RED ALERT: Terrorist attack drill Sept. 7 in Chicago, IL-
FFN Editor’s Note: This drill is Chicago is particularly ominous. Chicago was the site of terror drills from May 2-4 in 2006, housed the TOPOFF drills in May, 2003 simulating multiple pandemic and terror attacks, and Illinois recently hosted 5 days of? “Prarie Thunder” terror and pandemic drills Aug 4-9 2006
Also see:? Boston, MA: Terrorist drills Sept. 17 to simulate “Dirty Bomb,” coordinated explosions
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/evac28.html
Daley: Chicago Loop evacuation drill to be ’spontaneous’
August 28, 2006
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter
Chicago has conducted countless tabletop drills since Sept. 11, 2001 to simulate what would happen if the city was hit with a terrorist attack or natural disaster.
Next week, the simulation will come “off the tabletop and out into the street.”
Emergency preparedness officials will stage a “voluntary evacuation” of fewer than a dozen buildings in a section of the Loop that Chief Emergency Officer Cortez Trotter described as “two square blocks, maybe more.” Sources said the Sears Tower will not be included in the drill, tentatively scheduled for next Thursday.
Building employees who agree to participate — and give up “several hours” of their workday — will be directed to designate “transport centers,” Trotter said. From there, they will presumably be taken by bus to central gathering places like McCormick Place, where they will be given food, water, washclothes, toothbrushes, blankets and other essentials.
McCormick Place got its first evacuation test during a South Side power outage earlier this month.
The goal of the drill is to test in a real-life situation how prepared Chicago is for a mass evacuation nearly five years to the day after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“When you do tabletop exercises, that’s 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 city’s 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. And that is, once you’re 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 that’ll be done — later on in the year, probably — picks it up at that point: the stockpiling. They’ll 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.
“Yes, we have a plan. Yes, we understand the plan. Yes, we believe that it will work well. We’re going to test it and make sure that it does and, if it needs to be tweaked, then we’ll do it…We had a recent power outage on the South Side. As a result of the evacuation that took place there, we’ve learned some things. We’ve tweaked the plan. Now, we’re bringing it downtown. Once we do it here, we’re going back to the neighborhoods,” he said.
Although building owners and managers have been notified, Mayor Daley said it’s pivotal not to reveal too many details about the drill in advance.
“You can’t say, ‘Everybody has to do this. Now, we’ll give everybody an alert. Here’s what you have to do.’ That’s not an evacuation plan. This has to be spontaneous….I’m not going to have people there two days before getting ready for an evacuation plan. You don’t do that. There has to be some chaos. People get frightened. They get upset,” he said.
But what about pedestrians and other innocent bystanders who have no idea that it’s only a drill? Isn’t there at least some danger of a War of the Worlds scenario, where passersby believe that it’s all for real and start panicking?
“Let’s hope not. Let’s hope that there’s enough interest and enough chaos to let us evaluate what would happen. But I doubt we would get into a War of the Worlds [panic]–>
The Loop evacuation drill is just one of several activities planned for National Preparedness Month. City Hall is also planning public service announcements and presentations at schools and senior citizen centers to spread the word about disaster preparedness and the need to make advance plans to protect children, the elderly and pets.
Daley was joined at Monday’s news conference by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). Durbin has inserted proposed language into the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 that would provide grants to cities and states to develop evacuation plans, conduct drills and stockpile materials to supply emergency shelters.
The bill, now before a House-Senate conference committee, would not allow Chicago to apply for reimbursement for the Loop evacuation drill after the fact. But it would be available to finance future drills, the senator said.
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http://www.suntimes.com/output/sneed/cst-nws-sneed25.html
August 25, 2006
BY MICHAEL SNEED
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
Sneed has learned the Loop will be evacuated Sept. 7!
• To wit: Don’t panic — it’s just a test. The evacuation is part of an emergency crisis simulation conducted by the city’s Office of Emergency Management to prepare for a terrorist attack or natural disaster.
• The stats: Residents of the Loop’s central business district have been alerted. The test is due to occur during work hours. That’s all Sneed’s got. Stay tuned.
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http://cbs2chicago.com/local/local_story_237183654.html
Chicago Preparing For Terror Drill
Jon Duncanson
Reporting
(CBS) CHICAGO- Aug 25
?How prepared is Chicago for a terrorist attack? It may be about to find out.
The city is planning an emergency terror drill in the coming weeks, but officials are tight-lipped on just how many people may evacuate different buildings at the same time.
Finding details of an alleged planned terror drill, however, is almost as difficult as trying to find Osama bin Ladin.
What CBS 2 has learned is that the city is planning a drill that would replicate on a smaller scale a post-9/11 scenario, perhaps including four Loop office buildings
As it stands now, it would take place along South Wacker Drive in early September — what insiders call the “trophy office street,” a potential prime target because of the list of Grade-A corporations located there.
There’s no word on whether office workers would be notified in advance that a drill was imminent, but insiders say the surprise mode is the preferred mode.
That is fine for many people in the city.
“You have to be ready, I guess,” one Chicagoan said. “You have to practice it or you won’t know what to do.”
The city’s Office of Emergency Management Friday would say only that a preliminary plan is in place for such a drill, and that a limited evacuation could take place.
They said it would be nothing like the massive 2003 simulated biological attack here.
“It’s nice to know what your options are,” said John Sweeney, who works in one of the buildings that could be a part of the drill. “Sometimes these things give the city and the people who are working on it the opportunity to develop strategy ahead of time.”
Insiders told CBS 2 that the city wants to gauge responsiveness of office workers and see how many people the sidewalks can accommodate in an emergency evacuation with presumed casualties.
