By Amanda Spadaro

Butler Eagle Staff Writer

BUTLER TWP — Two military UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters landed on the baseball fields at the Butler County Community College on Wednesday afternoon for a worst-case scenario training exercise to help state and local first responders hone their skills.

=The training, here for its third year at BC3, has local emergency responders working with the Pennsylvania Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team (PA-HART) to practice complex scenarios. On Wednesday, the exercises simulated a Category 5 urban hurricane, resulting in significant flooding, according to Chris Calhoun, the coordinator of the Parks and Recreation program at BC3. Calhoun also is a member of PA-HART and the assistant chief for Butler County Water Rescue Team 300.

During severe emergencies, local authorities can become overwhelmed and request further outside assistance through the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.

In addition to PA-HART, which is a joint, military and civilian emergency organization, other departments at the training were the Butler County Water Rescue Team 300, the Butler County Medical Team 200, the South Butler Volunteer Fire Department and the Butler County Emergency Management Agency.

Teams of military personnel and civilians prepared for a simulation for which they had little information, which mimics a real-life emergency situation, said Scott Grahn, the senior strike team leader with PA-HART.

“(When) you get the call, you're not going to have all of the information,” he told the first responders on Wednesday.

Calhoun said one goal of the training is to practice how these on-the-spot decisions and reactions are handled.

“They really don't know what we have planned,” he said. “When they get here, they will be broken up into teams and they will have to make decisions. There will be multiple incidents happening at the same time and they'll have to pick and choose.”

He told the responders: “This is a decision-making day. See who you are going to rescue first.”

The simulation had responders react to a flash flood, with a family of three — a father, mother and baby — in a car and at the same time, a local first responders' boat had capsized.

Greg Dindinger of Zelienople, a member of Team 300, said the decisions a responder makes are always specific to the particular situation.

“It's a personal judgment thing to decide priorities,” Dindinger said. “At the snap of a finger, you have to decide.”

Dindinger, who has been through this PA-HART training simulation once before, was joined by his fellow Team 300 members Amy Aaldenberg from Pittsburgh and Russ Sarver from Butler.

Sarver said the team members don't get this opportunity to train with PA-HART often, typically only once a year, so he was excited to be involved.

But as exciting as the opportunity was, the scenario also requires following the highest safety protocols.

U.S. Army Maj. Michael Girvin said the exercises are focused on efficiency and safety rather than how long it takes to complete.

Wednesday's exercise took between 45 and 50 minutes to rescue all parties, and Girvin said he was pleased with the way the scenario went.

Although some local first responders have seen these types of emergency situations, as Calhoun did responding to Hurricane Ivan in 2004, others are working to improve skills that hopefully may never be needed.

“It's a constant training that may not be used very often, but it's critical because when you look at helicopter rescue, it's one of the most high-risk rescues,” Calhoun said.

It is better to be trained and prepared for the situation should it arise, he said.

Girvin said that because PA-HART is both a military and civilian operation, it works synergistically, providing services neither the military nor civilian first responders could provide on their own.

“It's nothing more than taking (organizations) that are already there and putting them together,” he said of PA-HART. “It's a synergy.”

The military does not have the time to train first responders in the same way local organizations can, but the civilians do not have the money or equipment, like the UH-60 Blackhawks, to put together such an advanced rescue team. That's where PA-HART comes in.

Following the simulation, the responders had a debriefing to identify the strengths of the decision-making process and how first responders can improve that in the future, Calhoun said.