BY JENN McDOWELL

Roads in Allenstown will be closed for a few hours on the morning of Saturday, Oct. 20, to allow for a large-scale emergency management exercise involving more than 100 responders.

The operation will take place at Allenstown Elementary School and will test the town’s emergency response, backup response from neighboring towns,  and communications systems through a simulated terrorist situation.

Allenstown Police Chief Shaun Mulholland, who is in charge of the entire exercise, and Emergency Response Director Karen Hubbard gained clearance from the town’s board of selectmen on Monday, Oct. 1,  to close down several streets.

The sections of Granite Street  and Cross Street between Highland and Main Street will be closed, as well as Main Street from School Street to Al’s Avenue west, and Sunnyside Street will only be open to residential traffic.

Mulholland said residents in the affected areas have received notification of the road closure, and the state Department of Transportation will put up digital road signs in the week prior to the exercise to remind Allenstown residents.

The exercise is scheduled tentatively to begin at 9 a.m. and run until around noon. Road closures, Hubbard said, will be in effect from around 8:45 a.m. until the exercise concludes.

Emergency personnel from numerous agencies, including fire and police departments in Hooksett, Pembroke, Epsom, Deerfield and Bow; the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management; the Department of Safety’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit and the National Guard will participate.

“In a real incident, we would use all those towns,” Mulholland said.

The specifics of the exercise, said Mulholland, cannot be revealed ahead of time because the police, fire, and emergency agencies involved cannot know what the situation will be prior to performing the exercise.

“They’re going to have to react to what happens,” Mulholland said.

Everything from dispatch communications to first response and back up response will be tested.

“We’ll be testing a lot of functions. It will be the first time we’ve ever operated a joint command post,” Mulholland said.

The operation, in planning for the past thirteen months, will serve to evaluate and, if need be, modify the town’s emergency practices.

Actors, mostly volunteer Boy Scouts, are also involved, playing the parts of victims and press, among other roles.

Selectman Tom Gilligan expressed concern that an actual emergency may arise during the operation, and asked if participants have a way out of role playing mode.

Mulholland told him that  the phrase “code red” would be used to signify an actual emergency, adding that he reserves the right to call off the exercise should something happen to one or more of the players.

Weather on Oct. 20 will not be a factor on whether or not the operation takes place.

“Rain or shine, it goes,” Mulholland said.

During the exercise, the Merrimack County Sheriff’s Office will cover Allenstown, as all of the town’s own officers will be participants.