SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office and the Spokane County Emergency Management are hosting a full-scale training exercise today at Mead High School between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., according to a press release from Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.
The training is to ensure multiple city, county, state and federal entities have the necessary tools and training needed in the event of a natural disaster, terrorist attack, or active shooter event.
In doing so, officials putting on the event are hoping to create a unified command structure so in the event of a large-scale emergency, communication, response and preparedness is more streamlined.
A similar training took place in June 2013 at the Spokane Valley Mall.
For safety reasons, the site will be closed to those not involved for the duration of the training exercise. To be used as part of the training, a large number of emergency vehicles, first responders, and other equipment will be in the area and at the school throughout the entire day.
Also, as part of the exercise, Spokane County Emergency Management will utilize and test the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system and the Alert Spokane System to advise people in, or traveling through, the area of the training exercise, the press release said.