DRILL TESTS ARSENAL RESPONSE 

Emergency personnel move a mock victim into a tent at Jefferson Regional Medical Center after decontamination to be cleansed by a shower during the simulated chemical spill on Tuesday. (Commercial photo by Joseph Torres) By Bobbie Crockett/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

The piercing sound of sirens filled the air Tuesday, signaling a simulated chemical spill at the Pine Bluff Arsenal. Hundreds of people in the city and surrounding area mobilized to deal with the mock disaster which occurred around 9:15 a.m.

Although the catastrophe wasn't real, it brought home the need to be ready for the real thing.

Shortly after the sirens sounded in White Hall, Moody Elementary School principal Beth Koberlein's voice came over the school's intercom system:

"Teachers, start evaluating at this time," she announced.

More than 470 students, along with staff, lined up and quickly walked to an over-pressurized building designed to keep contaminants out. A similar scenario played out at nearby White Hall High School.

Both schools are within a few miles of the Arsenal. At other area schools, students loaded buses in preparation for "evacuation" to shelters.

Government, police, fire and other officials set up shop at the Jefferson County Emergency Operations Center to track the "chemical cloud" and decide what steps to take regarding evacuation, shelter and more.

The Communications Center also readied to take an influx of 911 calls.

The Jefferson County Information Center at Pine Bluff prepared to be bombarded with inquiries from the public and the media.

People "have to know what their government is doing and they have to receive information to save their lives and the lives of their families," said Don Jacks, a public affairs officer with the Department of Homeland Security.

People affected by Tuesday's mock spill of potentially deadly nerve agent arrived by ambulance at Jefferson Regional Medical Center. Most had to be decontaminated before receiving more treatment. Patients went through a yellow tent set up outside the hospital's emergency entrance where they were given wristbands to categorize the seriousness of their conditions.

Men and women wearing bright blue protective gear equipped with air tanks helped shuttle the "accident victims" to an outside enclosed area where they were sprayed with a "decontaminating solution" from overhead sprinklers.

Some lay on stretchers while others were "walking wounded."

By 11 a.m., two hours after the mock accident, two people were "dead" and 25 people had been transported to the hospital.

The scenarios -- involving the Arsenal, the state and surrounding communities -- were part of a training exercise being held through Wednesday.

The exercise, part of the Service Response Force/Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program, is designed to prepare various agencies to respond in the event of a chemical catastrophe, said Dick Sloan, public affairs officer at the Bluegrass Chemical Activity stockpile site in Kentucky.

Sloan took part in Tuesday's exercise in Pine Bluff. He said CSEPP holds such training annually at eight chemical warfare agent stockpiles around the nation.

In 1985, Congress ordered the destruction of these weapons because they are obsolete and many are deteriorating in storage. There has also been public concern about the risks the chemical agents pose.

All former production facilities, chemical weapons and chemical agents must be destroyed by 2007.

There are two types of agents: blister and nerve. Most of the blister agents in the nation's stockpile were made at the Pine Bluff Arsenal. Blister agents are oily liquids that can burn or blister the skin, the eyes and the respiratory system.

Nerve agents are clear, odorless liquids that affect the body's central nerve system.

Sloan said precautions are taken at the Arsenal to ensure that Tuesday's mock spill never becomes reality. That includes storing the agents in specially-designed buildings and procedures for transport.

Still, he said, "we work to prepare this community for some type of emergency."

The groups and agencies which take part in CSEPP's exercise have a set of objectives. Hundreds of evaluators from across the country examine each phase of the exercise to determine if those objectives have been met,

Once the evaluations are completed, they are put in a report and shared with all the different jurisdictions.

The agencies and communities participating in the three-day long exercise include Pine Bluff Chemical Activity, Arkansas Department of Emergency Management, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Arkansas Department of Health, and Jefferson, Grant, Saline, Pulaski, Lonoke, Prairie, Arkansas, Lincoln, Cleveland, and Dallas counties.