https://www.americancityandcounty.com/wp-content/themes/acc_child/assets/images/logo/footer-logo.png
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcast
  • Resources & Events
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • IWCE 2022
    • How to Contribute
    • Municipal Cost Index – Archive
    • Equipment Watch Page
    • American City & County Awards
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Privacy Statement
    • Terms of Service
American City and County
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcasts
    • Latest videos
  • Resources/Events
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers/eBooks
    • IWCE 2022
    • How to Contribute
    • American City & County Awards
    • Municipal Cost Index
    • Equipment Watch Page
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Stament
    • Terms of Service
  • newsletter
  • Administration
  • Economy & Finance
  • Procurement
  • Public Safety
  • Public Works & Utilities
  • Smart Cities & Technology
  • Magazine
acc.com

Public Safety


Drill tests response to terrorism

Drill tests response to terrorism

On May 20, runners gathered in Portsmouth, N.H., for a 5K road race that originated at the city's Port Authority. As registrants waited for the race's
  • Written by Beth Wade, Managing Editor
  • 1st August 2000

On May 20, runners gathered in Portsmouth, N.H., for a 5K road race that originated at the city’s Port Authority. As registrants waited for the race’s start, a bomb armed with mustard gas exploded in a nearby van. Firefighters responded to an alarm pulled from the street, and, when they arrived at the scene, they encountered hundreds of injured and dying. Project TOPOFF – an exercise to simulate a terrorist attack and to assess top officials’ responses – was under way.

Orchestrated by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the project was mandated by Congress in 1998. In addition to the chemical weapons scenario in Portsmouth, planners simultaneously launched a biological weapons drill in Denver. “They wanted to have a couple of things going on at the same time to try to stress the federal system,” says Ricky Plummer, fire chief for Portsmouth. “They wanted top officials in Washington to have to decide where to send resources.”

The DOJ and FEMA convened a group of federal, state and local government representatives to develop the concepts for the exercises and to assist in planning. The group included: * the Departments of Defense; Agriculture; Energy; and Health and Human Services; * the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; * the Federal Bureau of Investigation; * the National Security Council; * the Central Intelligence Agency; * the Environmental Protection Agency; * the General Services Administration; * governors’ offices; * mayors’ offices; * state and local emergency management agencies; * first responders; and * high-ranking local officials.

The sites for the project were selected in a May 1999 meeting of more than 150 state and local emergency response personnel. Denver was chosen because of its size (494,000 residents) and because it had recently participated in a federally funded training program for counter-terrorism. Portsmouth, which had not received the same training, was chosen because it is a small city (25,000 residents), close to both Maine and Massachusetts. It offered the perfect setting to coordinate multiple agencies.

In September, when Portsmouth learned that it would be a TOPOFF participant, Plummer began working with the New Hampshire Office of Emergency Management to gather resources. “We had over 40 [sources of] mutual aid from cities and towns throughout New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts,” Plummer says. “Obviously, that had to be pre-planned. We had to talk to the different agencies and tell them, ‘We don’t know the date, but we may need a fire engine or an ambulance – or whatever – from your city or town.'”

Law enforcement, fire and emergency medical personnel were put on similar notice and assured that they would be paid for overtime, as well as for use of supplies and equipment. (Portsmouth received $983,000 from the federal government to finance the TOPOFF exercise.) Additionally, Plummer had to arrange for coverage of the Portsmouth Fire Department while his own staff took part in the drill.

To ensure that personnel responded to the events in a real-life manner, neither Denver nor Portsmouth was notified of the exact date of the “attacks.” Instead, the cities were given a 10-day window in which to expect the unexpected.

Then it happened. At 8:30 on a Saturday morning, the alarm sounded. “We responded with three engines, a ladder and two ambulances initially,” Plummer says. “But, when we got there, we found that we’d had an explosion. We had 200 people contaminated with mustard gas. Fifty-one were dead; 110 would have to be transported to hospitals in ambulances; and the rest were walking wounded.”

Following Portsmouth’s emergency management and mass casualty plans, Plummer stepped up as incident commander and began assessing the situation and amassing manpower. He rang up five alarms and declared a Level 3 mass casualty event (involving more than 150 victims). “We had 38 ambulances, about 40 engines and ladders, and over 200 firefighters and ambulance attendants from different areas,” he says.

Even though the attack was simulated, the chaos at the scene was overwhelming at first, Plummer says. “There was just an unbelievable amount of things going on at once,” he explains. Additionally, the victims (volunteers from community civic groups and businesses) were made up convincingly by professional make-up artists. “It was very real,” he notes. “They had arms missing, that kind of stuff. They played it out as if it had really happened.”

Emergency staff set up for triage, but, before victims could be transported to hospitals, they had to be decontaminated. (As they attempted to rescue the victims, several of the law enforcement and fire personnel were contaminated.) Seven state and federal hazmat teams were called in, as were representatives of the original planning agencies.

Severely injured victims were transported to four area hospitals via ambulance, while others were driven to the hospitals in school buses or in their own vehicles. As the hospitals became overburdened, Plummer turned to federal resources, which were able to provide a mobile hospital.

By Saturday evening, 2,600 local, state and federal personnel were on the scene at Portsmouth’s Port Authority. As victims were cleared from the site, workers continued to fight the fire, decontaminate the area, search for the missing and arrange for a place to take the dead. The Red Cross and Salvation Army provided supplies and food to the workers.

