partner organizations. During the exercise, partners test and evaluate an emergency operations plan and receive feedback.

This year’s exercise involved a simulated scenario in which an emergency shelter was set up at Tisdale United Methodist Church, and residents evacuated there due to an EF-4 tornado that hit Winfield, and major flooding of the Walnut and Arkansas rivers in Winfield and Arkansas City. Out in the joint information command trailer, local public information officers were busy receiving and validating information from the various groups working at the scene, in preparation for a press release and press conference.

This is where I got to participate by attending the press conference and asking questions, just as if it were an actual event. Brian Stone, the director of Cowley County Emergency Management, had invited me as a member of the local media to help the PIOs interact with the media.

This is the first year public information officers were included in the exercise. A PIO working group was formed here in 2016, consisting of local public information officials who meet regularly and train together so they can be ready to get information to the public and the media in the event of an actual emergency.