AUGUSTA, Maine -- Several Maine forest rangers on Thursday worked with emergency management officials at the state and county level, testing the state's emergency operations center capabilities and communications.

The functional exercise, simulating an ice storm like that of 1998, was led by the Maine Emergency Management Agency and included more than a dozen other state and county emergency management agencies. The 24-hour exercise simulated widespread power, telephone and Internet outages and was conducted from 8 a.m. Thursday to 8 a.m. Friday.

During the drill, the agencies tested their backup power and communications systems to be prepared if there is a real emergency. They also worked to determine how to staff their operations over an extended activation period.

Maine's 57 forest rangers serve in the Department of Conservation, Maine Forest Service, Division of Forest Protection, providing wildfire control, natural resource law enforcement, incident management and disaster response.

Forest rangers, who have extensive knowledge in incident management, helped to create incident action plans for the event at various county emergency operations centers, or EOC's, as well as provided critical staffing assistance to the county emergency management agencies.

Robert Higgins, emergency management director for Somerset County, said that his EOC in Somerset County was very busy with activity from the simulated event.

"The assistance that the forest rangers provided was invaluable," Higgins said. "They are a great asset to be able to turn to in a crisis situation."

Forest Rangers Lisa Byers and Sam Heffner split shifts at Higgins's EOC during the 24-hour exercise, providing Higgins with assistance in incident planning and resource tracking.

Along with helping to staff numerous other EOCs across Maine, forest rangers were involved in monitoring status updates using MEMA's computerized situational awareness incident tracking system. The Maine Forest Service Mobile Command Vehicle [MCV] also was mobilized in order to test its capabilities in providing an alternative EOC location and to boost emergency communications when conventional methods fail.

The MCV was setup in a remote location in Washington County and provided a vital communications link between state, county and municipal agencies.