Mock derailment set to test emergency center

WILLISTON, N.D. (AP) — Williams County officials have planned a mock derailment of an Amtrak passenger train to test the county’s new emergency operations center.

The disaster exercise is slated for Jan. 31 and will serve as a breaking-in operation for the recently opened Williams County Law Enforcement Center in Williston.

“We are doing this basically just to see how the new emergency operation center works,” said Mike Casler, the county’s emergency services director.

“It’s going to be a multiple-agency exercise in which mutual assistance will be required,” Casler said. “Basically, it’s designed to intentionally overwhelm the first responders on the scene.”

The new $16 million Williams County Law Enforcement Center is being funded by a half-cent sales tax that was approved by voters in November 2006. Ground was broken in April 2007.

The center, which opened late last year, houses a jail, sheriff’s department, Williston Police Department, and regional offices of the North Dakota Highway Patrol and state Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Casler said troopers, police and the sheriff’s department will be helped by fire departments and ambulance crews from the region.

The mock derailment will be centered between Ray and Tioga, Casler said.

Casler said that the Tioga school gymnasium would be designated as the triage area for passengers.

Officials from BNSF and Amtrak also will be involved, Casler said.

Casler said the drill will be a good test.

“I think it’s going to work out really well,” he said Monday.

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