One Thing Wednesday: We Interrupt This Website…

DEM Blogger

September 16, 2015

The Do 1 Thing site won the Awareness to Action category of FEMA’s 2014 Individual and Community Preparedness Awards. It’s a 12-month program of small steps that you can take to increase your personal and household preparedness. Throughout 2015, DEM will feature Do 1 Thing items during our weekly blog post series of One Thing Wednesdays. Check back here every week for a new preparedness activity or tip!

We’re taking a break from our regular Do 1 Thing features today because this is one of DEM’s biggest planned events of the year. Fayette County is part of the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP)), a federal/state/local partnership to ensure the safety of citizens who live near the U.S. Army’s stockpiles of chemical weapons. Today is the annual full-scale exercise in which we and our partners in the region perform a “dress rehearsal” of all our preparations to ensure we’re ready for an actual event involving Blue Grass Army Depot.

Parts of this exercise will be taking place around Fayette County and the surrounding counties. We’ll activate our emergency operations center, establish “decontamination” and “shelter” facilities at the Kentucky Horse Park, and practice other procedures at our hospitals and on our highways. If you’re out and about today, you may see some of our community’s emergency responders performing their parts in this important drill.

One of the advantages of the CSEPP program is that practicing for a release of chemical weapons makes us more prepared to respond to many other hazards, such as industrial hazardous materials (HAZMAT) incidents. For today’s Do 1 Thing activity, check out our information on HAZMAT and consider how you would shelter in place if a transportation accident released hazardous chemicals near your home, school, or workplace.