Mercer County first responders start making plans for handling large-scale emergencies

Oct. 8—PRINCETON — Organization and coordination are essential when mass shootings, large-scale flooding, crashes involving hazardous materials and other disasters that can inflect mass causalities strike, so Mercer County's law enforcement agencies, fire departments, rescue squads, governmental agencies and other entities are drafting and revising plans for the day when the worst happens.

Convening at the Gardner Center near Princeton, first responders had the first of what Chief Deputy A.P. Christian of the Mercer County Sheriff's Department said would be a series of meetings to create a new Mercer County Operational Plan.

"So what we're doing today — it's titled an active shooter class — but we're emphasizing the response to either a manmade or natural disaster or a mass causality incident," Christian said. "We're focusing on the perimeter, which has never been done in the past. "

The county's law enforcement community cannot handle all emergencies, so other first responders are needed to help, and that help must be coordinated.

"Because all of the law enforcement agencies are smaller agencies here in Mercer County, we can't handle it by ourselves," he stated. "This is us trying to address an incident that's going affect the whole community and to do that, we need the help of the whole community. We've invited firefighters, medical personnel, rescue squads, all the law enforcement from the county, mental health folks if we have mass causalities. This is the kicking off day for what we hope will be the start of the Mercer County Operations Plan, so we will be able to respond to any large incident and at least have a base plan that we can divert from or look back to."

The meeting's keynote speaker, Dave "Boon" Benton, is the co-author of "13 Hours: The Inside of What Really Happened in Benghazi," which was later made into a movie. Benton, a Marine veteran, was part of the CIA Annex security team which fought of terrorists for 13 hours in Libya. Benton now works with law enforcement on active shooter training and other security.

"We've all had active shooter training," he told the audience. "What we need is an emergency action plan...a basic plan to get the ball rolling."

Keith Gunnoe, the county's director of emergency management services, said one of his goals since becoming manager is to review the county emergency plan. The county does have a mass casualty plan as well one for hazardous material or hazmat emergencies, but there needs to be specifics for a mass shooter plan. Gunnoe said Friday's meeting was "an answered prayer."

"It's not up to me to do it," he said. "This takes the entire community."

Benton, Gunnoe and other professionals at the meeting stated that a countywide emergency plan must take in many situations. In the case of a mass shooting at a school, first responders would have to not only deal with the attacker or attackers, but with traffic jams created when frightened parents rush to the school, make sure plans for treating and transporting casualties are in place, and reuniting students with their parents once they are safe. Dealing with mental health issues afterward is another factor that must be taken into account. Communications will be another part of the overall plan.

Benton also urged law enforcement and other first responders to have regular active shooter drills and offer "stop the bleed" training for teachers and county employees.

"Even an hour of stop the bleed training can help," he said. "You can start the process of saving somebody's life until they can get to a higher level of medical care." He added that offering students lessons in skills such as first aid would be helpful as well.

Christian said he planned to involve other entities including the state Department of Highways and Mercer County Schools in the planning process. Reaching out to neighboring counties for help if local services became overwhelmed or needed to coordinate with state and other county agencies was discussed as well.

Christian said drafting the plan and its many aspects will require several meetings and could take up to a year to complete.

First responders including the Mercer County Sheriff's Office, West Virginia State Police Princeton detachment, city police in Princeton and Bluefield, the Town of Athens Police Department, the Concord University Police, security for the Bluefield ER and Princeton Community Hospital, the Green Valley-Glenwood Volunteer Fire Department, Mercer County Commission, Mercer County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, Mercer County 911, Southern Highland Community Mental Health Center and other entities participated in the first meeting.

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com