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PPL exercise tests Kerr Dam emergency readiness

By Maggie Plummer

The day before the PPL Montana tabletop training exercise, participants were invited to take tours of Kerr Dam and the powerhouse. (Maggie Plummer photo)

What if Kerr Dam failed in the middle of a rainy June runoff season, sending 12 feet of floodwater downstream?

How would emergency management agencies best warn people, and keep the public safe?

Answering these questions was the focus of a recent functional exercise testing PPL Montana's Kerr Dam Emergency Action Plan (EAP).

The day-long exercise was held at KwaTaqNuk Resort, where PPL workers had set up a series of cubicles with a 40-plus-line internal phone system. The idea was to simulate actual emergency events and see how the various players responded to the emergency.

The cubicles represented: PPL Montana corporate officials; PPL Montana field players; utilities; the Missoula National Weather Service; Montana Rail Link, Bonneville Power, and CenturyTel; Tribal, Lake County, and City of Polson emergency response teams; Montana State disaster and emergency services officials; Sanders County officials; the news media; and a Joint Information Center.

The Kerr Dam EAP focuses on the area between the dam and the Thompson Falls dam, about 106 miles downstream.

The earthen dam shown here played a key role in the emergency exercise. (Maggie Plummer photo)

The exercise scenario included failure of the right abutment earthen dam at Kerr Dam and ultimately complete dam failure, which would send a surge of extra water into the already high Flathead River below; failure of a key power transformer; two white water floaters drowning when they're caught in that surge; evacuations and road closures, especially in low-lying areas around Dixon and Plains; a train derailment; and a tremendous surge of trees and debris hitting the Thompson Falls Dam trash screens.

Among the key questions players had to answer were:
    • how high will the water get?
    • are all emergency shelters out of the flood plain? and
    • when will the flood surge hit various areas?

The simulated Joint Information Center included public information officers from PPL Montana and from the Lake County Sheriff's Office. Members of the media were instructed to go to, or keep in touch with, that center.

According to many of the players, the strongest feature of the local emergency management system is the Unified Command formed by the Tribes, Lake County, and the City of Polson.

They also said that the players interacted well and information quality was good.

Most participants said that the exercise helped them better understand their own role during an emergency, as well as others' roles and responsibilities.

Here's how German theologian/German Resistance participant Dietrich Bonhoeffer said it: "Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility."