ALFRED — Remember the ice storm of 1998, which caused days – and in some cases weeks – of misery for folks who live in York County? Thick ice covered everything, and power was knocked out for days on end.

Well, picture a similar ice storm, followed by a three-foot snowfall, followed by strong winds that knock out power to 80 percent of the county.

That’s what the folks at the York County Emergency Management Agency and its partners in 22 of the county’s 29 communities will be doing Wednesday, as they conduct a scenario to gauge how well they’ll all cope with such a storm.

“This exercise is realistic and very timely because the National Weather Service is predicting more ice events this year,” said York County EMA Director Art Cleaves. “This gives us the opportunity to measure some critical factors in emergency management, such as sheltering, power outages and fuel supply that could occur if a disaster like this strikes.”

The coordination between the York County Emergency Operations Center, Central Maine Power, the American Red Cross, National Weather Service, Maine Emergency Management Agency and town or city governments will be evaluated, along with the response by municipal EMA directors, said the agency’s public information officer, Megan Arsenault.

Throughout the day, the EMA directors of each participating municipality will receive calls presenting a number of scenarios and will be evaluated on how they respond to each of them, said Cleaves.

The test takes place at the county government building, 149 Jordan Springs Road in Alfred, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or [email protected].