Emergency services in Dubbo know how to deal with an unprecedented crisis following an intense training exercise earlier in the week.
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On Thursday, more than 70 people gathered at the Dubbo RSL, from Health NSW representatives to Taronga Western Plains Zoo to John Holland, to take part in a stimulated disaster.
It was designed to test the Dubbo Local Emergency Plan.
The scenario was a solar storm, which resulted in billions of tonnes of high energy magnetised plasma to rain down on Earth at the speed of light. The storm took out all electronics and communication methods and destroyed any cars not under cover.
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As the day progressed, the scenario increased through different phases, which included buildings collapsing and food starting to run out.
At each point, the services present were required to share how they would deal with the scenario in collaboration with other stakeholders.
Emergency Management Officer at NSW Police Kelvin Wise said the participants performed better than he expected, especially when it came to communicating with other organisations.
“I think one of the big wins out of it, and we don’t know fully until we do the feedback, is what you as a person and industry rely on, versus what does the rest of the community need to recover from a disaster,” he said.
“If you ask someone in the community they might say ‘I want food in my belly because I’m hungry’, but what we found is that fuel and electricity are a big priority. I still think there’s one above them again and it’s public order and community safety.”
While it was an extreme scenario selected for the exercise, which was called ‘Starship Enterprise’, it could all be adapted in any Dubbo emergency.
“Just because it was a bit of an apocalyptic event didn’t mean anything. I took power and communication and it took the whole room to the same level. And then where I wanted to impact emergency services and our hospital and those areas was to bring in a big storm,” Mr Wise said.
The storm was based on a real event Brewarrina where 400 millimetres of rain hit the town.
A similar emergency training event was held in March. The test scenario began with a bomb threat in the Dubbo City Regional Airport terminal, followed by a plane crash which resulted in 10 fatalities.
How the solar storm unfolded
A solar storm would result in billions of tonnes of high energy magnetised plasma to rain down on Earth at the speed of light. The largest solar magnetic storm, known as the Carrington event, hit in 1859. It had the same energy as 10 billion atomic bombs.
The test scenario started with a thunderstorm warning.
The next stage was when the solar flares hit Earth, leaving people burnt and suffering electric shocks, as well as destroying the electricity and communication.
In phase three came the intense storms. Buildings started to collapse and added pressure was put on emergency services from the ambulances to the Rural Fire Service. Then the food supplies started to diminish and local banking institutions ran out of cash.
Finally, the defence force was calling in to help with the recovery.