KTKA

Flying over crisis city, Colonel Joe Wheeler says we are entering a live simulation of two different types of disasters. One is a train derailment, with chemicals spilling out of the cars. "Is that something that might happen here, yes, well then maybe we ought to train to that venue," Kansas Adjutant General Tod Bunting said.

And crews train at the site, wearing bio equipment, even though temperatures were over 100 degrees. One technique that they are learning here is what happens if a train derails and hazardous material is leaking out, as you can see right here if it's still leaking out a little bit, but they plugged it up and they say in an emergency that's good enough.

But the training didn't stop at the train derailment, they simulated where vehicles were thrown into buildings, and had to find people inside. In the rubble exercise live people are hiding in different nooks and crevices like this one right here, so they can actually train for a search and rescue operation. "If you do not train for a multi-discipline response to a crisis when that crisis occurs we will not be ready for it," excerise leader, Major Greg Platt, said.

Training for these disasters has helped crews out in many ways and one is communication. "We need to transfer information, patient location, and how we've extricated those patients off the rubble pile," Bill Schneider, with the Olathe fire department, said.

Going on top of the rubble with the rescue team was eye opening when you see what can happen in this type of a disaster. Here they are trying to get the survivors out from underneath the cars.

Shawnee County Emergency Manager Dave Sterbenz says this training is crucial. "The ability to learn at crisis city with this many people and do an exercise you can't do it often enough, you can't do it long enough," Sterbenz said.

According to many of the emergency responders they key to making it work, was learning how communicate among different agencies. Crisis City is being built to hold at least 8 simulated disasters, Adjutant General Tod Bunting, says they hope to have more in the future.

Photo Gallery

Training in Salina

Blackhawk helicopters carry soldiers to training in Salina, KS.