Emergency workers collaborate on major disaster response training in Fulton County

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. - How do first responders prepare to handle disasters? 

They practice.

The Atlanta Fulton County Emergency Management Agency put a giant cooperative effort to the test with local, state, and federal crews to practice responding to major disasters.

The crews, which were decked out in HAZMAT gear and gas masks, ran through exactly how they would respond if there was a nuclear detonation in Atlanta. 

"We have about 500 people here on site between the decontamination piece and also inside with the family assistance center, and public information," Operations Battalion Chief Chayne Sparagowski said.

This effort, which involves everyone from local fire departments to the U.S. Department of Defense, has been in the works for eyars.

"We've actually been planning this for about two years. It's really the first exercise of it's kind where it integrates both the department of defense and civilian systems together into one whole response," Sparagowski said.

U.S. Department of Defense Lt. Col. Eric Miller says their goal is to help support local agencies however they need.

"We want to get communities back after hurricanes, pandemics, or in this case we're simulating an improvised nuclear crisis," Miller said.

Lt. Col. Trevis McCullough says they're using these runthroughs to refine their response.

"We see this as an opportunity to actually go through and reshape some of our tactics and procedures, take the lessons learned from this event and reshape our tactics and procedures," McCullouch said.

Miller says, while it's good to get in the practice of how each element works - like decontamination for people, pets, and reuniting families - it's also about building strong working relationships on every level of response.

"Exercises of this scale don't happen every day. It's a lot of planning and the time to meet is not at the disaster. The time to meet and develop relationships, see how everyone works together is now," Miller says.

This exercise is changing the way these kinds of disaster drills are done across the country. Here at home, the first responders practicing say all this is to keep Georgians safe.

"You have a dedicated element that focuses on training and support in any event that occurs in a domestic disaster," McCulloch said. "We train for the worst day."

One of the things that set the drill apart was working with the Department of Agriculture to help decontaminate and treat pets.

That's a major issue that first responders have been up against during past disasters like Hurricane Katrina.