Russell County EMA trains with WHINSEC

RUSSELL COUNTY, ALA . (WRBL) — The Russell County Emergency Management Agency hosted the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) for emergency management training. 

WHINSEC teaches the latest U.S. military doctrine, in Spanish to security force personnel of the Western Hemisphere using the unmatched resources at the U.S. Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence located at Fort Benning, Georgia. 

David Martin is the Director of Emergency Management in Russell County. Martin says this is the first time Russell County has hosted WHINSEC for emergency management training.

Both agencies trained on the scenario of a train derailment in front of the intermediate school.

“Everybody has different circumstances,” Martin says. “Some of these countries these folks’ electricity is different…if you take out one telephone pole in their country, you’ve taken out the whole city.”

Jorge Lugo is a soldier in the Columbian military. He says Russell County has very similar emergency management processes. 

Lugo explains,”…we can take home very important items that may be in our countries we do not have resources for, but it raises awareness.”

Martin told WRBL News 3 the Russell County Emergency Management Agency also learned things they will implement. 

“We gave them a sheet to go by, and it was a very old sheet. They have actually updated the information based on the hazmat scenario we gave them and we’re going to actually implement that into one of our books,” Martin says. 

Yackzabeth Jimenez is a soldier in the Panama military. 

Jimenez says,”For us, this was a work that we’ve dedicated a lot of time for.” 

She continues, “We think that Russell County can use it for decision making in emergency situations. They can assess our deliverable or product and can make better decisions when planning, coordinating an emergency or in a real situation”