Razmear
05-31-2010, 04:48 PM
I read about this a few days ago in the local papers website. This isn't some small scale drill, they will be blowing stuff up, and the towns mentioned are about 20 miles apart.
I'm pasting the whole news story here, cuz the local paper goes to pay per view after about a week.
YaY Freedom, huh.....
eb
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2010/may/29/anderson-area-agencies-prepare-emergency-drill/
Anderson-area agencies prepare for emergency drill
By Liz Carey
Posted May 29, 2010 at 5:29 p.m.
ANDERSON COUNTY — There will be explosions and military trucks on the streets of Anderson County, but it won’t be real.
In the weeks of June 8 through June 20, Anderson County emergency response teams — from law enforcement units and fire departments to emergency management workers and the coroner’s office — will participate in a mock terrorist attack in the Anderson area.
Called Palmetto Shield and Operation Red Dragon, organizations from Anderson, Abbeville, Greenville, Greenwood, Oconee and Pickens counties will work with the U.S. Army, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Red Cross, among other agencies, to simulate the coordination of efforts in the face of a real emergency.
As with other drills, the activities in June will use actors and mannequins to imitate real patients and casualties, said Taylor Jones, emergency services director for Anderson County. And while the exercise isn’t real, the threat is, he said.
“There are a lot of plants in the region that are very critical to the economic engine of South Carolina and the country,” Jones said. “This area is also crucial to the energy-producing engine of our area, the whole Southeast and the nation at large.”
The scenario will play out like this: On June 8, intelligence agencies will start to hear chatter that a terrorist group is planning an attack somewhere between Atlanta and Charlotte.
Throughout the week, intelligence will continue to point to some sort of pending attack.
On June 12, a domestic violence call in Honea Path will result in officers finding bomb-making equipment. From there, a series of events will happen, including the explosion of an improvised explosive device at a Greenwood train facility, the discovery of more bomb-making equipment at an Abbeville home and a call to assist with the aftermath of a hurricane on the coast.
The training exercises will culminate on June 19 when two trucks head down Interstate 85 toward Anderson and get off at exit 19. One truck will drive up Clemson Boulevard toward Pendleton and stop at the Michelin plant in Sandy Springs. An IED dirty bomb will explode there, injuring eight and killing two.
But that truck will be a diversion to the “real” event, another IED dirty bomb at a mock car and bike show at the Anderson University Athletic Campus, the former Anderson County Fair and Expo Center on Williamston Road.
“This will be the real target, something with a lot of people,” Jones said. “This IED will take out 150 people with 25 dead.”
Local agencies will have a chance to work with national organizations as well as with specialized equipment available in the state, he said. For instance, when the city of Anderson Police Department is faced with the attack, it will call in the U.S. Army Reserves to assist with decontamination, reconnaissance and air sampling.
“This is part of their Operation Red Dragon,” Jones said. “It gives the Army a chance to work with civilians and learn how to get out of the military mind-set and work more effectively with local units.”
Simulating mass fatalities will be a “major test of our resources,” said Greg Shore, Anderson County Coroner and MedShore Ambulance Service chief executive officer.
“This is probably the largest simulated exercise involving real-time events we’ve been involved with,” Shore said. “It will give us an opportunity to test our mass fatality plan of action.”
Abbeville County Coroner Ronnie Ashley will participate in the drill, Shore said, by managing the activity at the South Carolina Coroner’s Association regional response trailer.
The trailer is equipped to provide supplies in the event of a mass fatality emergency. It will be staged near the Anderson University Athletic Campus, Shore said.
MedShore will activate its 42-member disaster response team, whose paramedics and emergency medical technicians will answer simulated calls in more than 60 ambulances, he said.
“We’ve been training with local agencies but this drill will test our ability to work with state-level and federal emergency response agencies,” Shore said. “We’re excited to see how we respond.”
It will also give the responding agencies an opportunity to check on how well they communicate with one another as well as the public.
