Drill prepares responders for chemical accident

By Nathan Solheim
Assistant Metro Editor
03-11-2004

BYNUM It could have been any day for the Army. People milled about the windowless room, Styrofoam cups and government coffee hovering near their chests as they chatted or peered at the first bit of work. Each computer screen was lit, as were the big screens on the wall. Nobody paid much attention to the men and women who were there Wednesday just to observe the drill that was about to begin. Then the call came in. There had been a mock chemical weapons accident in the Anniston Army Depot’s storage area, and now was the time to react. “Attention, a new event has been opened,” a mechanical voice intoned over the loudspeakers. It was slightly more melodic than the voice one hears for a tornado warning on the radio. So began Wednesday’s real-time emergency response exercise at the Army’s Emergency Operations Center under the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP). Within minutes, emergency management agencies in six neighboring counties, local schools, first responders, and the National Guard all had gone into action to practice what they would do in a chemical weapons accident. Getting the call After hearing the initial report over a two-way radio at 9:02 a.m., Tony Burdell, the depot’s chemical surety officer, sounded an alarm that sent a steady stream of people flowing through the doors of the center like the day after Thanksgiving at Sears. Except these people had gas masks cinched around their waists as they rushed in to take their places at computer monitors. The plot of the mock exercise unfolded rapidly: A roof leak had been found in an igloo, and contractors had been brought in to fix it. M-55 rockets carrying GB nerve agent, or sarin, had been stacked outside the igloo so workers could fix the roof. As the contractors approached in their truck, its brakes failed and they smashed into the rockets. Two rockets exploded. Some leaked deadly sarin. The mission was to react quickly, making sure notifications went out and the hazard could be mitigated. Quickly, a computer screen projected a plume of agent vapor that spread 30 miles southwest from the depot across Interstate 20 and well into Talladega County. On each side of the plume was a 15-mile bubble that accounted for shifts in weather conditions. Canned weather conditions for the exercise were 78 degrees with a 3-5 mph wind out of the northeast. Various emergency management officials wanted this practice accident to be large enough to send agent off the depot. They wanted agent to spread across Interstate 20 so they could practice simulated traffic management along the busy route between Atlanta and Birmingham. Details began trickling in to Burdell. Four people were injured, the igloo door was open, agent vapor was in the air. The Army Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is responsible for notifying the public if an accident occurs. Quickly, the room was full of people, ranging from public information officers to security guards to Army honchos. In the thick of all the activity, Lt. Col. Bob Jones, who commands the Anniston Chemical Activity, walked around with quiet confidence, now and then issuing commands. Despite their numbers, there was no chaos among the depot workers who gathered in the room for the exercise. The atmosphere was professional, matter-of-fact and down to business. ‘We practice so much’ Maybe it was because everyone knew this was just an exercise, or perhaps it was because they’ve conducted exercises for years. “We practice so much, I think we’d react just like we practice,” said Genell Young, the CSEPP coordinator at the Anniston Chemical Activity. The Army does this type of exercise with the community response once a year. There also are quarterly depot-only exercises. Young was showing observers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency around the room. Representatives from FEMA, the Army, the Chemical Materials Agency and other chemical weapons stockpile sites were at the exercise to observe and learn, or to evaluate and critique. As the exercise progressed, the evaluators took notes. After it ended, they would talk with staff and publish a report. The report will be issued in a few weeks. Officials at the Anniston Army Depot have performed such exercises for nearly 20 years, but they say there’s always room to improve. “We look at every aspect of the Army response,” said Henry Hoffman, an evaluator from the Army Materiel Command in Edgewood, Md. “The Army and FEMA agreed to guidelines for on-post and off-post response. We’re looking at the response on a broad scale and a broad scope.” Beyond the depot As the buzz of activity continued in the emergency operations center, the local EMAs were notified and the Joint Information Center at McClellan was activated to disseminate information to the public and the press. Burdell gave updates at about 20-minute intervals. In one update, he instructed the workers at the incinerator to shelter-in-place. The incinerator is the only place at the depot with collective protection. The rest of the depot work force must evacuate or move around the plume of chemical agent. Burdell began calling out names of affected areas on the depot: “Charlie 16-Bravo 7-Charlie-12 …” — and the list continued. Later, at the Joint Information Center, where reporters and other media representatives are to go in case of an accident, the protective actions had been announced. Four workers had been taken to Stringfellow Memorial Hospital and Regional Medical Center. Officials were preparing to bring in a two-star general to inspect the accident. The Joint Information Center at McClellan will be the epicenter of information in an accident. Here, the idea is to get correct information out to the public so everyone knows what to do. “This is life-saving information, and if someone puts some bad information, that can be bad, bad, bad,” said Bill Bischof, a FEMA evaluator. Representatives of the EMAs from all the affected counties, as well as from the Alabama Department of Emergency Management and others agencies are here. But with all the people taking part in the exercise, one major contingent was left out. Local residents could not be included because it’s hard to get everyone involved, said Jeff Lindblad, a spokesman for the Chemical Materials Agency, which oversees the chemical weapons stockpile. “We try to involve who we can, and there are challenges with involving the community,” Lindblad said. “People do have jobs. People would have their lives disrupted trying to get involved in an exercise.” Mike Abrams, an Army spokesman at the incinerator, worked in the Emergency Operations Center as part of the exercise, along with the depot’s spokeswoman, Joan Gustafson. Abrams said the Army’s emergency preparations have only improved in all the exercises he’s taken part in since 1995. “No matter how good we think we are during the last exercise, there’s always room for improvement,” Abrams said. I find that impressive; we’re smart enough to know we can come up with better, more efficient, ways of working, and we appreciate honest evaluation and critique. That can only help us do our jobs better, and the community has rightly put their trust in a large group of professionals.” By the end of the day, the exercise had ended, and all the players had been put through their paces, practicing for a day everyone hopes will never happen.

About Nathan Solheim

Assistant Metro Editor Nathan Solheim is Minnesota native and a University of Georgia graduate.