Crisis situation simulation taking place at Central High

Fire, police and others will test their tactics

A crisis will take place at Central High School on Tuesday.

A planned crisis, but one simulating high intensity and high risk. It’s sort of practice on life-saving tactics from several emergency service agencies.

Local police, fire and hospital personnel will be tested, but they’re not sure exactly how, just yet.

Because, like many crisis situations, they happen without warning, so these agencies won’t know many details, according to Allison Hennessey, a medical education specialist with Gundersen Health System.

“We corresponded with different local, national and even international disasters that we unfortunately see on the news,” Hennessey said. “So we pick one a year, at least, to work with the La Crosse community to help prepare. 

“It’s also fun and exciting for them, too, because they get to learn about what to do without actually having the tragedy of dealing with it.”

Students from the Wisconsin Academy of Rural Medicine, and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health will play a large role.

“There are the victims and the medical students sometimes are the ones running this and planning it,” Hennessey said. “They do it as a project. They learn a lot because they have to create the scenario, they have to create the injuries that go along with it and correspond the timeline of what’s going to happen and when.”

The drill is expected to last between 60-90 minutes and isn’t open to the public.