From: clive.denton
Date: 2006-08-06 12:58:17
More Than 1,000 Take Part In Metro East Disaster Drill created: 8/4/2006 9:15:44 AM updated: 8/4/2006 6:40:03 PM Click to watch Steve Jankowski’s report. By Steve JankowskiIllinois Bureau Chief(KSDK) – It’s only a drill. But for the next five days, metro east residents may notice an increase in activity involving military and emergency agencies.What is being called Prairie Thunder began Friday morning with a simulated terrorist attack on a railroad tanker car. The explosion released an imaginary cloud of ammonium chloride.Fire crews and other personnel responded as thought it was a real emergency. Edwardsville Fire Chief Brian Wilson had been part of the year-long effort to plan the exercise. He says they discovered the first weakness fifteen minutes into the operation.”We’ve got some communications issues as far as radio frequencies go,” says Wilson. “We found it during a drill situation. No harm, no foul, and that’s when you’ve got to find these things out.”A disaster relief center and command post has been established at Liberty Middle School in Edwardsville. The exercise will be coordinated from there. The same place which will serve as a shelter for those evacuated by various aspects of the operation. Prairie Thunder will eventually involve as many as 1,000 personnel, including an urban search and rescue team which will comb through the rubble of a collapsed building searching for mannequins and dummies serving as victims.The exercise will culminate Tuesday with the capture of the “terrorists” who launched the fictional attack. The exercise is being funded by a federal grant from the Department of Homeland Security. KSDK avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 0631-3, 04/08/2006Tested on: 8/6/2006 13:00:56avast! – copyright (c) 2000-2006 ALWIL Software.
