La Plata County and city of Durango officials this week conducted a tabletop drill to be ready for a winter emergency.
The tabletop exercise, held in conjunction with the Southwest Incident Management Team, pretended the area received 48 inches of snow in 24 hours.
Participating agencies had to handle make-believe power outages, closed streets and roads and stranded residents.
The exercise Thursday was part of a larger an effort to improve official response to emergencies. The Department of Homeland Security encourages counties and cities to use practice exercises to improve coordinated efforts if the real thing occurs.
The Southwest Incident Management Team is certified by the state as a resource to local government and as a backup if local agencies are overwhelmed by an incident.
daler@durangoherald.com
