Paris, Texas; Explosions, Chemical Agents
Terror drill tests emergency response
By Charles Richards
The Paris News
Published July 26, 2005
A terrorist attack in Paris, Texas?
About 50 people gathered at 8 a.m. today in the Emergency Operations Center in the basement of City Hall to begin a 2-1/2 day exercise to identify local officials’ readiness to tackle a problem of that magnitude.
People with scanners heard reports of an “explosion” at the city water treatment plant about 9:45 a.m. today, followed shortly after 10 a.m. by reports of “chemical agents” discovered in the water at the plant.
“What are your chances of having a terrorist attack in the city of Paris?” asked John Garnecki, who is with the National Emergency Response and Rescue Training Center.
“Well, the possibility exists, we know that. It could be anywhere in this country. There is a possibility. The probability is maybe not so high, but we can never ignore the fact that there are people out there who do want to hurt us,” Garnecki said.
He heads a team that came to Paris under a contract with the governor’s Division of Emergency Management “to give you a chance to test your system, to test your methods, to test your organization — to find out for yourself what works for you in an operation such as this. You will discover what doesn’t work, areas you need to improve on, and also things that worked well and that you will want to continue,” he said.
Over the two and a half days, Garnecki said, “we will challenge your ability to respond to and to manage this type of incident. You will discover by doing and working the problems that we present to you, and through that discovery we’re going to make your system better in the end.”
Garnecki reminded the large crowd of local officials from every branch of emergency response that terrorist attacks generally involve multiple events, such as what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City, and recently in London.
“Keep in mind that you as a responder can potentially be a victim. You can be a target and your facilities can be a target,” Garnecki said.
The operation began at 8 a.m. today, beginning with the overview laid down by Garnecki. The actual exercise was to begin at 9 a.m.
