North Dakota Civil Support Team trains at TEEX

COLLEGE STATION – Members of the 81st Civil Support Team (Weapons of Mass Destruction) from North Dakota National Guard were in College Station Sept. 20-28 for hands-on training and exercises conducted by the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service. The team honed its skills for response to natural disasters, structural collapse, hazmat incidents and chemical/biological/radiological/nuclear and explosive (CBRNE) incidents.

The training was held at Disaster City? in coordination with U.S. Army North (ARNORTH), Joint Task Force Civil-Support.

As part of the training exercises, the CST was deployed to Disaster City, where members met with the “incident commander.” Among the scenarios the team faced included a derailed train car with a hazardous chemical leak, a passenger train derailment with victims, and a collapse of a single family dwelling, said Jim Yeager, Training Manager with TEEX Emergency Services Training Institute. They also responded to questions from “media.”

Other hazmat refresher training was conducted along with advanced rope rescue training, which included rappelling on Project 133 in Disaster City, he added.

Civil Support Teams for several states have trained at TEEX, including Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Texas and Wyoming.