Media contacts: Krista Umscheid, LCRA (512) 497-6009; or Gayle Wilhelm, Bastrop County Judge Ronnie McDonald’s Office (512) 332-7201
BASTROP – This morning, emergency responders from four counties began to converge at LCRA’s Lost Pines Power Park as their cell phones and pagers sounded the start of an all-day drill.
Billowing smoke, sirens, police tape, a mobile command post, and emergency responders and their vehicles are part of the drill taking place at LCRA’s Lost Pines Power Park in Bastrop County.
Emergency response teams from Bastrop, Travis, Williamson and Hays counties are participating in the annual exercise designed to simulate a disaster scenario that would require the regional Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives (CBRNE) task forces to work together in a coordinated response.
“This specific drill is especially important to Bastrop County because it allows us to test our emergency management plan,” said County Judge Ronnie McDonald, who also serves as the emergency management director for Bastrop County. “This exercise provides a great opportunity for the entire region to practice how various agencies work together and bring their individual expertise to the table in the event of a real disaster.” McDonald, who has contributed to the region’s planning efforts for disaster preparedness and terrorism as former chairman of the Capital Area Council of Governments Executive Committee, also plans to participate in the drill.
The drill at Lost Pines Power Park, the site of Sim Gideon and Lost Pines 1 power plants, allows emergency responders to practice plans they created in response to a request from the Governor’s Division of Emergency Management in 2005 for the development of regional response plans for Texas. Those plans are designed to ensure a coordinated response and address specific technical issues pertaining to equipment, personnel and communications.
For response plan purposes, Texas has 24 regional councils of government (COG). The counties of Bastrop, Blanco, Burnet, Caldwell, Fayette, Hays, Lee, Llano, Travis and Williamson make up the Capital Area Council of Governments, or Capital State Planning Region 12. Because a major component of the drill is the deployment of all available resources in the region within the first few critical hours following a catastrophe, only those counties closest to Bastrop will send emergency response teams.
“We are very pleased to host the drill at our facility,” said Jane Luedecke, plant manager of LCRA’s Sim Gideon Power Plant. “Safety and response are high priorities at any facility, but especially at power plants where the work environment calls for more emergency planning than a typical office building. We welcome additional opportunities to practice our emergency response plans.”
Agencies and organizations participating in the drill include a variety of regional emergency responders from the Bastrop County Office of Emergency Management, Bastrop Fire Department, Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office, Bastrop Federal Correctional Institution, Austin Fire Department Special Operations, Guardian Emergency Medical Services, LCRA, Hays County, Williamson County, Travis County, the American Red Cross and the National Weather Service.
