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The community of Unalaska is a busy place to live. Our community calendar is full of events and activities. About Town is your source for coverage of community events and sports. KUCB staff writes many of the stories, but we also accept contributions from community members for this section of our website. If you'd like to submit a story to About Town, send it to info@kucb.org.

Unalaska to Participate in Alaska Shield 2016 State-wide Exercise

KUCB File Photo

Alaska Shield is a biannual exercise designed to bring together local, State, federal, and nongovernment partners to practice their ability to respond to infrequent events that require swift and detailed coordination. Alaska Shield 2016 will focus on the ability to respond to terrorism and cyberattack.

Alaska Shield 2016 will be April 1-2, 2016, with more than 14 communities and 25 organizations participating in the exercise.

There is no terrorist or cyber-attack threat in Unalaska at this time. There will be an active shooter exercise event held at Unalaska City Hall to train first responders and community leadership in how to respond if such an event were to occur. Local law enforcement and city staff may establish security barriers around the exercise locations. Local law enforcement has been trained to respond to active shooter events; this is their opportunity to train in a local facility.

People are asked not to interfere with the exercise. Research has shown that most terrorism events end when law enforcement confronts the perpetrator. It is critical that law enforcement be able to practice entering, searching, and securing a building. The exercise will also give Emergency Medical Services and other medical providers the chance to practice addressing mass casualties.

Planning for Alaska Shield 2016 began in 2014. Each Alaska Shield exercise focuses on different elements of emergency response. In 2014, Alaska Shield was focused on local, State, federal and non-government response to a massive earthquake.

In addition, local, State, federal, and private-sector organizations will be practicing their response to a cyberattack. Cyberattacks may include web page defacement, denial of service, and data theft. Residents of Unalaska will not experience any reduction of service to their private internet services as local, State and federal Internet Technology professionals conduct the cyber drill.

More information on the drill can be found at the State of Alaska Emergency Management website, as well as the City's website.

The FBI encourages people to Run, Hide, Fight if an active shooter event occurs near you.