BREWER – A giant water main has broken and left dozens without water and electricity, and local disaster relief partners have to shelter those affected.

That’s the scenario for a sheltering drill scheduled for Friday night at the Brewer Auditorium, Penobscot County Local Emergency Planning Committee officials have announced.

“Seventy-five Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts will be ‘victims,'” Fire Chief Rick Bronson said last week. “They’re going to stay overnight” and will eat and sleep at the shelter.

Students from the University of New Brunswick also are scheduled to take part in the emergency drill.

The Penobscot County LEPC is conducting the exercise to test its ability to operate a full-scale emergency shelter.

Utilities to the auditorium will be cut off during the drill, which means all power will be provided by an emergency generator and water and food will be trucked in.

The Brewer Parks and Recreation Department, the Pine Tree Chapter of the American Red Cross and the Penobscot County Emergency Management Agency are partnering with the committee and Fire Department to run the exercise.

The drill is designed to teach LEPC personnel about what would happen during a real emergency, which could be a natural disaster such as a flood or ice storm, or an event caused by chemical, biological or radiological contaminants.

The committee is responsible for implementing provisions of the Federal Chemical Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act.

The drill begins at 6 p.m. Friday and will end at 8 a.m. Saturday.

nricker@bangordailynews.net

990-8190