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Day 2 Of Emergency Preparedness Exercises

DETROIT (WWJ) - Following the "big boom" along the Detroit River Tuesday, emergency crews will spend another day putting their disaster response skills to the test.

WWJ's Ron Dewey reports that on day 2 of the emergency preparedness exercises, officials will get into more of the nuances of responding to such an emergency. In this case, the environmental response to an oil slick that was caused by Tuesday's mock explosion; handling customs issues -- U.S. victims who may have been transported to Canada -- how do you get them back home; how well do all of these gears really work together.

Coast Guard Capt. Jeff Ogden says they'll look at game film.

"With every major exercise, we'll have what we call a hotwasher; it'll be an after-action meeting, so we'll be able to determine what went well and what didn't go so well," Ogden said. "And, again, the main reason for that is so that we can take what we did well and what we didn't do so well and adjust our plan."

These are just tabletop exercises being held on Wednesday; no big booms or big plumes of smoke. It's an opportunity for the different agencies in the U.S. and Canada to make sure the left hand knows what the right hand is doing in case of an emergency.

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