Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Thousands Test Emergency Readiness

From: "Mark" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 16:34:06 -0000

THOUSANDS TEST EMERGENCY READINESS

By Shannon O'Boye, 
Nancy Othón and Glenn Singer Staff WriterS 
Posted May 22 2003 

It was a deadly scenario, but it was just a dress rehearsal.

As 7,000 people jumped up to celebrate a seventh-inning home run 
Wednesday at a Marlins-Braves game in Pro Player Stadium, terrorists 
lobbed bottles of deadly sarin gas into the crowd.
   
Nearly 2,500 personnel from more than 105 police, fire and health 
agencies responded and tried to save as many lives as possible. The 
state conducted the weapons-of-mass-destruction drill to see how 
prepared South Florida is for a terror attack.

Meanwhile, a smaller-scale exercise was going on at Delray Medical 
Center in Palm Beach County.

By the end of the day, it was evident there were problems, and delays 
in getting to the "injured" could have cost lives.

It took the rescuers an hour and 10 minutes to get into their 
hazardous materials suits and get to victims inside the stadium.

"That's too long, even though it's better than the rest of the 
nation," said Broward County Sheriff Ken Jenne, who heads the 
Southeast Florida Regional Domestic Security Task Force. "We know 
from Columbine and other things, the faster you get in, the more 
people saved, the safer it is."

About 1,000 volunteers -- mostly high school students -- acted as 
victims. Hazmat specialists had to try to contain the gas and 
evacuate the injured while firefighter/paramedics prioritized and 
treated the victims and SWAT team members searched for the fictitious 
terrorists who were seen running from the stadium.

At the same time, firefighters trained in technical rescue worked a 
building collapse on another end of the stadium, and more "victims" 
poured into 42 hospitals in Monroe, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm 
Beach counties, suffering from everything from anxiety to exposure to 
the sarin gas.

The exercise, which took about six months to plan, occurred one day 
after President Bush raised the risk of terrorist attack to "high." 
There are no specific threats against South Florida, but if an 
incident occurs, emergency workers will be ready, Jenne said.

He gave everyone involved in the drill an A-minus. 

While communication problems plagued similar drills held recently in 
Chicago, Seattle and Tampa, there were no major problems in Miami on 
Wednesday, said Hector Pesquera, special agent in charge of the FBI's 
Miami office.

"Primarily, we're putting our own people at risk" when communication 
breaks down, said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue spokeswoman Shari Holbert 
Lipner. "That was very evident on Sept. 11."

Agencies from Palm Beach County sent firefighters, special-operations 
rescue workers and law enforcement officers to the drill. Officials 
gathered at the county's Emergency Operations Center to monitor 
activities in the Pro Player attack. Eight local hospitals either 
conducted their own drills or received patients from the stadium.

In Palm Beach County, there were two scenarios: one in which sarin 
gas was released at the South County Civic Center west of Delray 
Beach, and one at the Palm Beach County Courthouse in West Palm 
Beach, where a pipe bomb dispersed contaminated materials. 

"We knew we would be getting some patients out of the exercise in Pro 
Player," said Tim O'Connor, spokesman for the Palm Beach County 
Health Department. "But we also wanted to test the communications 
system between all the hospitals, so we set up additional scenarios."

In the end, Palm Beach County received 20 patients from the Miami-
Dade area. Countywide, 100 people were sent to area 
hospitals "suffering" from symptoms of exposure to sarin gas.

The staff at Delray Medical Center has been training for disasters 
since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. On Wednesday, 15 nurses and 
technicians decontaminated five patients who had been injured in the 
imaginary bomb blast at the Palm Beach County Courthouse.

The drill began at 10:20 a.m. with a "Code Purple" blared on the 
hospital's loudspeaker system. Staff members and security guards 
locked every door to ensure bioterrorist victims could not enter the 
hospital. They were so efficient that two real walk-in patients -- 
one with chest pains and the other with severe stomach cramps -- 
could not get into the emergency room for 10 minutes. 

"In most emergencies, we try to get people into the hospital as 
quickly as possible," spokeswoman Pat McCarthy said. "In the case of 
exposure to gas or germs, the goal is to keep them out of the 
hospital and treat them outside.

Decontamination team members, dressed in protective suits and wearing 
helmets into which oxygen was pumped, handled six patients during the 
11/2-hour drill. Two were in critical condition, three less seriously 
injured and one was dead. They were given washed down with hoses 
inside a tent. Shoes, socks, watches and jewelry were removed and 
placed in bags for hazardous materials.

"Oh, it was so cold, and I couldn't breathe with all the water coming 
at me from all directions," said volunteer Aurelienne Nacius, 21, a 
pharmacy technician student who is training at Delray Medical Center. 
She arrived by ambulance, drooling and suffering from a headache and 
slurred speech.

Staff Writers Nicole T. Lesson and Nancy McVicar contributed to this 
report.    

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/search/sfl-
pdrill22may22.story

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