August 29th, 2006
Chicago Sun-Times
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] over just a few people,” Trotter said.
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.
“You know what happens to our kids when they go to school? They have fire drills. They tell kids what you have to do to get out of the building safely — and we’re glad they do this. Well, we need to have the same fire drill mentality. We have to know the right escape routes, the right exits, who to watch for, whom we can trust, where we can go,” Durbin said.
(source)
Also see:
Sears Tower: 60606
Chicago “9/12″?: Pick a Number between 6 and 6
Chicago’s Hancock Center heads for sale block
“Sears Tower Attack Foiled”: 7 Arrested
