The Delaware River and Bay Authority will hold an emergency disaster exercise at the Cape May Ferry Terminal on Wednesday, April 23, starting at 7:30 a.m. The exercise, which is expected to continue through early afternoon, will take place aboard a ferry in a designated area on the Delaware Bay.
It will be a mass casualty incident response-and-recovery exercise to address an active shooter threat scenario onboard a vessel.
“This drill provides a valuable opportunity to collectively test communication, coordination and rescue procedures,” said Heath Gehrke, the DRBA’s director of ferry operations. “Following the drill, there will be an immediate debriefing, allowing the evaluators and participants to offer their critical assessment and feedback.”
Participating organizations will include the Coast Guard, Delaware River and Bay Authority, State Police, Cape May County, Lower Township, AtlantiCare and local and state first responders.
The full-scale exercise will test emergency response-and-recovery plans and procedures, communications framework and coordination abilities of the participants, and equipment of rescue units and other emergency personnel who would respond to an actual incident.
In preparation for the training exercise, a dedicated information hotline and web page has been created and would be activated in the event of a real emergency. If a true safety-threat situation were to arise, real-time updates would be made as they became available.
