Emergency Management Prepares for Multi-County, Multi-Agency CSEPP Exercise

John Bobel

September 12, 2022

As part of its county-wide preparedness effort and participation in the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP), Lexington’s Division of Emergency Management, along with other public safety, health and medical, transportation, and social service agencies, will conduct a disaster response exercise at Jacobson Park on Wednesday, September 14, 2022.

The exercise will begin at approximately 8:30 a.m. and conclude by 2:00 p.m. Jacobson Park will be closed to the public that morning. There will be increased traffic in the park area, including police and fire department vehicles and Lextran buses.

The Lexington exercise is part of a ten-county CSEPP activity that will simulate an accident involving chemical agents stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Richmond, KY. In addition to activities at Jacobson Park, several local hospitals and social service agencies will also participate in the exercise.

“We conduct training and smaller exercises throughout the year, but this annual exercise gives all parties involved in CSEPP a chance to work together. We will test the various response actions that would be used if there was a real emergency,” said Patricia Dugger, Director of Lexington Emergency Management. “We will have more than one hundred Lexington public safety staff involved in this exercise and members of social service and health care agencies.”

“This year’s exercise is vital,” said Dugger. “With chemical agent neutralization processing underway in Richmond, we want to ensure that we’re ready for a chemical agent emergency or any other emergency that could affect Fayette County residents.”

The Lexington emergency operations center will coordinate Fayette County exercise activities, while other county emergency and public safety agencies will participate in the exercise in several locations. For example, the Madison County Emergency Management Agency will coordinate exercise activities there and those in the nine other CSEPP counties.

More information about the CSEPP program is available at www.BeReadyLexington.com/CSEPP/. Information is also available on the DEM Facebook page – LexingtonKYEM – on Twitter – @lexkyem – and Instagram – @lexkyem.