Hoquiam, WA - Sirens and choppers at the Hoquiam High School today are just a drill, as students will be medically evacuated, bodies pulled from a wrecked car, other students will be pronounced dead.
It's all part of the "Every 32 Minutes" program taking place today at Hoquiam High School.
Susan Bradbury with the Grays Harbor's Target Zero Task Force tells us Every 32 minutes someone in the US is killed by an impaired driver. students today will hear the dispatch report of a collision every 32 minutes, while others will read the carefully crafted obituaries of their friends over the PA system.
A grim reaper will visit classrooms and pick out "victims," who will will not interact with other students for the rest of the day. Students will also see a mock car crash with full paramedic response, as well as the investigation and arrest of a fellow classmate for driving while under the influence.
The event is presented by Grays Harbor's Target Zero Task Force, Local police, and area schools. Bradbury tells us this will be the fifth year for this successful program on the harbor.

(Photo: AHS Every 32 Program in 2012)

HOQUIAM – Routine inspections of the US 101 Simpson Avenue Bridge have been completed a day earlier than scheduled, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation.  The work and closures were originally scheduled to continue through Wednesday.  With the inspection completed early, the closure is no longer necessary.  The Simpson Avenue Bridge has reopened to traffic and the nearby Riverside Bridge, which was used as a two-way detour during the work, has been returned to its one-way configuration. 

Monday and Tuesday, WSDOT crews performed inspections on the 1927 structure that focused on the bridge’s piers and supports, beams and rails, and roadway deck and superstructure.  Bridge crews repeat this inspection every two years.  

OLYMPIA – The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) has given its final approval of the Washington State Maritime Cooperative’s (WSMC) umbrella oil spill readiness plan that covers more than 1,600 commercial vessels that transit Puget Sound and Grays Harbor.

WSMC’s oil spill readiness – or contingency – plan helps ensure that large commercial vessels can mount a rapid, aggressive and well coordinated response if they spill oil in state waters.

The plan identifies the location of different response equipment such as oil containment boom, skimming and towing vessels and vacuum trucks in Puget Sound and Grays Harbor. It also identifies how the equipment will be mobilized by private response entities during a spill to minimize harm to important environmental, cultural and economic resources.

WSMC’s plan enrolls nearly all large cargo and passenger ships, commercial fish-processing vessels as well as some oil tankers and fuel barges that make transits in the shared waters of Puget Sound – including the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Haro and Rosario Straits – and Grays Harbor.

OLYMPIA – The first weekend in May is not usually a busy time for wildfires in southwest Washington, in fact in an effort to prepare homeowners before the usual season it's Wildfire Awareness week.
The Washington Department of Natural Resources reports they saw 11 wildfires covering approximately 264 acres statewide, with 9 already contained.
The Dog Mountain wildfire in Lewis County, has burned about 160 acres, and was reported yesterday afternoon at 60% contained.
The C-Line Wildfire East of Malone is now 70% contained and covers about 80-acres. Roads will be reopen by this morning, but responders urge caution as heavy equipment may still be in use.
No homes or structures are threatened in either remaining fire. For details on Wildfire Awareness week, visit http://fireadapted.org/