Chicago Loop Sets Evacuation Drill For September
Chicago Loop Sets Evacuation Drill For September
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has name September Emergency Preparedness Month, and Chicagos Mayor Dailey has scheduled an evacuation drill for part of the downtown area.
Emergency preparedness officials will stage a voluntary evacuation of buildings in a section of the Loop that Chief Emergency Officer Cortez Trotter described as two square blocks, maybe more. The drill is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, September 7.
When you do tabletop exercises, thats one thing. But it becomes real life to people when they can actually see it. Once they see these exercises unfolding and they can understand that, Hey, that could be me tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or next year, they start to pay closer attention to it, Trotter told a news conference at the citys 911 emergency center.
The exercise not only demonstrates what we would have people do once they reach ground level, it takes it to the next step,” said Trotter. “And that is, once youre evacuated, you can anticipate going to assembly transport centers. You can anticipate being told to go to different locations. Once that takes place, then the second phase of the excerise thatll be done later on in the year, probably picks it up at that point: the stockpiling. Theyll be made aware of that so that, if you are told to evacuate, we are starting to stockpile things that people need.
Trotter said the evacuation will not cause a considerable disruption in the central business district. But it will cover an area large enough so that we can get a good sampling of where Chicago stands.
As part of the ongoing business continuity initiatives of ChicagoFIRST, the organization announced its participation in the Chicago Loop evacuation drill, tentatively scheduled for Thursday, September 7, 2006.
ChicagoFIRST, established after the events of 9/11, is a non-profit association dedicated to ensuring the resiliency of Chicago’s financial community in the event of a crisis. The 24 members of ChicagoFIRST are either located or have facilities in the Loop area.
“For the past three years, ChicagoFIRST has been dedicated to addressing homeland security and emergency management issues effecting Chicago’s financial institutions, the majority of which reside in the Loop area,” said ChicagoFIRST Executive Director Brian Tishuk. “Due to the location of the drill, some of our members will participate and we believe that their involvement in ChicagoFIRST has better prepared them for the exercise.” He added, “While ChicagoFIRST has participated in its own mock disaster exercises, it will be extremely beneficial to participate in an exercise of this scale.” It’s expected that thousands of downtown workers will participate in the drill.
The City of Chicago has provided critical support to ChicagoFIRST throughout its existence. Chief Emergency Officer Cortez Trotter, who is leading the evacuation exercise, was a key advocate of ChicagoFIRST during its development. In his previous role as the Executive Director of the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, he helped the coalition meet its initial primary objective of securing a seat at the City’s Joint Operations Center.
At a recent event celebrating ChicagoFIRST’s three-year anniversary, Mayor Daley commended the organization by saying, “ChicagoFIRST is a groundbreaking organization, the first to partner with government entities to make a commitment to protect our vital financial sector. I salute ChicagoFIRST. This organization shows that Chicago business leaders are always leading the way.” About ChicagoFIRST
ChicagoFIRST was formed in July 2003 by Chicago-area financial organizations and seeks to enhance the resilience of the Chicago financial community. It does this by establishing relationships between the Chicago financial community and all levels of government and by providing a means by which the financial firms can coordinate with respect to homeland security issues. Additional information can be found at http://www.chicagofirst.org.
