Today, Wednesday, June 22, 2016, a Joint Port Security Training Exercise is being conducted on the Tennessee River in the vicinity of Ross' Landing spanning from the Olgiati Bridge to the Veterans Bridge and will last approximately all day.

Several agencies are participating in today's exercise including numerous local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies and several local fire and EMS agencies.

The HCSO and the agencies participating want to stress to the community this is a "training exercise." However, authorities are treating this scenario as a real, authentic event, in order to offer the most beneficial training experience for those involved.

In order to not disrupt normal, daily activities downtown, no roads or specific portions of the Tennessee River have been closed. The exercise has required the temporary closing today of the main Riverpark Boat Ramp located at 4301 Amnicola Highway throughout 9:00 pm.

In situations like this, if this were to be a real event, depending on the nature and/or the extent of the threat, the river, surrounding area roads, boat ramps, businesses, among other areas, could be closed and some portions of the

area could be evacuated.