Cape Girardeau to experience 'Shaken Fury' earthquake exercises

An elite search-and-rescue unit will fly into Cape Girardeau on Army helicopters today and Wednesday as part of “Shaken Fury” exercises centered around a scenario of a 7.7 magnitude earthquake erupting along the New Madrid Fault.

Firefighters from Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Sikeston, Missouri, will participate, too, along with personnel from the South Scott County Ambulance District. Personnel from other Cape Girardeau city departments, including police, public works and parks and recreation also will take part in the exercises.

“This is something we don’t do day to day, working together as a team, not as individual groups,” Cape Girardeau interim assistant fire chief Brad Dillow said.

He added, “It takes everybody working together to get a good outcome.”

This will be the first time Missouri Task Force One, based in Boone County, Missouri, will be involved in such an exercise in Cape Girardeau, Dillow said.

The task force is one of 28 urban search-and-rescue teams in the nation. The team includes search dogs, as well as rescue specialists, heavy-equipment operators and medical personnel.

Dillow said 30 to 40 task force members are scheduled to arrive from Fort Leonard Wood between 9 and 9:30 a.m. today. The helicopters are slated to land in the football practice field along Independence Street next to Cape Girardeau Central Junior High School.

Task force members will fly out at the end of the day, but different task force members will fly in Wednesday to repeat the exercise, according to Dillow.

The exercises today and Wednesday, he said, will center around a “structural collapse” at 1810 Plaza Way Drive.

The building, formerly owned by Dr. Michael Jessup, is being torn down as part of a commercial development.

Dillow said the developer is allowing the demolition site to be used for the training exercise. The contractor was “willing to do what was needed to make the building look like a collapsed building,” he said.

On Monday, the building was being readied to simulate damage from a major earthquake, he said.

Area firefighters from Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Sikeston and personnel from the South Scott County Ambulance District, all members of the Homeland Security Response Team, will be involved in the search and rescue effort along with Missouri Task Force One.

Twelve manikins will be placed under collapsed sections of the building. In addition, there will be 10 to 15 live patients, Dillow said.

Area ambulance services will take patients to Southeast Hospital, which will have a medical tent set up to simulate their triage response.

The exercise will include dog searches at the junior high school and the surrounding residential area.

“We are trying to make it as realistic as possible,” he said.

On Thursday, as part of Shaken Fury, the local response team and members of the National Guard will participate in a hazardous materials exercise at the oil storage tank farm in Scott City.

Dillow said he expects about 100 National Guard troops will be involved in that exercise.

Missouri State Emergency Management Agency, or SEMA, originally planned to take part in Shaken Fury. But Dillow said SEMA is busy dealing with flooding around the state and won’t be participating.

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