Ellendale talks emergencies

Emergency response was the theme for the Ellendale city council meeting on Dec. 8.
Jerry Ibberson was appointed as Ellendale’s local emergency management director. Ibberson has worked with the disaster warning service Skywarn in the past. He accepted the position but had questions about the council’s expectations.
Ibberson is eager to update the town’s emergency response management plan and wanted to know if he had the council’s support to do so. The current version of the plan was designed in the early 90’s. The council expressed their support.
Ibberson would also like to take a more proactive approach to disasters, such as having shelter materials lined up beforehand. He also wants to set up a place where emergency plan records can be stored.
The council will meet with him again in the future so they can discuss response plans more in depth. After his appointment, Ibberson stuck around for the sheriff’s derailment debriefing.
Sheriff Lon Thiele debriefed the council on the train derailment that took place just outside Ellendale on Veteran’s Day morning. A southbound train carrying chemicals derailed and led to a forced evacuation of the town. The cause of the derailment is unknown, and it will be some time before the investigation concludes.
The train was carrying propane and butane, which were in cars damaged in the derailment. Had they caught fire the combination could have led to the forming of hydrogen cyanide gas. Emergency responders immediately established a hot zone and performed a forced evacuation of the town. They also instituted a no-fly zone. It was fortunate that the incident happened early on a Friday, so no responders were off-duty for the weekend yet.
Sheriff Thiele wanted to extend his thanks to United Methodist Church.
“They were awesome,” Thiele said. They let emergency services take over their parking lot, and then approached emergency responders and let them know they could come inside too.
“You could see they loved what they were doing,” Thiele concluded.
Gold Cross, Blooming Prairie, and Ellendale ambulances helped evacuate residents that weren’t as able.
In addition to Steele County, Freeborn and Waseca sheriff offices responded. MNdot helped put up warning signs.
Fire departments from Ellendale, New Richland, Blooming Prairie, Geneva, and Rochester were all on scene. Rochester’s team is even specially trained in chemical management. The Red Cross assisted too. The state fire marshal and the sheriff have final call in an emergency like this.
Thiele, Ibberson, and Steele County Emergency Management Director Mike Johnson all agreed that downloading the Everbridge warning system to their phones is one of the biggest precautions that residents can take to be informed in future disasters.

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Closing his debriefing, Thiele said, “For a trail derailment, you can’t have it work out any better then it did.”