“We’ll be activating our (billboard emergency alert system), to let people know that it’s just a drill,” said Anita Donley, public information officer for the Anderson County emergency services division. “We’ll also be doing updates on our Web site, sending out emergency texts and updating people through our Facebook and Twitter accounts. For the people within a 1-mile radius of the actual event site, we will be activating our reverse 911, to call residents and let them know this is a drill. We really want to be able to test all of our procedures.”
Honea Path Police Chief David King said the event will be a learning experience for all the parties involved.
“It’s going to be a very beneficial training opportunity for our department to work and learn together with Anderson County Sheriffs Office,” King said. “Anderson sheriffs SWAT team, emergency preparedness officials and state and federal agencies as well. It will also test our communications between our dispatch center, law enforcement agencies and all our emergency services. Everything will be handled just as a real emergency exist. A lot of hard work is going into this training by all agencies involved. … Our goal is to make sure we are prepared to protect our community and county.”
Jones said the event will be paid for with grants and federal money. Overtime that will be paid for the event will be paid through a $92,000 grant, he said, while the initial work on the project was covered by a $35,000 state grant,
And the money spent on the project, he said, will stay in the Upstate.
Federal agencies, when they bring in their people and equipment to the area for the drill, are expected to spend more than $25,000 a day on food, shelter, equipment and other resources.
“This is as much a boost to our own pockets as our own sense of security,” said interim Anderson County administrator Rusty Burns. “On May 21, the Department of Homeland Security issued a report that said, ‘The number and pace of attempted attacks against the United States over the past nine months have surpassed the number of attempts during any other previous one-year period.’ Just like with home fire drills, none of us can ignore the need to be prepared for the worst. And while many of us will sleep better knowing our agencies are prepared to deal with this, ultimately many others will sleep better because of the food on their table and the money in their pockets that resulted from these organizations spending their training dollars in Anderson.”
Jones said several teams with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office will participate, including a group of criminal investigators who will gather intelligence and report it. Anderson County Sheriff John Skipper said the exercise would no in no way detract from the day-to-day operations of the sheriff’s office.
Independent Mail reporter Rick Spruill contributed to this report.
I'm pasting the whole news story here, cuz the local paper goes to pay per view after about a week.
YaY Freedom, huh.....
eb
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2010/may/29/anderson-area-agencies-prepare-emergency-drill/
Anderson-area agencies prepare for emergency drill
By Liz Carey
Posted May 29, 2010 at 5:29 p.m.
ANDERSON COUNTY — There will be explosions and military trucks on the streets of Anderson County, but it won’t be real.
In the weeks of June 8 through June 20, Anderson County emergency response teams — from law enforcement units and fire departments to emergency management workers and the coroner’s office — will participate in a mock terrorist attack in the Anderson area.
Called Palmetto Shield and Operation Red Dragon, organizations from Anderson, Abbeville, Greenville, Greenwood, Oconee and Pickens counties will work with the U.S. Army, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Red Cross, among other agencies, to simulate the coordination of efforts in the face of a real emergency.
As with other drills, the activities in June will use actors and mannequins to imitate real patients and casualties, said Taylor Jones, emergency services director for Anderson County. And while the exercise isn’t real, the threat is, he said.
“There are a lot of plants in the region that are very critical to the economic engine of South Carolina and the country,” Jones said. “This area is also crucial to the energy-producing engine of our area, the whole Southeast and the nation at large.”
The scenario will play out like this: On June 8, intelligence agencies will start to hear chatter that a terrorist group is planning an attack somewhere between Atlanta and Charlotte.
Throughout the week, intelligence will continue to point to some sort of pending attack.
On June 12, a domestic violence call in Honea Path will result in officers finding bomb-making equipment. From there, a series of events will happen, including the explosion of an improvised explosive device at a Greenwood train facility, the discovery of more bomb-making equipment at an Abbeville home and a call to assist with the aftermath of a hurricane on the coast.
