Central Maine Power, York County Emergency Management Agency, and York County Cities and Towns Participate in Emergency Management Drill.

ALFRED, Maine —With winter weather around the corner, York County emergency officials staged a crisis to make sure they are prepared for the worst.
"We had a large ice storm that produced 2 inches of ice on Saturday, followed by a blizzard Sunday through Monday that produced 2 to 3 feet of snow," Megan Arsenault, of York County Emergency Management Agency, said.
Fortunately for Mainers this scenario was only a drill. However, you wouldn't know it at the county's command center. Volunteers coordinated with 22 towns for Wednesday's training.
"They call in here to our emergency ops center with their response as if they actually would do it during an event," Arsenault said.
In the scenario, 80 percent of the power in the county is out and staff are forced to call in resources from out of state.
"This exercise is showing us the need for shelters, generators, staff and individuals in the community to be prepared," Arsenault said.
Central Maine Power took part in the drill from its own command center.
"When we have a major storm at Central Maine Power, it's all hands on deck," CMP spokeswoman Gail Rice said.
Emergency crews practice drills like Wednesday's once a year. The drill was similar to the real ice storm in 2008.
"There's a broad range of people that are out there working on storm recovery," Rice said.
CMP's team created a map showing downed power lines, snapped poles and widespread outages.
"We like to practice these major storms that affect at least 10 percent of our customer base, which would be about 60,000 or more customer accounts," Rice said.