PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Emergency responder Kelly L. Langley, from the Presque Isle office of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, recently completed training offered by the Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston, Alabama.
The CDP is operated by the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency and is the only federally chartered weapons of mass destruction training facility in the nation.
“I was very fortunate to have been selected to attend this training,” said Langley. “I feel as though I am more capable to handle any real-world incidents involving chemical, biological, explosive, radiological, and other hazardous materials after completing the Hazardous Materials Technologies: Sampling, Monitoring, and Detection class.”
The CDP develops and delivers advanced training for emergency response providers, emergency managers, and other government officials from state, local and tribal governments. The CDP offers more than 40 training courses focusing on incident management, mass casualty response, and emergency response to a catastrophic natural disaster or terrorist act.
Training at the CDP campus is federally funded at no cost to state, local and tribal emergency response professionals or their agency.
Resident training at the CDP includes healthcare and public health courses at the Noble Training Facility, the nation’s only hospital dedicated to training healthcare professionals in disaster preparedness and response.
A number of resident training courses culminate at the CDP’s Chemical, Ordnance, Biological and Radiological (COBRA) Training Facility. The COBRA is the nation’s only facility featuring civilian training exercises in a true toxic environment using chemical agents. The advanced hands-on training enables responders to effectively prevent, respond to, and recover from real-world incidents involving acts of terrorism and other hazardous materials.
“At the COBRA facility we were exposed to live agents, anthrax, ricin and VX to show the confidence of our instruments and our personal protective gear,” Langley said.
Responders participating in CDP training gain critical skills and confidence to respond effectively to local incidents or potential events resulting from weapons of mass destruction.
Information about CDP training programs can be found at http://cdp.dhs.gov. For more information about the CDP, contact the CDP External Affairs Office, at (256) 847-2212/2316 or e-mail pao@cdpemail.dhs.gov.
