Emergency exercise planned locally

08/03/2006

State will be testing mass evacuation plans

Governor Rod Blagojevich and Madison County officials announced that a major emergency exercise will be conducted in Edwardsville and surrounding areas to test the state's plans for large-scale evacuations and terrorism response.

The exercises will begin on Friday and will, for the first time in Illinois history, test a mass evacuation and sheltering component. This exercise will be the second in the past three months for the state, but will be the largest ever conducted in the state. A three-day exercise was conducted in Chicago last May to respond to simultaneous major emergencies. The military will be located in Madison County for six days during the drill which begins Friday. The area of Edwardsville that holds mostly warehouses, Liberty Middle School as well as parts of Madison and Granite City will all be a part of the mock evacuation and terrorism events.

"Much of the human suffering we saw last year following Hurricane Katrina was the result of inadequate evacuation planning," Blagojevich said. "We need to know before disaster strikes if our plans work and if they don't, we need to fix them and then test again. This exercise will also enable us to build on lessons learned during our successful pandemic flu and terrorism exercise in May and help us further strengthen Illinois' overall emergency preparedness."

This exercise is designed to bring federal, state and local response departments and organizations together and to determine if the state's plans will work in an actual attack.

On Friday, the events during the exercise will trigger a mock evacuation and sheltering situation in Edwardsville. "Evacuees" will be picked up from the site and transported to a mock shelter which will be located at Liberty Middle School. During the five days of events, there will also be intelligence gathering, response to terrorist attacks, distribution of materials from the Strategic National Stockpile, victim searches, rescues and field hospitals establishments.

Edwardsville officials were notified of the drill last May. Edwardsville Fire Chief Brian Wilson said the county was the area picked by the National Guard and the Illinois Terrorism Task Force.

"We were brought to the table last May," Wilson said. "They came to us."

The Illinois National Guard planned the exercise, which is a part of the governors preparedness and antiterrorism program.

Wilson said this drill has stemmed from Hurricane Katrina.

"One of the main issues with Hurricane Katrina was the lack of evacuation and relocation efforts," Wilson said. "We want to make sure that if the need arises, we can do it."

The cost of this drill is not cheap. Wilson estimated the total cost will be between $2 million and $3 million.

Wilson said his area of planning has totaled over $150,000 so far.

Lt. Scott Evers with the Edwardsville Police said each department will be reimbursed for their costs and efforts during the drill.

Wilson and Evers both want the citizens of Edwardsville to know there will be military personnel, military vehicles and many emergency officers in the area.

"The major venues of operation will take place in the warehouse district of Edwardsville," Wilson said. "We have arranged that to keep the impact on the core of Edwardsville at a minimum."

Wilson said residents should know they are in no harm during these events and that if an actual emergency occurs during the mock terrorism drill, they will be notified. Otherwise, the military vehicles, military personnel and emergency officers are a part of the drill and there is no harm to the city or area. Area residents should not be alarmed and there is no threat to safety.

Those participating in the events are from Madison County, Edwardsville Fire Department, Edwardsville Police Department, city of Madison's fire and police departments and the Edwardsville Community Schools.

Several state agencies will be taking part of the exercise. Those include: the Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center, Illinois Emergency Management Agency, Illinois National Guard, Illinois Department of Transportation, Illinois Department of Corrections, Illinois Department of Human Services, Illinois Department of Public Health, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Office of the State Fire Marshal, American Red Cross, State Weapons of Mass Destruction Teams, Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System, Mutual Aid Box Alarm System, Urban Search and Rescue Team and the Illinois Medical Emergency Response Team.

Air mobilization will come from the Urban Search and Rescue team from Chicago.

Wilson stressed these events may look scary, but residents will be notified if an actual emergency takes place and from Friday to Tuesday, all events are staged.

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