Vermont has received just over $7 million in federal funds to help prepare for acts of terrorism and natural disasters.
The money came from the federal Department of Homeland Security.
Chris Herrick is Vermont's director of Emergency Management and Homeland Security. He says roughly half of the grant will be used to help train local, regional and state officials to prepare for and to respond to emergency situations. The other half will be used to purchase new equipment.
"It's to better enable all of our first responders to be able to respond should we have some kind of act of terror," Herrick explained. "But the bonus to this is hopefully, we won't see those kinds of acts and [first responders are] prepared to respond to the events that we see on a regular basis."
Herrick says more than 4,000 law enforcement and emergency management personnel will take part in a special mock disaster drill later this month that will test the state's ability to respond to a series of catastrophic events.
