Alaska can handle the coronavirus

As coronavirus swings through state after state, it is natural to be alarmed. I want to share with you some things that I know about Alaska in the hopes that this will give you more confidence about the crisis.

I was a member of the Alaska Army National Guard from 1991-2000. From 1994 through 1998, I also worked for the oil industry. Following the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the oil industry had several response organizations around the state designed to clean up oil spills, but it was clear that much more labor would be needed in another oil spill. My experience with the oil industry led me to create a proposal for then-Adjutant General Jacob Lestenkof of the National Guard to train Guard members to be able to respond to large oil spills if called upon by the governor. This would require that Guard members be trained to the same standard that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration required of oil companies. Guard leadership saw the value in giving soldiers the very basic level of training for Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER); they soon began giving soldiers some of this very important training on how to protect themselves from hazardous substances. This could be useful in a coronavirus outbreak, because some of the same protective equipment used for oil spills would also protect from biological agents.

In 1998, the federal government authorized the creation of Civil Support Teams around the country designed to assist local and state authorities in situations where Weapons of Mass Destruction (nuclear, chemical or biological agents) were used against the United States. Alaska was one of the last states to get one of these teams. As an officer in the Guard, my first occupational specialty had been chemical defense. I had received NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) training, which included going through a live nerve agent chamber (in protective clothing) at what was then Fort McClellan, Alabama. That experience gave me a leg up in applying for a position in 1999 as one of the initial staff hired to begin setting up the Civil Support Team in Alaska. I was only in that position for a few months but during that time, I took part in the training which the response team would later be required to attend. This included not only the live nerve agent chamber, but also training in the highest level of protection in hazardous materials training, which includes a self-contained breathing apparatus inside a protective suit similar to what you see some of the responders on TV wear. Members of the Civil Support Team were taught to assess what type of chemical or biological agent they are facing and wear the appropriate protective clothing when they go into a “hot” zone to mitigate it.

In 2000, I went to work for the Department of Environmental Conservation, where I saw the intersection of government and industry and how they partnered with one another to participate in hazardous material clean-up. Crude oil facilities must be able to respond to clean-ups of extremely hazardous substances such as hydrogen sulfide and anhydrous ammonia. In severe spills everyone needs to participate. The DEC maintains lists of response resources, including the response contractors that work for the oil industry, firefighters, the Civil Support Team within the Alaska Army National Guard, and other federal and military assets.

In a severe outbreak, response resources could be used to clean and sanitize buildings that are especially hard hit or in which large numbers of the population congregate. They could be used to set up testing centers in the community and test large numbers of the population. They could be used to take supplies to especially hard-hit areas if people aren’t able to travel. They can help disperse food and medical supplies where needed in the community. And they can provide facilities or services to isolate parts of the population if that is needed.

The governor of Alaska is the commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard and has the authority to employ the Civil Support Team, the Air and Army National Guard and the Department of Environmental Conservation. Perhaps due to the large impact of oil on our economy and the large impact of the military in Alaska we have more people here who can be deployed in an emergency whether it be to an oil spill, a chemical release, or a biological agent like the coronavirus.

Alaska, I think we’ve got this.

Holly R. Hill was a major in the Alaska National Guard; she served from 1991-2000.

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