(Estherville)– They were preparing for the worse today (Friday) at the Estherville campus of Iowa Lakes Community College.
Emergency Management, law enforcement agencies and public health personnel participated in a bio hazard drill.
Karen Miller, Director of Emmet County Public Health, tells KUOO news the scenario consisted of a terrorist unleashing “the pneumonic plague” at the Emmet county fair.
The scenario included a massive community clinic at ILCC because all hospital and emergency rooms in the area were full.
Miller says the drill involved officials not only from Emmet county, but from neighboring counties as well…including some from as far away as Wright county.
Rural Iowa may not be at the top of the list of areas targeted by tourists, but Miller says this type of training is vital for other reasons as well. She says we need to be prepared for local residents who may have been exposed to bio hazards while they were travelling. And she points out that flu epidemics and the SARS outbreak in China were not the result of terrorism. She says such an outbreak could easily happen here. And for that reason, she says it’s vital such training programs be held here.
About 50 people were involved in the exercise.
Miller says it was made possible through a grant from the Iowa Department of Public Health which received funding from the Center For Disease Control.
