Drilling the point home

Jose Paul Corona

It is just the scene public safety officials are trying to avoid:

A terrorist group calling itself the United Revolution Movement

attacking Surf City, and releasing the pneumonic plague during a high

school football game at Sheue Stadium. More than 100 people are

hospitalized after exhibiting flu-like systems, and nearly 80 are

dying as a result of the plague.

At this point, city residents shouldn’t panic. The terrorist

attack didn’t really take place.

But a drill simulating such an attack did on Wednesday.

The lower floor of the Huntington Beach Central Library was taken

over by emergency personnel and various other city, county, state and

federal agencies, who all took part in the drill, designed to test

their management skills in the event of a terrorist attack.

The drill is part of a justice department program that provides

funds for training and tabletop discussions, like the one conducted

at the library.

“It’s all about improving your readiness,” said Michael Forgy, of

the U.S. Department of Justice.

Forgy asked participants one simple question: “What would you do

during a biological attack?”

Medical personnel, police officers, firefighters and city

administrators were all placed in separate rooms to come up with an

action plan that would answer Forgy’s question.

Each group had specific tasks to complete during three 45-minute

sessions.

Medical personnel had to figure out how to respond to a sudden

outbreak of a flu-like illness and how to determine how long it might

take them to realize hospital patients had been infected by a

bacterial agent.

Emergency personnel had to decide how they would respond to calls

for help. One firefighter asked if they could they shut down the city

and prevent residents from leaving to stop the spread of the illness?

A colleague quickly pointed out that the fire department didn’t have

the authority to do that.

In another room city staff had to decide what kind of information

they would release to the public. How they would get it to residents?

Would it be put up on the city Web site or could a message be left on

the city’s main phone number? Could they go on the air with live

information on the city’s HBTV-3?

Members of the city’s Emergency Operations Center discussed what

precautions safety personnel would have to take when responding to

calls.

Throughout the sessions, participants had a lot of questions, and

they didn’t always have answers. When they needed help, they turned

to a drill facilitator from Titan Systems for help.

Titan Systems staged and managed the drill, Forgy said.

Drill participants soon realized that routine action can’t always

be taken during such an extraordinary event.

“Maybe day-to-day stuff won’t work,” Forgy said.

Officials said they hope the drill will answer some questions

before they actually come up.

After each session was over, all of the participants discussed how

their meetings went.

While no exercise will fully prepare any city for a real terrorist

attack, the drill will teach local agencies to work as a team, said

Glorria Morrison, emergency services coordinator for the Huntington

Beach Fire Department.

“We’re working as one organization planning things countywide,”

Morrison said.

Jim Pasienski, head of the public safety department at Golden West

College, attended the drill as an observer and hoped to learn a few

things.

“In my mind going through something like this can work out some of

the bugs,” he said. “Because you are going to make mistakes.”

That’s the ultimate goal of the drill, said Diane Turner, the

city’s public information officer.

“It’s a lot of talking and deciding what to do,” Turner said.

While last year’s terrorist attacks have placed many on edge, this

type of exercise should reinforce residents that the city is very

prepared for this type of attack, officials said.

“You really do get involved and you realize how safe the city is,”

Turner said.

* JOSE PAUL CORONA covers City Hall and education. He can be

reached at (714) 965-7173 or by e-mail at jose.corona@latimes.com.