The event ended Monday morning, when the situation was fully stabilized. “We worked pretty much 48 hours straight without any kind of a break,” Plummer notes.

Days after the Portsmouth drill, local participants convened to evaluate their performances. Weeks later, a similar meeting with officials from both Portsmouth and Denver took place in Washington.

“We really learned a lot,” Plummer says. “We learned that the mutual aid system works very well and that there are a lot of federal resources that are available. We got an idea of how to contact them and how long it takes for them to respond.

“We also learned how much manpower you need for something like this. Even though we had five alarms worth of people there, if it had lasted any longer, we would have needed even more,” he notes. “People were just exhausted, and, when they’re working in hazmat suits and that kind of thing, they can only work for so long without rest.”

In addition to clarifying manpower needs, the weekend drill pointed out some weaknesses in Portsmouth’s communications. “Radio frequencies were a major issue,” Plummer says. “We only have a couple of frequencies that we can use, along with all the departments. And they were so overloaded that we really couldn’t communicate where we needed to.”

Additionally, emergency personnel had not communicated effectively with the hospitals. “We had some minor problems letting the hospitals know how many people we were transporting and when they would arrive,” Plummer explains.

In the end, the experience has proven valuable not only to Ports-mouth but to other cities as well. The lessons learned will be used to hone the existing counter-terrorism training that is being provided federally to the nation’s largest cities. The training program will eventually be produced on videotape for broader distribution.

For more information on Project TOPOFF or on resources for counter-terrorism training, contact Gina Talamona, DOJ, (202) 514-2007 or Mary Walker, FEMA, (202) 646-3892.

Tags: Public Safety

Most Recent


  • Report: Traffic fatalities from motor vehicle accidents increased by 7% in the first quarter
    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s first-quarter traffic fatality estimates are in, and they’re not encouraging. Around 9,560 people died in motor vehicle accidents in the first three months of 2022, representing a 7 percent increase over last year’s data from the same quarter (there were 8,935 fatalities in the first quarter of 2021).   “We […]
  • heat
    Taking on the heat with tech: Cities create chief heat officers
    Usually, my writing has focused on all things tech leadership in local government. And if the term “heat” was ever mentioned, it was directed towards either IT or the CIO. Given all the weather tragedies across the globe it is time we simply stop just talking about it and start doing something about it. This […]
  • Increase in emergency response time caused by insufficient staffing, traffic congestion
    The pandemic has detrimentally impacted cities and counties in a lot of different ways, including an increase in emergency response time in some cities—a symptom of challenges like congested streets and staffing shortages. In New Orleans, for example, a report from AH Analytics commissioned by the New Orleans City Council found it takes an average […]
  • Death toll continues to rise in Kentucky as more severe weather sweeps through the region
    Appalachia is underwater—at least 30 people have died in historic flooding that’s brought Kentucky to its knees for the second time in two years, following the devastating tornado that cut across the state in December. Severe weather is continuing to hit the region even as the death toll rises. “If things weren’t hard enough on […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your American City and County account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • How governments can keep employees safe as they return to work
  • Preventing cyber-attacks needs to be a priority for local governments
  • Building community and officer wellness through data sharing
  • California city combines advanced technology with dedicated public safety team for comprehensive emergency management

White papers


2000+ Government Customers Reveal a Roadmap to Fleet Management Success

17th August 2022

Modern American Perspectives on Law Enforcement

14th July 2022

Reimagine the Employee Experience

12th July 2022
view all

Events


PODCAST


Young Leaders Episode 4 – Cyril Jefferson – City Councilman, High Point, North Carolina

13th October 2020

Young Leaders Episode 3 – Shannon Hardin – City Council President, Columbus, Ohio

27th July 2020

Young Leaders Episode 2 – Christian Williams – Development Services Planner, Goodyear, Ariz.

1st July 2020
view all

Twitter


AmerCityCounty

Funding fiber broadband: The path to growing communities dlvr.it/SWsW6f

18th August 2022
AmerCityCounty

Report: Traffic fatalities from motor vehicle accidents increased by 7% in the first quarter dlvr.it/SWsJFc

18th August 2022
AmerCityCounty

Biden: Inflation Reduction Act represents ‘one of the most significant laws in our history’ dlvr.it/SWpMDZ

17th August 2022
AmerCityCounty

CRM beyond sales: How government CRM can improve citizen engagement and satisfaction dlvr.it/SWp9lg

17th August 2022
AmerCityCounty

Taking on the heat with tech: Cities create chief heat officers dlvr.it/SWp77d

17th August 2022
AmerCityCounty

2000+ government customers reveal a roadmap to fleet management success dlvr.it/SWng6T

17th August 2022
AmerCityCounty

Here are 12 of America’s most walkable cities with vacancies for renters dlvr.it/SWlBkd

16th August 2022
AmerCityCounty

Amid digitization of public infrastructure, cybersecurity is increasingly a challenge dlvr.it/SWh6Ww

15th August 2022

Newsletters

Sign up for American City & County’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about local governments.

Resale Insights Dashboard

The Resale Insights Dashboard provides model-level data for the entire used equipment market to help you save time and money.

Municipal Cost Index

Updated monthly since 1978, our exclusive Municipal Cost Index shows the effects of inflation on the cost of providing municipal services

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital audience? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • IWCE’s Urgent Communications
  • IWCE Expo

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us

FOLLOW American City and County ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2022 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X