Simulated plague spreads during second week

Jace Radke

Monday, Aug. 25, 2003 | 10:24 a.m.

As Operation Determined Progress moves into its second week today in the county, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the military move to the forefront of the national terrorism drill.

The change-over comes after a week of drills for local and state officials and first responders, who said the training was invaluable.

"The drill really showed us what we already knew to be true -- that we have a solid system in place," Clark County Emergency Manager Jim O'Brien said. "We were thrown a bit of a curve with the flooding Tuesday night, but we had a flash flood scheduled during Wednesday's exercises, so we just got it a little early."

O'Brien said that he learned that the county will need more clerical help in the Emergency Command Center in the event of a terrorist attack.

"In past drills we've worked in five- or six-hour shifts, and here we had 36 hours, and found that we were getting a little bogged down with information processing," O'Brien said.

Another area that can be improved is communication, specifically between the county emergency operation center and the state's emergency operations center, said Gary Derks, operations manager for the state's emergency management office.

"When you're coordinating, you don't want four or five agencies calling to ask the same police officer to go to a certain intersection," Derks said. "The information has to flow smoothly up and down."

O'Brien said the county will continue to run joint exercises with the Clark County Health District, the Clark County School District and other agencies to continue to work on emergency response.

Four areas of focus are issues of ambiguity of authority, communication, resource management and the relationship with the media.

Overall the first week of the exercise was a success, said Jeff Griffin, director of FEMA Region 9, which includes California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii.

"We've had the opportunity to work with our customers, the state and local governments, and the more frequently we do that the better we are at it," Griffin said. "I always say I do not want to meet someone in emergency management for the first time in an emergency situation."

This week an imaginary outbreak of plague has overwhelmed the resources of the county and the state in the simulation, and Gov. Kenny Guinn calls in FEMA for assistance.

According to the scenario, by today there are a simulated 2,800 cases of plague reported and 693 deaths in Las Vegas.

FEMA will receive the help of 600 members of the Defense Department Joint Task Force Civil Support. The task force is designed to provide logistical and medical support to communities facing chemical, biological or radiological terrorist attacks.