4 counties will stage simulated terror attack on Wednesday

If you live in florida you have the right to know

www.sun-sentinel.com...


If the link does not work then here is the whole story

4 counties will stage simulated terror attack on Wednesday

By Ardy Friedberg
Staff Writer
Posted May 20 2003



The "terrorist attack" on Pro Player Stadium scheduled for Wednesday -- including the simulated collapse of a section of the stadium -- will be a drill, but disaster planners from four South Florida counties will try to make it as realistic as possible.

The emergency response to the "attack" during a "Marlins game" by terrorists using weapons of mass destruction including explosives and chemical and biological agents will be massive. There will be helicopters shuttling the injured from the stadium parking lot in north Miami-Dade County to area hospitals; bomb-sniffing dogs searching for explosives; HazMat units decontaminating victims in the stadium parking lot with showers and fire hoses; special response and SWAT teams combing the stadium for terrorists; and urban search and rescue personnel searching for victims in the rubble trucked in for the exercise.

To complicate the scenario, many of the "victims" will leave the stadium before help arrives, forcing rescue personnel to track them down to contain any potential outbreak of illness.

"It's a realistic opportunity for people to participate in a drill that could be a reality somewhere in the U.S. someday," said Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne. "It brings together all the people who are going to have to do the job of containing such an event."

Among hundreds of observers of the simulation, scheduled for 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., will be Florida Democratic Sen. and presidential hopeful Bob Graham, county commissioners and other officials from Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Monroe counties.

More than 2,500 police and fire personnel from 105 agencies, and 1,000 volunteers acting as victims, will take part, according to Shari Holbert-Lipner, a spokeswoman for Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.

This is the first such simulation conducted by the Southeast Florida Regional Domestic Security Task Force, Holbert-Lipner said.

Officials said the simulation was planned before the recent series of international terror attacks in Saudi Arabia and Morocco.

The task force, a joint operation involving federal and state emergency, law enforcement and health agencies, is one of seven in Florida.

Drivers are urged to avoid the area around the stadium at 2269 NW 199th St., Miami, during the hours of the drill.


Its always somthing never nothing.



Falcon

Can you imagine driving up on this without previously being informed about it? You would have all kinds of thoughts running through your mind.

I'd actually like to watch this, it would be pretty wild. Or even participating, parachute into the stadium and then go and hunt down "fake terrorists".

I wonder just how much longer this current mini-epidemic will go on?
Who is paying for it?

It also strikes me that "simulated" attacks without adequate warning and notification are (a) a recipe for civic disaster (b) a golden chance for real terrorists.

They're actually fairly routine here in Florida for some reason, and have been for years, even prior to 911....

I take the point, Gaz: but isn't "fairly routine" a security soft spot?
This does not strike me as wise Civil Defence: if "routine" -like all routine, no one will give a d*mn after a while and (b) the exceptional will become commonplace.

but it's really more like drilling. The tests are to see how well the various agencies involved, trauma centers, etc. can mobilize to meet the needs of a large-scale threat. Much like an army squad drills, to make the reaction natural and trained, instead of panicked, and unorganized....