Politics & Government

Rain Could Wash Out Tuesday Night's Defense Dept. Training

The urban training exercises still are set for the nights of April 23-24 on the grounds of the closed mental health center. But rain could postpone activities Tuesday night. Find out what you might hear, though, if the drills go off as planned.

The U.S. Department of Defense's regional urban training exercises are still scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday nights on the grounds of the closed Tinley Park Mental Health Center, but rain could hamper things, according to a village official.

READ: Defense Dept. to Hold Training Exercises at Closed Mental Health Center

The drills are scheduled to begin around 8 or 8:30 p.m., with activities contained around the empty mental health center, said Pat Carr, the director of Tinley Park's Emergency Management Agency. The National Weather Service forecasts rain throughout the day and night of Tuesday, April 23:

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Isolated showers, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 10am. High near 61. … Chance of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. … Rain showers likely before 1am, then a chance of rain and snow showers. Some thunder is also possible.

Although temperatures drop Wednesday, April 24, weather conditions do dry up, according to the NWS forecast.

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The rain Tuesday could postpone the exercises, Carr said. A decision to cancel the night's drills won't be made until later in the day, he added.

If the drills do go on, residents shouldn't be alarmed if they hear the following things, Carr said:

  • helicopters flying overhead (the helipad near the Tinley Park Fire Department's training area along 183rd Street by the Tinley Park Police Department will be a base of operations for the agencies involved in the training)
  • small, isolated explosions, "like fireworks," from "flashbang-type" grenades.

Those explosions will not be constant, only going off as the training crews practice breaching doors, Carr said. He also emphasized that there will be no gunfire—not even from blanks—during these exercises.

 

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