QUAKE DRILL POINTS OUT PLANNING NEEDS

It was a rehearsal that county officials hope never to play out for real:

An earthquake along the New Madrid Fault devastates the region. It registers 7.7 on the Richter scale. Hundreds are dead. Thousands of structures have collapsed, including schools and the Mississippi Bridge.

About 75 people in key decision-making jobs in Cape Girardeau County traveled to Jefferson City last week for a mock disaster drill. The host for the exercise was the State Emergency Management Agency.

Although just a drill, the exercise pointed out some lapses in local response. For example, those involved realized the need for better communication among local governments and agencies.

County and city officials learned they were not fully prepared to deal with a major earthquake or other disaster. This kind of sobering lesson is best learned during a practice drill, not the real thing.

Team members returned with a call for more joint training sessions. Communication and cooperation are certainly keys during any catastrophe. Agencies can do considerable good work on their own. But without a coordinated effort, reaction and services will simply fall short.

Cape Girardeau County presiding commissioner Gerald Jones said each agency needs to better understand the others' responsibilities. He said the various agencies need to meet regularly to better plan for emergencies. It would be time well spent -- especially if disaster one day strikes.

It marked the first time that the cities of Cape Girardeau and Jackson along with the university and county had participated jointly in such a drill. It won't be the last.

The drill was also the first such exercise put on by the state's emergency management agency that focused on a single county. The state hopes to provide similar training sessions for other counties in the future.

This session proved so successful for Cape Girardeau County officials that future sessions for other counties seems a natural extension. Previously, this kind of training was only available at the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Maryland. It was hard enough to send 75 county officials to Jefferson City for three days. Packing such a team off across the country would have proved impractical.

We're taught from an early age: practice makes perfect. The same rule applies for disaster response. All county residents will benefit from governments and agencies that work as a well-prepared team when disaster strikes.