GUILFORD — The town has survived “Operation Bugout.”
The Board of Selectmen, local and state emergency management personnel, school officials, shelter volunteers, and leaders from Halifax met Jan. 28 to hash out a “tabletop drill” of a catastrophic accident, and evidently they're still here to talk about it.
The session, held at the Guilford Volunteer Fire Department, was a prerequisite for the Town of Guilford as a participant in a statewide emergency management drill scheduled for June.
The exercise, dubbed “Operation Bugout,” was designed to bring together key personnel with the goal of understanding, coordinating, and improving the operational response to a critical incident.
According to draft meeting minutes filed by the Halifax Selectboard, which observed the session, participants included Halifax Selectboard members Earl Holtz, Edee Edwards, and Lewis Sumner; co-emergency management directors Herbert Meyer and Candace Stouman; Guilford Selectboard member Dick Clark and Administrative Assistant Katie Buckley; and many other public service officials, medical personnel, communications specialists, highway department staff, facilitators, and observers.
According to Vermont Emergency Management, Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, the purpose of the Vermont CAT2 2014 Full Scale Exercise will be to assess capabilities in prevention, response, and recovery activities following a statewide catastrophic event.