Hundreds practice here for worst-case scenario: weapons of mass destruction.
By Cindy Stauffer
Published Sep 21, 2006 14:05
Emergency radios crackle, “We have been advised one of the hostage takers has fallen off the roof. They do have a bomb vest on.”
Next up: a high-speed chase, explosions, a building collapse, a collision between a school bus and a car carrying a tube of radioactive materials, and the discovery of a suspicious chemical lab.
The ground is littered with dozens of bodies, dripping blood and sprouting glass.
And oh, did we mention the air rescue by the Chinook helicopter?
More than 450 people from 70 local, state and federal agencies converged on the Lancaster County Public Safety Training Center near Salunga today for “Operation Red Rose,” which simulated the discovery of weapons of mass destruction.
While other emergency training exercises simulate airplane crashes or other disasters, this one ratcheted up the scenario to match the possible dangers of life in the post-Sept. 11 world.
The country needs to be prepared for the use of weapons of mass destruction, said Col. Xavier Stewart, the National Guard officer in charge of the training exercise and the former commander of the Guard’s WMD Civil Support Team.
“It happens all the time that there are missing radiologic products and explosives,” said Stewart, 50, a Hershey resident. “There are break-ins. For what purpose? We don’t know. But terrorists are looking to acquire these types of materials for their use.”
As the complex scenario unfolded, which involved fictional versions of a day care center, coffee shop and even the office of U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, paramedics, police officers, firefighters and military officers swarmed over the 26-acre complex.
At times, it seemed chaotic, with ambulances and fire trucks moving here and there and people running around uncertain of what to do next — kind of like what would happen in an actual crisis.
Those involved in the training exercise purposely were kept in the dark about what would happen today.
“It’s a good learning experience because in real life, you don’t know. You’ve got to expect the unexpected,” said Brian Rhodes, a Hempfield Fire Department firefighter who stood ready to respond with his department.
The event had a surreal feel.
A meeting room in the county training center was filled with local high school students and other volunteers who had been “moulaged,” or made up to look like injured people.
The volunteers drank coffee, chatted and laughed, eyeballs dripping out of their heads, glass poking from their skulls, organs oozing through their bellies.
“We’re going to be bodies,” said Matt Lynch, 17, a Lampeter-Strasburg High School and Lancaster County Career and Technology Center student.
“Yeah,” a buddy joked, “we’re dead.”
A coordinator yelled to the room: “Casualties: go ahead and have a seat. Individuals I designated as bleeding: just hang tight. We haven’t mixed up enough blood yet.”
Out on the massive paved area in the center of the complex, mangled mannequins were everywhere. One was trapped at a sickening angle under an overturned car, another’s feet protruded from a wrecked car’s window.
A man passing the wrecked car reached out and tickled the mannequin’s feet.
But soon enough, it would feel real, as ambulance crews would transport the wounded — both plastic and human — to the complex’s Haz-Mat building, which had been designated as a hospital. Over the radio, real hospitals around the state would be notified of incoming “wounded’’ and asked to handle them.
East Hempfield Police Lt. Don Metzger said the participants would have to think quickly.
“What would you do in an incident like this?” he said. “Who would you call? Would you move onto the state and federal agencies?”
Then explosives went off, red smoke curled toward the blue sky and a nearby police officer ran forward toward the noise and smoke, saying, “Now, we’re in real world.”
