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Annual tornado exercise tests base response

  • Published
  • By Mike W. Ray
  • Staff Writer
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  Emergency personnel at Tinker Air Force Base had their hands full coping with multiple crises -- personal injuries, structural damage, a hazmat spill and power outage -- during the annual tornado exercise Feb. 15.

Traveling in a northeasterly direction, a simulated twister raked Del City, dealt a glancing but substantial blow to the north side of Tinker, then roared on into Midwest City. The route of the simulated tornado was similar to, but south of, the path taken by the devastating May 3, 1999, tornado.

The ersatz twister entered Tinker near Sooner Road and SE 44th Street and ripped through some base housing; damaged the Chapel (Bldg. 5701), the drive-through ATM outside the Chapel, the Chapel annex (Bldg. 5715), the Tinker Club (Bldg. 5603), and the Airman and Family Readiness Center (Bldg. 6001). The storm also caused some damage to the golf course before moving off-base just west of Tinker Gate at Air Depot Blvd.

Not even the center commander was spared from nature's wrath: the imitation tornado dropped an overturned car in the front yard of Maj. Gen. Bruce Litchfield, the OC-ALC commander.

Tinker's Fire and Emergency Services had to divide their personnel in order to perform duties at split locations. While several "injuries" were recorded in the family housing area, the Fire Department also had to respond to a simulated hazardous material spill at Bldg. 16 near Gate 3 (Turnbull) and to power transmission damage east of Bldg. 16.

The simulated hazmat/electrical emergency was caused by a smaller twister, spawned by the primary tornado, that touched down in the Defense Logistics Agency complex just north of Arnold Street.

Approximately 45 people were "injured" by the artificial tornadoes. The actors started assembling at the 72nd Medical Group warehouse (Bldg. 5800) about 9 a.m., prior to the start of the two-hour exercise in the afternoon. There the volunteers were prepared with moulage: the application of realistic-looking bone protrusions, lacerations and abrasions, fake blood, and other types of horrific injuries caused by the shredding of buildings and vehicles.

Rescue workers had to extricate a handful of those "victims" from classrooms in the Chapel annex. The others arrived in waves at the 72nd MDG health clinic (Bldg. 5801) for triage and, when necessary, more intensive medical attention.

"Holding the wing exercise in conjunction with an MDG training day gave us the latitude needed to create a realistic teaching environment without impacting normal day-to-day operations," said Capt. Edward Morris, Resource Management Flight commander, 72nd Medical Support Squadron. "By doing so, we were able to conduct the largest mass casualty exercise on Tinker AFB in more than 10 years."

Among those "injured" was Staff Sgt. Lakeydra Houston, 72nd Security Forces Squadron, who "suffered" severe abrasions on her arms when she fell and slid while running from one of the tornadoes. Airman Zachary Kewley of the 72nd MDSS was "pierced" in the neck by flying debris. Senior Airman Jacob Cummins of the 72nd SFS had an "eye" ripped from its socket. Justin Thornton of the 76th Commodities Maintenance Group had a sheet-metal fragment "lodged" in his forehead. Computer scientist Michael Wilson of the 558th Software Maintenance Group was "impaled" in the stomach by a piece of metal.

Bringing order out of chaos, 72nd MDG personnel treated myriad faux injuries -- to wrists, hands, legs, faces, heads and chests. A mother who "lost her baby" was hysterical.

"Overall we were very pleased with the results," said Captain Morris, the chief exercise evaluator for the 72nd MDG. "The sheer magnitude of this exercise presented a variety of injuries and scenarios that our personnel do not often see. These unique situations offered our providers, medics and support personnel a great opportunity to demonstrate their emergency response capabilities. It also helped us identify shortcomings that may have otherwise gone unnoticed during an exercise of smaller scale."

During the severe-weather training exercise, Tinker's emergency services had to fend for themselves. The terms of the scenario provided that no ambulances were available on base because all of the vehicles were responding to emergencies off-base in the civilian metro area. Consequently, Tinker personnel had to improvise their patient transportation and medical care during the event.

"It was a great exercise, with lots of chaos and confusion -- exactly what it would be like doing the real thing," said Tinker Fire and Emergency Services Chief Terry G. Ford. "Our folks were able to adapt and improvise without the necessary immediate resources on-site to treat and transport the victims to local hospitals."

The Exercise Evaluation Team "provided some challenging situations," Chief Ford said. "One in particular focused on a damaged bit of a seemingly small piece of infrastructure that could have significant impacts. Situations like that force you to think, which will make our responses stronger in the future."

Because of dense fog Wednesday morning, the sheltering portion of the natural-disaster exercise was postponed and emergency sirens were not activated. However, the balance of the exercise proceeded as planned.