Evacuation Drills Critical to Emergency Prep

Like a well-oiled machine students, teachers and administration worked together with Merrimack emergency and town officials to conduct an evacuation drill at Thorntons Ferry Elementary School.

The drill was part of an ongoing series of emergency drills designed to keep the schools and Merrimack's police and fire departments as well as town administration current on what they would do with the possibility a school would need to be evacuated and the students moved off  campus.

Last Thursday's scenario was one in which a fire call was made to the fire Department and the condition of the school was quickly determined to be dangerous to keep the children on campus

It's a scenario that was familiar to training consultant Les Carter.

The former Thorntons Ferry Principal said in the final month of his employment as the school's principal, a fire in the building forced a full evacuation and transfer of students at the Camp Sargent Road school to Reeds Ferry in the northern end of town.

"Every fire drill at a school in Merrimack now is an evacuation drill, in which every student is accounted for," Carter said. "The difference with this is it is a progressive one where the students leave campus and the fire department says, tell us where you are going and let us know when everyone is there safely."

For the drill, the students were evacuated from the building, but when the fire department decided it was too unsafe for the students to remain in their evacuation area on campus, police sealed off the entrance points to Camp Sargent Road at the intersection with Continental Boulevard and Naticook Road and students were led to Veteran's Memorial Park less than a half mile down the road.

Carter said once at the school it is up to administrators to communicate with emergency authorities to determine what's the next step for them, hold the kids until dismissal and contact families to let them know to pick their kids up at the park or put them on buses and transport them to another school and call the parents to apprise them of where the kids are and where they will be picked up from at the end of the day.

For the purposes of the drill, which began at 1:30 p.m., families were notified ahead of Thursday they would pick their kids up at the park on May 16. For those who are transported by bus after school, buses were queued on Tinker Road, which was also closed to traffic at Continental Boulevard.

The process ran smoothly throughout the drill according to Carter and current school principal Bridey Bellmare. To dismiss the students, parents or guardians picking up kids had to park on just outside the police blockade on Naticook Road and walk to a "gate" of teachers in bright safety vests and show their identification to one of the staff and prove they are a person that is designated to take a child from the evacuation point.

Carter said this is to prevent the chaos that was seen during Newtown in which parents picked up their children and friends' or neighbors' children creating periods of time where children were missing because it wasn't communicated as to where those children were.

Carter said after the parents or guardians arrived and showed ID the staff radioed to the staff with the children and a runner would bring the child from the holding area to the gate, where they would be united with the person picking them up.

Notices were sent to parents, police utilized Nixle to warn of the road closures ahead of time, the highway department used electronic signs to warn of the road closures and notifications were put on cable access and sent to the media as well.

This week, it's the middle school's turn.

"(The drill) will simulate a water main breaking, creating a dangerous environment for students," Carter said. "They will be evacuated by bus to James Mastricola Upper Elementary School."

The drill for the middle school will happen Thursday afternoon and students will be accounted for first at the middle school after leaving the building and again in the Smith Gym, as they would during a real emergency. They will then be bused back to the middle school at the end of the drill.

"At the conclusion of that drill every school in Merrimack will have participated in one evacuation in some form or another, either as an evacuated school ... or as a receiving school," Carter said.

These drills are critical to making sure communication structures are put into place between school, emergency management, town and parents, Carter said, and gives everyone piece of mind to know that if a real emergency crops up, they are prepared to handle it as best they can.