CLALLAM COUNTY – Disaster Air Response Team, or DART, is a group of local volunteer pilots that would aid Emergency Management centers in the event of a catastrophic disaster like a Cascadia-sized earthquake. This may include transportation of patients, delivery of goods including medicines, or just scouting areas from the air after a disaster.
The Clallam County group is the only one of it’s kind in the State of Washington.
After a lot of planning, the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Management Section and the DART pilots are teaming up this Saturday to conduct a drill that will simulate what they would need to do in such an emergency. Pilots and their aircraft will come together with a large group of volunteers who will work on the ground, loading and unloading hundreds of pounds of food donated by local businesses.
The exercise will involve multiple flights between Bellingham and Port Angeles, and then on to Sequim, Sekiu and Forks.
Alan Barnard, Chairman of Clallam County DART, has worked all summer to put this exercise together.
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The exercise will get underway around 8:00 AM Saturday at Fairchild here in Port Angeles. Barnard says it will be the entire team’s first chance to evaluate their processes and plans should they ever be needed.
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The event is not open to the public due to obvious safety concerns around the aircraft.