Helicopter Makes A Close Landing
Plans assessed for potential area disaster response
Wheeling Intelligencer
16 June 2011
By J.W. Johnson, Jr. Staff Writer
PIKE ISLAND LOCKS AND DAM - After making two quick circles around the
Pike Island Locks and Dam on Wednesday, a Blackhawk helicopter landed
on one of the dam's piers, the first such landing that has ever been
conducted on a dam in the Pittsburgh lock district.
It took only five minutes from the time the helicopter appeared from
behind the Ohio hills to the time a team from the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers dismounted onto the pier, a number that will now serve as the
precedent in the event such a landing needs to occur because of a
security threat or natural disaster.
The landing was part of Transportation Security Administration
exercises held Wednesday at various spots along the Ohio River,
including Pike Island and Hannibal Locks and Dam. According to Steve
Davidson, chief of security and law enforcement for the Army Corps of
Engineers, the exercises were held to develop plans to prepare for
emergency situations and to allow local, state and federal agencies to
better understand the area.
"We are doing assessments of all of the infrastructure that operates
along the river," he said. "We are assessing what our response times
are for many individual areas and scenarios."
While the locks and dams are part of that infrastructure, so too are
steel mills and power plants and other factories, including those owned
by American Electric Power, Appalachian Power and DuPont, as well as
the railroad systems that follow the river as it winds south. Davidson
said the ability to bring a team to such areas via helicopter not only
allows immediate response, but also takes some of the pressure off of
local emergency response teams.
"If we can have airborne assets to an area in a quick fashion, we
ensure that there isn't a drain on local assets," he said.
Davidson said being able to explore the areas from above allows him and
his team to see potential weaknesses in certain areas or structures. He
said that information is taken and considered when devising a plan of
action that not only serves the local locks and dams but is shared with
locks and dams around the country.
"If we can determine that there is a weakness, we figure out how that
weakness can be exploited, much the same way an enemy would," he said.
"That way, we are always one step ahead."
In addition to the Army Corp of Engineers, officials from the Federal
Air Marshals, U.S. Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency and
the FBI were on hand to take part in the exercises, which covered
nearly 5,000 miles throughout Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia.
Local officials from the Ohio County Office of Emergency Management,
Wheeling Fire Department, Ohio County Sheriff's Department and Wheeling
Police Department were also on hand to speak with those federal
representatives and share information. Farther south, Wetzel County
Sheriff James Hoskins took part in the exercises at Hannibal.
"In meeting with those local assets, we are able to draw from their
expertise, and it allows us to have an inventory of what is available
to us in the event of an emergency," Davidson said.