PRESCOTT, Wis. - The chemical leak at the Prairie Island nuclear plant is prompting school and emergency managers in Pierce County, Wisconsin, to reconsider how information is relayed to the public.
"I had to go on the information that I had," said Prescott's school superintendent Roger Hulne. "If we waited, that's dangerous. And if it's a more serious situation, I don't want to sit on that information."
Hulne is referring to the decision he had to make early Thursday morning following a chemical leak at the nearby Prairie Island Nuclear Plant. With little information from local law enforcement, Hulne sent out an alert message to parents, teachers and staff at 6 a.m. to cancel the school day.
"It said that school is closed due to an incident at the plant," recalls Tina Grones, a parent of students in the district. "We didn't know anything else."
Soon after, Superintendent Hulne sent out a new message that school would be delayed two hours and that the situation is under control. Many in the community, however, are curious about why their school was delayed while the Red Wing school district never sent out any message regarding an incident at the plant or delayed the school day.
"We received information from police that we did not have to close school," said Beth Borgen the principal at Red Wing High School.
KARE 11 confirmed that both Minnesota counties and Wisconsin counties received the same message from personnel at the plant. Based on emergency management protocol, a "level two alert" was declared from Prairie Island which means the public is not in danger. That message is then relayed to the various counties within the emergency zone, a 10-mile radius around the plant.
"It would have helped to know the extent of the release from the county," said Superintendent Hulne. "I hope communication improves in the future."
According to Gary Brown, the emergency management director for Pierce County, this real-world incident will be used as a learning tool to improve lines of communication in the event of more serious situations in the future.
"We've already had discussions to streamline that process so that we can try to provide them with more information before they make decisions," said Brown. "We want people to be safe but we don't want an unneeded media blitz either."
School officials in this case erred on the side of caution and Brown calls that "the right decision."
"It is beneficial to have an event like this so we can work out the bugs," said Brown.
Brown, who has been with Pierce County for 19 years, also says he has never seen a situation from the nuclear plant like this before.
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