Norwich — Imagine the damage a 300-foot-wide tornado touching down at Kelly Middle School with more than 800 students and staff in the building could cause.

That was the scenario presented to Norwich school officials, fire, police, public works, emergency management and Norwich Public Utilities officials Wednesday during a 4½-hour state-mandated emergency preparedness drill.

State officials dictated the events for what was termed a “table-top” drill, with no actual deployment of personnel or evacuations of the school.

In advance of the drill, school Superintendent Abby Dolliver had chosen Kelly Middle School as a focal point for emergency response, because the recently renovated school houses the city's regional emergency shelter.

“Didn't know (Kelly) would be picked,” Dolliver said of the tornado strike. “There were major and minor injuries and deaths. Part of the building was damaged.”

As the storm approached, students and staff would have been ordered into lower-level hallways and even into the basement utility tunnels and storage rooms, Dolliver said.

The surprise scenario forced planners to shift gears immediately and plan an evacuation, another off-site gathering point — Teachers Memorial School was chosen as seemingly far enough away from the storm-damaged area with easily controlled access.

Norwich police, Public Works Department and fire departments and NPU would be responsible for clearing the roads of downed trees and live power lines.

School buses would take the uninjured students and staff to Teachers as a “reunification point,” where panicked parents would be directed to come to pick up their students. School administrators would be on hand to direct that process.

Dolliver said Teachers would work well as a reunification point, because it has an easily secured entrance road to ensure that students don't leave and that only authorized personnel and parents enter.

For the drill, power was out and phones were down. Officials were working with limited battery power on cellphones, Norwich Emergency Management Director Gene Arters said.

Arters said the drill went well, and both the school system's and the city's emergency plans performed well, although some problem areas were identified, mainly with communications and staging areas.

One shortcoming identified was the need for a system to rapidly recharge cellphones.

Arters called the reunification point the “second emergency scene,” with people converging on the school at a time when there are downed trees and downed wires.

He said the exercise was a good way for city and school officials to test emergency school response on something that is not a so-called active shooter scene.

“We need to respond to all hazards,” Arters said. “Norwich has a good emergency operations plan. The school does and the city does, too.”

c.bessette@theday.com

Twitter: @Bessettetheday