By Jennifer Fuller
Springfield, IL – Illinois and seven other states are preparing for a disaster drill more than a year away - in May of 2011.
Illinois Emergency Management Agency Exercise Training Officer Marty Dwyer says the New Madrid earthquake drill in May 2011 - a "national level exercise" - is being called a "no-notice" event.
Illinois is one of eight states involved, and the planning for the drill is already more than a year under way. Dwyer says while there obviously is a good idea among managers of what day the "earthquake" will start, nobody knows what time it will happen, or what the make-believe effects will be - for example, what buildings will be inaccessible, or where the power would be out.
The drill is a test of managers, Dwyer says, but the activities of the general public will not be interrupted.
