Emergency planners work on Buckeye Lake exercise

LANCASTER – Local emergency management personnel have confirmed there will be an evacuation drill planned for April 25 in the Buckeye Lake area.

"With Licking County having two mobile home parks and a campground in the potential area for flooding, the state has begun planning for an evacuation drill involving live subjects," said Jon Kochis, director of the Fairfield County Emergency Management Agency. "This will not be a table-top exercise but a real drill involving all the resources and some residents or people portraying residents in the area."

Kochis said the goal of the exercise is to identify problems that could occur during a real evacuation.

"It will be designed to see what works and what we need to improve upon," Kochis said.

The exercise comes after a report from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers determined the Buckeye Lake dam was seriously weakened and the state committed to a five-year, $150 million project to build a new dam. The state has said it will keep the lake at the lower winter pool levels until construction is complete.

The planned exercise was disclosed Tuesday during a Fairfield County commissioners meeting by John Wisse, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, who has been updating the commissioners on the project.

County Commissioner Steve Davis tried, through a number of questions to Wisse, to relieve public fears about the safety of the dam and a possible failure of it while it remains at winter pool.

Wisse told the commissioners that he could not give them a blanket reassurance.

"If the lake is kept at winter pool levels, it substantially reduces the risk, but it does not eliminate it," Wisse said.

Wisse also said there will no doubt be a fish kill in the lake as a result of keeping it at winter levels, but the state does not believe it will be substantially different from previous fish kills in the lake.

As for the Cranberry Bog, Wisse said, environmental experts had told ODNR that the bog would not be harmed by keeping the lake at winter pool levels.

"It might make it flourish and grow with the shallower water," Wisse said.

Fairfield County Auditor Jon Slater also told commissioners that Fairfield and Licking counties have started taking aerial photos of the area to prepare for property reassessments in 2016.

"These were coming due anyway, and this information can be used for a variety of purposes," Slater said.

Kochis said the aerial photos will be used by emergency management agencies in Fairfield, Perry and Licking counties to identify possible safety routes and zones if evacuations are ever needed in those areas, regardless of the reason.

Kochis said that, between now and the April 25 exercise, planners will look at possible scenarios they could employ for the evacuation exercise to test the local responses.

"Doing live exercise is a valuable tool for those of us who have to respond," Kochis said.

cburnett@lancasterealgegazette.com

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Twitter: @CarlBurnettJr