A really bad day for McHenry County unfolded last week before the eyes of emergency responders during a four-day Federal Emergency Management Agency exercise.

A gunman shot four people at Harvard Milk Days, which subsequently was visited by a cloud of toxic anhydrous ammonia from a nearby tanker collision. A storm system damaged a Lake in the Hills dam and spawned two tornadoes, one of which smashed Crystal Lake’s police station and knocked out the SEECOM communications center.

Two hundred people died, many more were injured, and agencies had to work together to pick up the pieces.