U.S., Mexico agencies participate in drill

helicopter crashes. sounds like an action movie. in reality, it was all part of an emergency exercise involving u-s and mexican agencies. the goal — be prepared to keep our community safe. abc7’s josie ortegon has more: “nats of phone…make sure yo notify ped” “we’re goi to be blocking off i-10” loca law enforcement agencies say they hope they never have to respond to these calls. they have to be ready, though. “nats” that’s why th hold a “bi- national drill” every year. eac drill is different. they’re are chosen based on national trends. sot: “it was a shooting incident right at the international border on the rio grande. so every year, we get together with the mexican government and come up with a new scenario.” stand-up: “this year’s scenario takes agencies to the bridge of the americas, where they respond to a large explosion. several injuries are reported, vehicles are on fire, traffic is in a gridlock and people are running for their lives.” agents and officers with 17 mexican agencies and more than a dozen u-s agencies participated in the drill. they were separated into groups and each given a specific scenario to deal with. sot: “relay to them via telephone. and then they have to act through their communication methods and deploy their personnel in a simulated fashion as if it was really occurring in real time.” each agency responds differently. sot: “we need to know what sources we have for this type of emergency, hospitals,vehicles, juarez fire captain gabriel rodriguez says–manpower is never a concern– in the real world, it can be difficult to coordinate the most efficient response with so many enties involved. that’s why communciation makes all the difference: communications, because many of the times, something fails, communicaiton fails. that’s the most important things, communicaiton.” jo, abc7. we told you how the city of el paso hired a firm to evaluate its