Houlton tests emergency response services

  HOULTON, Maine — As summer fades and autumn takes shape, days grow shorter and temperatures drop. Not too far around the corner, old man winter will be making his visit to the Shiretown. And with frosty air comes the chance of icing.
Though Houlton has never had a power outage for an extended period of time due to an ice storm like southern Maine experienced in 1998 and a decade later in 2008, town officials still wanted to be prepared. On Aug. 4, Houlton, along with several Aroostook towns, participated in a day-long emergency management exercise.
    “The exercise was to test the capabilities of our Emergency Operations Center,” said Houlton Town Manager Doug Hazlett.
The exercise simulated a severe ice storm hitting Houlton for several days causing power outages, a need to open an emergency shelter and evacuations. Through the exercise other test scenarios are also executed.
“This was an excellent test of our capabilities,” explained Hazlett. “Especially, since a severe ice storm is one of our highest potential threats.”
The Emergency Operations Center was staffed by eight town management employees.
“For the most part, I feel we responded appropriately to each of the issues presented,” Hazlett added.
The town of Houlton will receive a report from the Aroostook County Emergency Management Agency that will provide an assessment of the town’s performance if there was an actual emergency.
Hazlett noted several areas that need attention since being involved with the simulation.
During the exercise, Houlton actually lost Internet capability for real due to a tower problem on Reservoir Hill.
“While we were able to cobble together a solution to the problem,” Hazlett said, “it does point out a need to have redundancy for this function.”
The solution: Switching Internet service from wireless to DSL and check into buying a Verizon card for back-up Internet capability.
“Our phone system is antiquated,” said Hazlett. “Calls from County EMA can not be isolated from normal calls coming into the town office. In a real emergency, this would result in a bottleneck in communicating with EMA.”
Solution: Have a separate direct line installed in the Houlton EOC which bypasses the normal phone system.
Another potential problem if an emergency were to arise is communicating with County EMA by fax proved time consuming since the town office’s fax machine is built into the copier on the first floor.
Solution: A separate phone for a new direct line, which will acquire a combination phone/fax unit.
“One of the scenarios was a request to inform the county of which service stations had back-up generators for fuel operation,” said Hazlett. “We were unable to provide a response.”
Town officials will create an inventory of all major businesses in town with back-up generation capability to help rectify the situation.
Another scenario tested was a request for a back-up generator for a church housing a group as a warming shelter, said Hazlett.
“It became obvious we do not have generators to offer,” he added.
So, the town will file an inventory of rental centers and contractors who could be sources of generator rentals, and determine if town-owned generators could be purchased at a reasonable rate.
As town officials were called on for potable water to various locations in town, as well as the emergency operation shelter, again, the town would quickly use the supply of bottled water.
“We need to evaluate the possibility of acquiring a large potable water tank,” said Hazlett. “The water tank could be filled at the onset of an emergency and transported to various sites.”
With a widespread prolonged power outage, Houlton Water Company would be put to the test.
“We became aware that we do not know the extent of Houlton Water Company’s capabilities,” Hazlett said. “The town has subsequently learned that the Houlton Water Company has full back-up generation capacity for both water and sewer sources in case of a town-wide outage.”