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Cross-border emergency crews work together on first-ever exercise in Minnesota

GRAND PORTAGE -- What would happen if a wildfire raged on the Gunflint Trail, an illness breaks out in Grand Marais and a crash has shutdown Highway 61 all at the same time? Resources south of the border would be stretched thin and help from either D
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Emergency teams work together during an exercise Wednesday afternoon. (Jamie Smith, tbnewswatch.com)

GRAND PORTAGE -- What would happen if a wildfire raged on the Gunflint Trail, an illness breaks out in Grand Marais and a crash has shutdown Highway 61 all at the same time?

Resources south of the border would be stretched thin and help from either Duluth or Minneapolis would be hours away. One might think emergency crews from Thunder Bay could hop the border to help their neighbours out but it turns out it's not that simple.

For more than four years the Pigeon River Steering Committee has been working to get a mutual aid agreement in place. Currently in its draft form, the Northern Emergency Management Assistance Compact needs national, provincial, state, tribal and municipal cooperation to make sure help is there when people need it. Right now help in the above scenario would come but it's been based on handshakes so far.

"We've all agreed that if we're needed on one side of the border or the other we'll respond to the best of our ability and work out the details afterwards," Cook County emergency management director Jim Wiinanen said.

Grand Portage Reservation emergency director Mike Keyport said the goal though is to get everything in place so that crews can cross the border as quickly as possible. Any disaster that needs a hazmat team in Grand Portage could see a crew from Thunder Bay in under two hours rather than at least double that from the south.

"That's huge life-saving possibilities there," Keyport said.

Minnesota emergency management director Joe Kelly said it's taken time to get to the draft stage of the agreement. Sovereignty, licensing and other issues have made the process a lengthy one. Especially when all levels of government on both sides of the border are involved. But progress has been made.

"It's to ensure that we can help each other when there is a major disaster or emergency without tripping over the international border," he said.

"They're not insurmountable they just need to be worked out ahead of time."

Working it out ahead of time was exactly what nearly 100 people from Thunder Bay, Neebing, Grand Portage and Cook County have been doing over the past four days at the Grand Portage Community Centre. The Federal Emergency Management Association's Integrated Emergency Management Course has been pushing emergency resources to the limit running mock scenarios that keep piling on disasters to see what everyone is capable of and perhaps where the gaps might be.

"This is the place to practice, to make our mistakes and find out where the gaps are and then to be able to address those as time goes on," Wiinanen said.

"We don't want to learn these things when there's a real event," Kelly added.

FEMA region 5 director for national preparedness Michael Chesney said the goal is to keep increasing the challenge.

"The more we can induce complexity into an exercise the better off I think we'll be for a real world response"

Thunder Bay emergency management coordinator Dennis Brescasin said it's a first.

"We've never really had cross-border exercises like this one," he said.

Thunder Bay could be called to the U.S. Right now but a formal agreement in place could save lives if disaster struck.

"It would definitely be more efficient in response times and patient outcome that'd be the main focus," he said. 

It's more likely that Thunder Bay would be needed in Cook County or Grand Portage because of the sparse population.





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