Marquette Co. official attends Homeland Security Training

Emergency Responder Lyn L. Nelson, from the Marquette County Sheriff’s Office and Marquette County Medical Control Authority, is well-versed in what to do in the event of an emergency.  She recently completed training offered by the Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP), in Anniston, Alabama. The CDP is operated by the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency and is the only federally-chartered Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) training facility in the nation.

Nelson attended two courses: Hospital Emergency Response to Mass Casualty Incidents and Hands- On Training for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive Incidents. The first training culminated in a full-scale exercise to provide security to the former Nobel Army Hospital, triage 146 patients, decontaminate them and treat them. The instructors chose Nelson from a class of more than forty participants to be the team leader.

The Hands On Training was conducted at the Chemical, Ordnance, Biological and Radiological Training Facility (COBRA), which is the national’s only facility featuring civilian training exercises in a true toxic environment using chemical agents. The hands-on training enables responders to effectively prevent, respond to, and recover from real-world incidents involving acts of terrorism and other hazardous materials.  Nelson was chosen to be on the scene management and patient removal team while at COBRA.

The CDP develops and delivers advanced training for emergency response providers, emergency managers, and other government officials from state, local and tribal governments. The CDP offers more than 50 training courses focusing on incident management, mass casualty response, and emergency response to a catastrophic natural disaster or terrorist act. Training at the CDP campus is federally funded at no cost to state, local, and tribal emergency response professionals or their agency.