Even a newsman gets some training at county’s emergency exercise

By JIM HARDIN CNHI

ROCKWALL COUNTY — I played good newsman Saturday, I guess. I showed up somewhere uninvited and participated in an activity, again without an invitation.

The event was an emergency exercise that involved Rockwall County, the cities of Rockwall, Heath, Royse City, Fate and McLendon-Chisholm -- and one newspaper reporter.

The exercise was intended to allow local responders in fire, police, public works and emergency medical services to practice their emergency roles in response to a weather emergency.

Earlier in the week, I told Joe DeLane, emergency management coordinator for the county, that I would be there because they need to know how to deal with me and other news people during a real emergency.

This was going to be a training exercise for them. It was going to be a training exercise for me.

I have a lot of experience covering spot news. I covered riots in downtown Dallas and at White Rock Lake in the early 70s when I was a reporter for the Dallas Times-Herald. I covered a plane crash in Mena, Arkansas, again in the early 70s for the Times-Herald. I’ve covered shootings, hostage situations, fires, floods, jailbreaks and train wrecks.

But I’m a little rusty.

I needed to get out and cover a spot news event, even if it was an exercise. While these first responders were doing their job, I would be trying to do mine.

At the scene — the Rockwall County Juvenile Services Building on Whitmore Drive — I did something I would never do at the scene of a real life emergency. I approached a police officer and showed him my name badge. If it had been a real emergency, I would have kept moving closer to the scene until somebody in authority told me to stop.

This officer said I could walk down Whitmore Drive to some orange traffic cones. He said I couldn’t go beyond the orange cones until somebody told me I could.

I stood by the orange cones for a few minutes, looked through some trees and saw some of the emergency personnel tending to victims of this emergency — a possible tornado and partially collapsed building with people trapped inside.

Nobody was around to tell me what I could and couldn’t do, so I did what I thought a good newsman should do. I inched closer to the action. And, well, if you give me an inch I am likely to enlarge my territory.

Before I — and they — knew it, I was in the middle of the emergency scene. I even went to the side of the building where victims were being taken out.

I believe I actually blended in with the emergency personnel. Almost everybody in the emergency business wears a neon-colored vest. I was wearing my own press vest. What should have tipped these people off that I wasn’t one of them were my Nike cap, Asics running shoes and camera.

These vests, however, have a target on the back. It says PRESS. Yes, it kind of shouts at you.

Well, that five letter word on the back of my vest got the attention of Capt. Jerry Miller of the Rockwall Fire Department.

“Hey, Mr. Press man,” Miller shouted to me.

He motioned for me to join him on the street next to a fire truck. He told me that I needed to report to the public information officer just up the street, away from the immediate emergency scene. I did as I was told and Miller was even kind enough to announce my arrival at the spot up the street where a group of emergency personnel was gathered.

Over the radio, he said a newspaper reporter was headed their way and that I would have to report to the public information officer. That’s when I met Sgt. Ray Fitzwater of the Rockwall Police Department.

Miller and Fitzwater did their jobs and, of course, it kept me from doing mine. But that’s just the way it is. Their job involves keeping people safe, including me. And their job also involves keeping people, including me, away from emergency scenes so emergency personnel can do their jobs.

Overall, DeLane said, the training exercise was a success.

I was not pleased with myself, however. Sure, I got in and was able to snap some pictures. But this is when camera malfunction struck again. I ended up with about 10 pictures and missed out on 30 or 40 others before I was busted by Miller.

If this had been a real emergency, I would have been very disappointed because of my camera malfunction. Actually, though, if this had been an actual event, I probably would still be stuck by those orange traffic cones. I wouldn’t have been allowed to get inside for those close-up photo opportunities.

And I’ve got to add this for all those people who are disappointed with my conduct at this simulated disaster. If this had been an actual emergency, I would have used better judgment about where I went and what I did. I believe even a good newsman knows that’s the right thing to do.

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