The training exercises will culminate on June 19 when two trucks head down Interstate 85 toward Anderson and get off at exit 19. One truck will drive up Clemson Boulevard toward Pendleton and stop at the Michelin plant in Sandy Springs. An IED dirty bomb will explode there, injuring eight and killing two.
But that truck will be a diversion to the “real” event, another IED dirty bomb at a mock car and bike show at the Anderson University Athletic Campus, the former Anderson County Fair and Expo Center on Williamston Road.
“This will be the real target, something with a lot of people,” Jones said. “This IED will take out 150 people with 25 dead.”
Local agencies will have a chance to work with national organizations as well as with specialized equipment available in the state, he said. For instance, when the city of Anderson Police Department is faced with the attack, it will call in the U.S. Army Reserves to assist with decontamination, reconnaissance and air sampling.
“This is part of their Operation Red Dragon,” Jones said. “It gives the Army a chance to work with civilians and learn how to get out of the military mind-set and work more effectively with local units.”
Simulating mass fatalities will be a “major test of our resources,” said Greg Shore, Anderson County Coroner and MedShore Ambulance Service chief executive officer.
“This is probably the largest simulated exercise involving real-time events we’ve been involved with,” Shore said. “It will give us an opportunity to test our mass fatality plan of action.”
Abbeville County Coroner Ronnie Ashley will participate in the drill, Shore said, by managing the activity at the South Carolina Coroner’s Association regional response trailer.
The trailer is equipped to provide supplies in the event of a mass fatality emergency. It will be staged near the Anderson University Athletic Campus, Shore said.
MedShore will activate its 42-member disaster response team, whose paramedics and emergency medical technicians will answer simulated calls in more than 60 ambulances, he said.
“We’ve been training with local agencies but this drill will test our ability to work with state-level and federal emergency response agencies,” Shore said. “We’re excited to see how we respond.”
It will also give the responding agencies an opportunity to check on how well they communicate with one another as well as the public.
“We’ll be activating our (billboard emergency alert system), to let people know that it’s just a drill,” said Anita Donley, public information officer for the Anderson County emergency services division. “We’ll also be doing updates on our Web site, sending out emergency texts and updating people through our Facebook and Twitter accounts. For the people within a 1-mile radius of the actual event site, we will be activating our reverse 911, to call residents and let them know this is a drill. We really want to be able to test all of our procedures.”
Honea Path Police Chief David King said the event will be a learning experience for all the parties involved.
“It’s going to be a very beneficial training opportunity for our department to work and learn together with Anderson County Sheriffs Office,” King said. “Anderson sheriffs SWAT team, emergency preparedness officials and state and federal agencies as well. It will also test our communications between our dispatch center, law enforcement agencies and all our emergency services. Everything will be handled just as a real emergency exist. A lot of hard work is going into this training by all agencies involved. … Our goal is to make sure we are prepared to protect our community and county.”
Jones said the event will be paid for with grants and federal money. Overtime that will be paid for the event will be paid through a $92,000 grant, he said, while the initial work on the project was covered by a $35,000 state grant,
And the money spent on the project, he said, will stay in the Upstate.
Federal agencies, when they bring in their people and equipment to the area for the drill, are expected to spend more than $25,000 a day on food, shelter, equipment and other resources.
“This is as much a boost to our own pockets as our own sense of security,” said interim Anderson County administrator Rusty Burns. “On May 21, the Department of Homeland Security issued a report that said, ‘The number and pace of attempted attacks against the United States over the past nine months have surpassed the number of attempts during any other previous one-year period.’ Just like with home fire drills, none of us can ignore the need to be prepared for the worst. And while many of us will sleep better knowing our agencies are prepared to deal with this, ultimately many others will sleep better because of the food on their table and the money in their pockets that resulted from these organizations spending their training dollars in Anderson.”
Jones said several teams with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office will participate, including a group of criminal investigators who will gather intelligence and report it. Anderson County Sheriff John Skipper said the exercise would no in no way detract from the day-to-day operations of the sheriff’s office.
Independent Mail reporter Rick Spruill contributed to this report.