A disaster drill on Thursday in Brooke County had a statewide impact because it was based around a threat hundreds of miles away.

The West Virginia Emergency Management Agency asked officials in the Northern Panhandle to plan to help residents in Summers County if the Bluestone Dam should fail and flood the Kanawha Valley.

"The state of West Virginia decided a year or so ago that the Bluestone Dam in Hinton, W.Va., is obviously a threat to the entire Kanawha Valley. Should that dam fail, that entire valley would have to be relocated," Brooke County EMA Director Bob Fowler said.

Fowler said the drill is to ensure there are no glitches and the system works flawlessly, should the worst-case scenario happen in the southern part of the state.

As part of the plan, Brooke County would welcome 500-700 people if regional flooding became a reality.

The state EMA initially designated Thursday to hold a statewide disaster drill to prepare for that exact scenario. While officials in Charleston needed to put their part of the drill on hold, Brooke County is still practicing.

"We have five shelters in Brooke County that these folks would come to. So basically, if you round that off, that's about 100 people per shelter. So they would have to receive three meals a day (and) we would have to think about providing them with shower facilities, restroom facilities things like that," Fowler said.

He said Hancock County will have a shelter to provide housing for pets.

"If they have to leave their home, they're not going to leave without their pets," he said.

Fowler said Brooke County emergency officials will probably go practice the scenario again.

"Plans are great, but if you don't test it and find out if it works, then it really is not very good," he said.

The Brooke County EMA is required to participate in five types of emergency drills a year. Thursday's drill will count as the county agency's full-scale drill, even though the state agency did not participate.