Training is best bet in managing disasters

EMMITSBURG, Md. -- Las Vegas police Deputy Chief Greg McCurdy's eyes widened as the local news aired live footage of a fireball erupting from the Golden Nugget.

"We need to put the mayor in front of the camera," McCurdy declared. "This may be catastrophic. We need to get people out of downtown."

Las Vegas City Manager Betsy Fretwell, who hours earlier had opened the Emergency Operations Center, agreed that a press conference would be held in half an hour.

Mayor Carolyn Goodman, who was sworn into office just a week earlier, sat somberly. She had already declared a disaster emergency and planned to offer her comfort to a city under siege.

Besides the disaster at the Golden Nugget, city caretakers were confronted by explosions at several other hotels, a reported gunman at another and suspicious packages at Hoover Dam and the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

At the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Emergency Management Institute, 72 officials from Southern Nevada spent four days this week training and testing their ability to respond to a real emergency.

The training program climaxed with a two-day real-time disaster simulation. Wednesday focused on response and Thursday on recovery to the simulated attack by al-Qaida terrorists.

Each year, FEMA runs about a dozen training programs for regional emergency responders at a campus in Emmitsburg, about 65 miles north of Washington, D.C.

Las Vegas Emergency Manager Carolyn Levering said she has been applying for a slot since the last time the group underwent training in 2003.

"Every emergency manager will tell you that you can always improve. You can improve your communications and your resource allocation. And we haven't practiced recovery before," Levering said.

Goodman said she was eager to participate on the advice of her husband, former Mayor Oscar Goodman. He had taken part in a similar training session in 2003 only to return home a week before major flooding hit the city and proved the newly learned skills indispensable.

"This is a wonderful resource," she said. "I have learned a lot."

FEMA training specialists Richard Sexton and William Tschumy began preparing for the Southern Nevada training course seven months ago.

The pair traveled to Nevada to understand the emergency response plans that have been developed in Las Vegas, Clark County and other area communities. They also assessed vulnerabilities and what type of disaster could strike.

Las Vegas relies upon an "All-Hazard Emergency Operations Plan" that spells out which agencies are likely to respond to different disasters, establishes a command center and designates top officials to declare a local emergency.

"We look at their plans, meet officials, go through the county to look at vulnerabilities and hazards and then script out a shell of the exercise," Sexton said.

Their goal is to develop a realistic exercise that tests the ability of emergency responders to handle a large-scale disaster through clear communications, teamwork and efficient resource allocation, he said.

A key to making the exercise real is peppering the emergency disaster with the typical police and fire calls that come on any day. House fires, traffic accidents and heart attacks don't stop just because terrorists are setting off bombs.

During Wednesday's exercise, Sexton orchestrated the multi-pronged terrorist attack that struck on a sunny weekend where hotels were at near capacity because of a NASCAR race and a championship fight.

Eerily, the mock attack on Las Vegas unfolded at the same time three real blasts rocked Mumbai, India. It was the second attack on that city, and several Las Vegas police officials, including Deputy Chief Joe Lombardo, visited Mumbai to learn from the 2008 terrorist assault on city landmarks.

"We learned that you must consider the possibility of more than one attack and not to have an overconvergence of your resources," Lombardo said. "Our exercise identified that need to be aware and adjust as the situation dictated."

Sexton began the exercise slowly. He sought to stretch fire and police personnel with only a few hints of what was to come.

There was a suspicious package found on the second floor of the parking garage at Hoover Dam. A reporter called asking about sick people flooding a hospital. A tanker truck crashed and caught fire. A bus accident left at least four dead and seven injured.

The 72 Nevada participants were divided into three sections -- operations, coordination and policy -- that took up quarters in three classrooms equipped with computers, telephones and fax machines.

Operations took the incoming dispatch calls and assigned police, fire and other responders to the scenes. Coordination tracked those resources and found outside help when needed. Policy was for decision makers. That's where Goodman sat around a table with the city manager, high-ranking fire and police officials and others.

Sexton and a dozen FEMA trainers occupied a fourth room where they followed a script of more than 200 events -- dispatch calls, reporter inquiries and citizen tips -- designed to test the emergency responders.

Inside the operations room, the FEMA staff enjoyed the tension they were creating in the classrooms.

"We try to keep them in alligators up to their shoulders, but we don't want them in over their heads," joked one FEMA veteran.

Soon, the classrooms were abuzz as the participants tried to respond to the incidents as police, fire and other resources were stretched to their limits.

"Now we are going to blow it up," another FEMA trainer shouted out.

Back in the classrooms, city officials learned of explosions at Binion's and a gunman at the MGM Grand. There was yet another tanker crash.

"I think it is safe to say we are under attack," McCurdy announced. "We have multiple attacks."

"It's not safe to go outside right now," Fretwell said. "We need to tell our employees to stay inside."

Goodman seemed to grow impatient, wondering why they weren't holding a press conference immediately to notify the public.

"Why are we waiting?" she asked.

"You need a message," Levering said.

"I'm going to turn it over to the professionals here," Goodman said.

"There will be questions you need to answer," Levering said.

McCurdy hung up a telephone and turned to the group.

"It's confirmed by the FBI. This is terrorists," he said.

After the exercise, Fretwell said she was reassured that Las Vegas can handle a major emergency.

"It was reassuring to me to watch it play out and see our ability to coordinate and communicate," the city manager said.

During the second day of the exercise, officials had to count the injured and assess damages and the needs of the community. Goodman held a mock town hall to help comfort citizens.

Richards and Tschumy said the group did well.

Las Vegas officials also were satisfied.

"Nothing like that is ever going to be perfect, but overall we felt like we performed in a way that would make our community proud," city spokesman David Riggleman said.

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau reporter Peter Urban at purban@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.