FLORENCE, Wis. –The Florence County Sheriff’s Office-Division of Emergency Management, in collaboration with the Florence County Emergency Responders Association, will conduct a full-scale mass casualties exercise Saturday morning.

Traffic on County Highway B through Homestead and Aurora will be restricted for about two hours.

The morning will begin with registration beginning at 7:30 a.m. in the gymnasium at the Northeast Wisconsin Technical Center Aurora Learning Center (Hillcrest School) and a briefing at 8 a.m.

The exercise will begin at 9 a.m. and will run until approximately 11 to 11:30 a.m.

All responding units will stage in the parking area to the west of NWTC and will be dispatched from that location in a staggered response. The exercise will involve emergency response agencies from Florence County and their mutual aid partners and other entities deemed essential by the exercise design team.

“The purpose of the full-scale exercise is to test policies, procedures and the response capabilities of the participating agencies and their mutual aid partners,” said David Gribble, chief deputy. “The exercise will be based on a school bus crash with multiple casualties that occurs along County Highway B near the Aurora/Homestead township line.”

There will be an observation area set up near the crash site for people wanting to view the exercise.

County Highway B will be blocked off at the intersections of County Highway N and County Highway U for through traffic.

For local traffic near the exercise crash site, County Highway B will be blocked off at Osterberg Parkway and Section Line Road.

Parking for observers will be along County Highway B north of Osterberg Parkway.

Agencies listed on the Aurora Life Safety Boxcard through the third box will be the primary responders in the exercise.