About 40 emergency management and public safety representatives from the Dominican Republic are training in Oriskany this week under a New York State partnership focused on disaster response. The five-day program, running Sept. 21-25, covers search and rescue, emergency communications, infrastructure inspections and responder mental health.
Gov. Kathy Hochul's announcement of the training summit says it is being held at the State Preparedness Training Center. Hochul also met with Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader and Rep. Adriano Espaillat this week as the two governments continued a disaster-preparedness agreement signed during her visit to the Dominican Republic in November 2025.
Search, rescue and infrastructure exercises
The New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services and the state Bridge Authority developed the curriculum together. Sessions are led by their staff and by representatives of the state Department of State and the University at Albany.
Participants are using the center's swift-water flood simulator, ropes course and rubble pile for demonstrations involving rescue from collapsed structures and inspections after an earthquake. The program also covers how to assess buildings and critical infrastructure following a disaster.
Drone demonstrations, developed with New York's NUAIR partnership, show possible uses in urban and woodland search and rescue, hazardous-materials response and law enforcement. These are training scenarios, not a report of a current emergency.
Communications sessions address the federal Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, New York's NY-Alert network and how agencies plan messages to the public. The curriculum includes a case study of the response to Hurricane Helene, along with sessions on disaster assistance, prevention and New York building-code policy.
The program is set to end Friday with a discussion-based emergency operations center exercise built around an earthquake scenario. The release describes the exercise as planned; it does not report its outcome.
Responders' mental health and the larger agreement
University at Albany researcher Amy Nitza is scheduled to discuss operational stress and the use of AI-based tools to support mental health in underserved communities. The Bridge Authority is also presenting its workplace trauma-resilience and employee-assistance programs.
The Oriskany training follows a declaration of intent signed by Hochul and Abinader last year to share expertise, resources and technology for protecting residents from extreme weather. The governor's office says the agreement provides a framework for cooperation in preparedness, emergency response and mitigation.
In a separate rush transcript of her remarks at the meeting, Hochul said the two sides also discussed tariffs and energy costs. She criticized federal immigration enforcement, saying she wanted New York's Dominican community to feel protected and arguing that some people targeted by ICE are law-abiding residents who work in local businesses. Those comments were her assessment; the transcript did not provide data on enforcement actions.
Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services Commissioner Terry O'Leary said the state hopes to exchange practical knowledge in rescue, communications and recovery. Bridge Authority Executive Director Minosca Alcantara said the agencies also expect to learn from their Dominican counterparts. Those are officials' descriptions of the partnership's goals, not measured outcomes from this week's program.
New York and the Dominican Republic also pursued economic ties under the agreement. Empire State Development completed a trade mission there in June involving New York companies in apparel, beauty, health care, defense, food and beverages, according to the governor's office.
The training center in Oriskany is operated by the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services and hosts realistic exercises for responders. The Dominican delegation's final scheduled activity is Friday's earthquake-response exercise.
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