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Mock dirty bomb seattle { May 13 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=292543&contrassID=1&subContrassID=8&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Yhttp://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=292543&contrassID=1&subContrassID=8&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
Tuesday, May 13, 2003 Iyyar 11, 5763
Last Update: 13/05/2003 02:14
Mock dirty bomb set off in simulated terror attack in Seattle
By Reuters
SEATTLE - With a booming explosion and plumes of thick smoke shrouding burned out cars and buses, U.S. authorities launched a simulated attack on Seattle on Monday in the biggest ever test of disaster relief workers.
A similar bogus biological attack was scheduled to test Chicago emergency crews beginning Tuesday in a week-long exercise for disaster handlers in the post-Sept. 11 world.
The Seattle "attack" began just after noon (1900 GMT) in an open gravel pit across the street from a coffee roasting plant and about 1.6 km to the south of the city skyline.
Three minutes later, the first of dozens of fire and emergency vehicles arrived. Firefighters doused the flames within 22 minutes although the acrid smoke, bearing simulated radioactive material, was carried for miles on a brisk wind.
Emergency personnel scoured the wreckage, but pulled back to don shiny chemical protection suits, temporarily abandoning scores of "victims", when their equipment indicated low-level radiation from a simulated "dirty bomb."
Two hours into the exercise, Seattle Police Deputy Chief Clark Kimerer called the emergency crews' performance "very exemplary," marred only by two minor real-world injuries among the hundreds of people at the site.
"Obviously there are artificialities to an exercise like this... [but] this is one of the most realistic and probably emotional scenarios that I've seen staged," Kimerer told reporters at the scene.
The simulations, organized by the Department of Homeland Security, will cost e16 million and run through Friday in Seattle and Chicago before shifting to Vancouver, Canada.
Hundreds of police, firefighters and emergency workers participated in the fictitious attack and a total of 8,500 people around the country joined the exercise applauded by health care experts.
"You cannot do enough exercises. I'd like to see every hospital do one at least four times a year," said R. Gregory Evans, director of the Center for the Study of Bioterrorism and Emerging Infections at St. Louis University.
Three years ago, a similar exercise dubbed "Topoff 1" was plagued by communications and coordination problems between federal, state and local officials. Government agencies have spent heavily to rectify these problems.
In light of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, officials are hoping for far better results from Topoff 2.
Despite advance notice, the exercise would still give a good reading of the system's readiness, said Howard Levitin, an emergency room physician in Indianapolis, Indiana who worked with the Defense Department on bio-terrorism preparedness.
"It goes on for hours, so you're stressing the system. It creates a level of respect and appreciation for what a disaster is really like," said Levitin.
Organizers said surprising Topoff participants was less important than testing their overall readiness, but they also planned to introduce unexpected scenarios during the drill.
"To think that this is scripted would be a mistake," Michael Byrne, Director of the Office of National Capital Region Coordination at the Department of Homeland Security, told reporters.
In Topoff 2, a fictitious terrorist group detonated the "dirty bomb" in Seattle, then spread pneumonic plague in Chicago.
Officials said they chose Seattle and Chicago to spread the exercise across the nation, but several also noted the Seattle area had many potential targets like major ports, refineries, hydroelectric plants and the landmark Space Needle.
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