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The University of Nebraska at Kearney West Campus will be the site of a training exercise for the State Emergency Response Team on June 6 and 7, according to State Patrol Sargent Lewis Copp of Holdrege.
The 28-member team, whose members will come to Kearney from communities across the state, will take part in an emergency hazardous materials simulation exercise sponsored by the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). The team is comprised of members of the Nebraska State Patrol, the State Fire Marshal’s Office and the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality.
The team will not know what the simulation will be June 6 and 7 until they arrive. The team will also take part in a simulation at the Kearney Volunteer Fire Department training grounds east of Kearney on June 5.
“We do exercises quarterly, but we usually don’t announce where or when the exercise is going to take place,” Sargent Copp said. “However, since the June 6 and 7 exercise is taking place on a university campus, we don’t want people to be concerned. We want them to know that there is training. And we don’t want the campus deluged with phone calls.”
The team, which is charged with the preservation of life, property and the environment, works with a wide variety of hazardous materials emergencies. Among those emergencies are chemical spills from highway and railway accidents.
