The Mississippi National Guard and other partners are preparing for the possibility of another natural disaster. MPB's Jasmine Ellis reports.
Local, state, and federal interagency partners are participating in search and rescue training at Camp McCain near Grenada. A helicopter hovers overhead while participants practice rescuing someone who is trapped on top of a roof during a natural disaster. Charles Parker is a member of Task Force Three for the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security.
"It lets us be able to put the training that we've acquired over the years to actually put it into, like what we have here with the prop, being actually to hone them," said Parker. And work together as a team to smooth out and be able to tweak situations. And it just helps us better when an actual emergency does come."
The training is part of Ardent Sentry 2019. It's a national level earthquake exercise that involves a 7.7 magnitude earthquake on the New Madrid Seismic Zone. The exercise involves all eight states that could be affected by an earthquake in the zone.
Governor Phil Bryant visited Camp McCain to observe the training and learn more about what the National Guard is doing to prepare in case of an earthquake.
"The most important thing we can do right now is be prepared in the event that an earthquake would take place," said Bryant. "A lot of people have predicted that it will occur and it will occur in this North Mississippi, South Tennessee area. And we're going to be ready for it."
According to the National Guard, three of the top ten most powerful earthquakes in the Continental US going back to 1811 have been New Madrid events.
