Emergency responders prepare for the worst

Emergency responders from eight local counties and several state National Guard units are preparing themselves for large-scale disasters.
A large-scale exercise, called “Wide Vigilance V” is being held all week to help responders learn more skills.
They’re practicing dealing with severe weather, like a hurricane or tropical storm.
Other planned drills will include hazardous material incidents, flooded hospitals and collapsed structures.
These drills take many months to plan.
“We do these drills every other year, so we take a year to plan it and then we take a year to review it, figure out what went right and what went wrong and then we figure out how we can improve from there,” says Duane Hagelgans, South Central Task Force Public Information Officer.
Saturday’s drill was conducted at the Public Safety Training Center at Harrisburg Area Community College.
Activities will continue Monday at HACC in Lancaster County and at Fort Indiantown Gap in Lebanon County.