eastoregonian.com/front page/2-26-99
By VIVIANE GILBERT STEIN of the East Oregonian
PENDLETON - An emergency drill at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution Thursday morning got a little extra pep, thanks to an alert but confused resident.
EOCI staff were midway through the training exercise when they realized someone was taking them seriously - and broadcasting the mistake.
Yes, there was an explosion at the prison's body shop, but it was all part of a planned emergency exercise, explained EOCI spokeswoman Kathy Jackson. "We just didn't think it would be of such interest," she admitted.
Emergency exercise drills are planned to test staff responses in case of an actual crisis. "What we do is simulate an emergency as real as possible," Jackson said. "It'd be like we were in an actual situation."
In Thursday's exercise, that meant an explosion and fire - which was immediately extinguished - and simulated "injuries."
A report on the police scanner was immediately followed by a disclaimer explaining the fire was part of a drill.
However, one Pendleton resident called a Portland television station to notify them of the "breaking news."
Jackson was acting in her capacity as public information officer for the prison in an emergency, fielding phone calls from media and deciding what information to release, when a real call came in from a television station.
But Jackson, thinking the caller was an EOCI staff member imitating a media representative, answered the questions as if there had been a real explosion. After all, that's what the training is all about.
"I thought it was just another curve they were throwing me," Jackson said of the call.
In fact, it was an actual television station.
It wasn't until after she took another media call that Jackson realized something was wrong.
After talking with another staff member, Jackson said they "put two and two together" and realized what had happened: two of the calls had actually come from Portland and Tri-Cities television stations.
"We were on the phone immediately to both TV stations," explaining and apologizing for the error, she said.
The emergency exercise drills are conducted twice a year at all of the state's penal institutions. "It's a training tool, so we know what we need to do," Jackson explained.
An unintended result of this exercise will be new protocol developed by the Department of Corrections. A checklist of local media contacts will be created for public information officers, and a schedule of drills will be released ahead of time, Jackson said. Local media also will be invited to participate in the drills, perhaps by calling in with the questions they would ask if it was a real emergency situation.