OEM Says Sunday’s Mock Attack At Shea ‘Went Very Well’

Gazette Photo Following last Sunday’s major multi-agency field exercise at Shea Stadium, where 1,000 of the city’s first responders took part in a mock anti-terrorism drill, Mayor Michael Bloomberg called for more of the same to prepare all citizens to give their best if New York City is ever attacked again.

By John Toscano

Following last Sunday’s major multi-agency field exercise at Shea Stadium, where 1,000 of the city’s first responders took part in a mock anti-terrorism drill, Mayor Michael Bloomberg called for more of the same to prepare all citizens to give their best if New York City is ever attacked again.

"We have to make sure we keep up [this] kind of training so that if we ever are attacked again, we can respond in the best way and limit any damage," the mayor declared after the four-hour drill was over.

Joseph Bruno, commissioner of the Office of Emergency Management (OEM), which set up Operation United Response, said he thought the drill "went very well."

However, he said, it was too soon to tell what could be learned from the exercise. He and officials from the nine city agencies that participated will assess the performances of those involved in coming weeks.

Bruno also made reference to last week’s terrorist train bombings in Madrid, Spain which killed 200 and injured 1,647 others, and said that subways would be part of future mock attack exercises. He said the preparation for Sunday’s exercise had taken five months and had started long before the Madrid massacre.

Some 1,000 emergency responders were involved. Another 1,000 fake victims were Fire Department cadets and Auxiliary Police officers.

Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security and its Office of Domestic Preparedness (ODM), the exercise began at 11 a.m. when a fake weapon of mass destruction was detonated by OEM in the loge section of the stadium. Occupying the seats were rows of pretend spectators at a baseball game. As noise and smoke arose from the blast, the 300 spectators slumped injured in their seats or wandered around dazed, looking for a safe place as rescuers approached the area.

Outside in the parking lot, scores of ambulances operated by Emergency Services Units and other rescue vehicles were set in motion, headed for the area where the weapon of mass destruction had been set off.

The sudden start of activity created gridlock and some confusion in the parking lot, but the ambulances eventually headed for the bombing site and emergency workers began sifting through rubble in search of victims. These were removed to 60 New York City area hospitals that were also participating in the United Response exercise.

At the hospital, doctors and nurses received the mock patients and tended to their wounds in crowded emergency rooms. A total of 600 fake victims were treated either at the scene or in hospitals.

Investigators from NYPD bomb squads, meanwhile, were searching for other possible bombs that might be set off. They came upon two radioactive devices in cars in the parking lot. Bomb sniffing dogs were pressed into service looking for other unexploded devices. Haz Mat units attended to contaminated victims, removing their clothes and showering them.

Department of Environmental Protection scientists scanned the site with chemical and biological contamination detectors.

Reports could be heard on police radios that the Long Island Expressway, the Grand Central Parkway, nearby La Guardia Airport and bridges and tunnels had been shut down.

Outside the stadium, law enforcement officers arrested six "suspects" in the parking lot. Overhead, helicopters darted back and forth, criss-crossing the attack area.

The entire exercise was covered by a $200,000 grant from Homeland Security. It was designed "to provide a realistic environment to test the skills, equipment use, decision-making capacity and interagency coordination among the agencies that would respond to a weapons of mass destruction event," an OEM news release stated.

The agencies involved included the NYPD and FDNY, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Health and Hospitals Corporation, the Greater New York Hospital Association, and the Emergency Medical Services unit.

OEM published assurances prior to the event that regular police, fire, ambulance and other emergency services would not be affected. Participating agencies would maintain normal staffing levels throughout the exercise and remain capable of handling all routine operations.

While the Department of Homeland Security paid to coordinate the mock attack exercise, city officials did not reveal how much overtime pay might have been incurred.