CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. - Donnie Morris says the adrenaline flows when the bell rings to save lives.
Morris, 54, of Portuguese Cove, N.S., has been answering the bell for 28 years to search and rescue calls with the Canadian Coast Guard (CCGS).
He has been involved in many big cases, most notably the Swissair Flight 111 that crashed into the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean off Nova Scotia in 1998, killing all 229 on board.
So, when Morris, acting search and rescue (SAR) preparedness officer, took part Wednesday in a large-scale, mass-casualty search and rescue exercise in the waters off Hillsborough Bay, he was cool as a cucumber.
“Here you know it’s not the real thing, so you try to make it as realistic as you can,’’ he says.
“For me, it’s nice to see us all work together.’’
The mock exercise, the largest off the coast of P.E.I. since 2010, certainly brought many people together to test their mettle.
Phil Walker, a senior SAR officer with the Canadian Coast Guard, says close to 120 people took part in the exercise, drawing from both Canada’s navy and air force, P.E.I. wildlife officers, Emergency Measures Organization personnel, local firefighters and the P.E.I. Ground Search and Rescue.
A Lockheed C-130 Hercules four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft and a dozen or so vessels, including the 83-metre CCGS Edward Cornwallis were also added to the mix.
“We don’t do this scale of exercise a lot,’’ notes Walker.
“But overall when we do these exercises we want it to be as real as possible so the folks participating learn their limitations… There will be a very open, frank discussion with a lot of people at the end of this.’’
Walker says “seamless communication’’ among all parties involved in the exercise is critical to doing the job well.
“We didn’t really know what we were going to get for situations, so we were doing as much training as we could for this exercise. There’s definitely a little bit of nerves.’’
-Remie Mill
Rebecca Pierce, 43, of O’Leary is a resident care worker who joined the P.E.I. Ground Search and Rescue about four years ago.
Like many others involved in Wednesday’s exercise, she did not have a clue what was going to take place when she arrived at the old Coast Guard wharf in Charlottetown to spring into action.
“I’m just looking forward to the experience,’’ she said.
“I am looking forward to see what the other parties involved do and what is expected of us.’’
The mock exercise called for the search and rescue of roughly 50 people who had been on a tour vessel that sank, dispersing the passengers over about 16 nautical square miles.
Some were in life rafts, others left bobbing in the water. Still more had ended up on St. Peters Island and Governors Island.
Remie Mill, a coxswain with the Canadian Coast Guard, was among the many challenged to track down and ‘rescue’ people.
She did her best to prepare for what was only her second – and by far the largest – search and rescue exercise.
“We didn’t really know what we were going to get for situations, so we were doing as much training as we could for this exercise,’’ says Mill.
“There’s definitely a little bit of nerves.’’
Rick Cameron, 66, of O’Leary volunteered to be among the unfortunate displayed tour vessel passengers.
Cameron, who is a disaster management volunteer with the Canadian Red Cross, find the exercise intriguing.
“It’s been interesting,’’ he says.
“There’s a lot of communication going on. There’s a lot of parties involved.’’
Even though this was Walker’s ninth major mock disaster exercise, he still gets revved up heading into action.
“The more you do obviously the more comfortable you get,’’ he says, adding quickly that “you don’t want to be complacent, ever.’’
