Amy Sebring: Welcome to the EIIP Virtual Forum! Our topic today is the November 2002 multi-jurisdictional exercise in the Los Angeles County Operational Area, "Operation Critical Response," with a scenario involving multiple, radiological dispersion devices, or "dirty bombs." Amy Sebring: We will begin with a presentation and then we will proceed to your questions. But first for the benefit of any newcomers amongst us we will be using a few 'slides' today ... Amy Sebring: so if you see a blue hyperlink, please click on it and it should open in another browser window. If it covers your chat window, then you will need to bring your chat window back to the top after viewing. Amy Sebring: Please do not send private messages to the Moderator or to our presenter as we will be quite busy. If you need assistance, you may send a private message to Avagene Moore. Amy Sebring: I will provide further instructions just before we begin the Q&A section, but you may wish to jot your questions down as we go through the presentation. Amy Sebring: Now, to our speaker, we are pleased to intoduce Ian Whyte, Program Manager, and exercise design team leader for the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management. Amy Sebring: Ian is a native southern Californian who has been involved in emergency management for nearly ten years. His current responsibilities include coordinating the participation of the many agencies involved in the County s annual exercise. Amy Sebring: Welcome Ian, and we now turn the floor over to you. Ian Whyte: Thanks Amy and hello everyone. I hope you are doing well today. I have been asked to share some experiences from our recent countywide exercise which focused on terrorism/Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) involving radiological dispersion devices. Ian Whyte: When one thinks of Los Angeles County, one often thinks of disasters. During the 1990's alone, Los Angeles County dealt with floods, fires, earthquakes, high winds, heavy rains, and even a riot. Ian Whyte: Luckily (knock on wood) the new millennium has been kind (save 9/11 of course), but we must continue to prepare for the unthinkable just the same. Ian Whyte: One of the essential elements of preparation are exercises. All the planning and training in the world is worthless unless there is some way to evaluate it in a controlled environment. Ian Whyte: The exercise is part of the training process; it presents important information in a kinesthetic way, which should compliment the visual and auditory modes associated with other types training. Ian Whyte: Why did we run a terrorism/WMD exercise in Los Angeles County? Well, because we have to. California State law and Los Angeles County Code require that the Los Angeles County Operational Area conduct at least one countywide emergency exercise per year. Ian Whyte: This insures that County emergency management personnel and systems are operational and ready to respond to a widespread disaster if needed. The annual exercise also allows the County to assess its operational readiness and make recommendations for corrective action. Ian Whyte: Since September 11, 2001 the focus of the emergency management community has been on terrorism. None of us will forget the terrible images from that day and how it changed our lives forever. Ian Whyte: Terrorism has been the topic of the last two exercises in Los Angeles County. We used a bio-terrorism scenario in 2001 and a radiological dispersion device scenario in 2002. Both of these exercises were great learning opportunities for the County and have definitely helped us prepare for these possible attacks. Ian Whyte: Today I will focus on the 2002 radiological exercise here, entitled "Operation Critical Response". This exercise was held on November 14, 2002 and included participation by many entities in the LA County Operational Area. Ian Whyte: In the State of California we use the Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS). Under SEMS, all government agencies that respond to a disaster are strongly encouraged to use SEMS (a jurisdiction would not be eligible for state controlled funds if they didn't use SEMS). Ian Whyte: Thus, all Emergency Operations Centers (EOC's) use the same organizational structure and all emergency agencies use similar language. SEMS closely follows the Incident Command System (ICS). Amy, slide 1 please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/vforum/lacoeoc/slide01.htm Ian Whyte: Los Angeles County is a unique in that it offers emergency managers many interesting challenges. Under SEMS all counties are viewed as "Operational Areas", this means that a County consists of not only County government, but also incorporated cities, special districts, unincorporated areas, etc. Ian Whyte: LA County has a population of nearly 10 million people, 88 incorporated cities (including the City of Los Angeles with approximately 4 million people alone), over 1 million people in unincorporated areas, and 137 special district (i.e. school, water, etc.). Ian Whyte: Not to mention some of the busiest sea and airports in the world. The challenge is to design an exercise that allows most of these entities to participate. Ian Whyte: The following three slides illustrates the exercise scenario. Amy, next 3 slides please. Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/vforum/lacoeoc/slide02.htm Ian Whyte: Six cities within Los Angeles County had representatives on the Exercise Design Team. This team met for almost nine months prior to the exercise and included representation from key LA County departments, LA County Radiation Management, the FBI, ... Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/vforum/lacoeoc/slide03.htm Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/vforum/lacoeoc/slide04.htm Ian Whyte: State of California Office of Emergency Services, the Civil Air Patrol, the California Highway Patrol, the American Red Cross, Disaster Management Areas, as well as others. This team met at least once a month. Ian Whyte: In fact, we probably learned during the design process that we did in the actual exercise. We were fortunate enough to have the local NBC-TV affiliate provide us with a 20-minute mock news video that was used to kick off the exercise. Ian Whyte: During the exercise, the six participating cities and many County Departments entered simulated incidents into the County's Emergency Management Information System (EMIS) which drove the exercise. Ian Whyte: Over half of the other cities in the County also entered information on EMIS and participated in the exercise. Three of the six participating cities ran full-scale exercises in coordination with the County exercise. Ian Whyte: And the State's Southern Region EOC also activated during the exercise. So we were able to play at various levels of government. This exercise provided us with a great opportunity to review EOC systems and assess training needs. Ian Whyte: The County's Emergency Management Council, which is chaired by the County's Chief Administrative Officer and Sheriff, was involved in the exercise. This exercise led to serious policy discussions on terrorism planning and the County will definitely be better prepared for it. Ian Whyte: First, some of the things that "went right" ... Ian Whyte: * The KNBC video and Fire Dispatches really helped set the tone for the exercise in the County EOC, made it realistic. Ian Whyte: * The exercise also allowed cities to exercise their various procedures and activate their EOCs. Ian Whyte: * It was a realistic test of EMIS; over 60 cities and most county departments logged on at one time. Ian Whyte: and, as I mentioned earlier, we experienced strong cooperation between multiple agencies in the planning process. Ian Whyte: Some of the areas that we found that could use further attention in the future are .... Ian Whyte: * Training - on EMIS, Emergency Management concepts, SEMS, RIMS, etc. Ian Whyte: * Commitment - all entities in the Operational Area need to have buy- in from the top (cities, county departments, etc.). Ian Whyte: * Development and/or review of local and Operational Area Terrorism plans. Ian Whyte: * Continued progress toward 'EMIS Future'. EMIS was slow at times. Many recommendations have already been designed into EMIS Future. Ian Whyte: * EMIS/RIMS integration. State OES needs RIMS updates/sit-reps in a timely manner. Ian Whyte: Some specific issues related to radiological issues were raised as well in the exercise. For example: Ian Whyte: * It was important to view a "dirty bomb" as an "area denial weapon", rather than a "mass casualty weapon". Ian Whyte: * How do hospitals treat not only potentially radioactive patients, but the many "worried well"? Ian Whyte: * How does the Coroner work with contaminated decedents? What sort of special equipment do they need? Ian Whyte: * Continuity of government. How does government continue to provide services if they are directly threatened or are in contaminated areas? Evacuation of public buildings? Ian Whyte: * How do jurisdictions control the spread of radioactivity on contaminated vehicles and people? Ian Whyte: One important factor we learned was how radiation management works in Los Angeles County. The County has a strong radiation management section in the County's Department of Health Services, which works directly with the Radiation Branch of the State Health Department. Ian Whyte: The National Guard's 9th Civil Support Team is also available to the County. County Radiation Management also has strong ties to the private sector. We were able to build a great working relationship with County Radiation Management during the exercise design process. Ian Whyte: That concludes my presentation, and I will be happy to answer questions. I will turn it back over to our Moderator. Amy Sebring: Thank you very much Ian. Our protocol for audience questions is to enter a question mark ? to indicate you wish to ask a question or make a comment. Amy Sebring: Then go ahead and compose your question or comment to have it ready, but do NOT hit your Enter key or click on the Send button until you are recognized by name. Amy Sebring: We will take questions in the order the question marks are sent to the screen. Please be sensitive that we cannot get into too much detail. We are ready to begin now. Ed Pombier: ? Steve Davis: ? William Ulicny: ? Quentin Frazier: ? Sunnie Baldwin: ? Amy Sebring: Ed, when you are ready please. Ed Pombier: How did you handle individuals showing up at hospitals who were merely contaminated but not otherwise injured? Susan McElrath: ? Art Botterell: ? Ian Whyte: Some of the cities utilized their local fire departments as a triage center in front of the ER. Local PD also assisted. Amy Sebring: Steve next please. Steve Davis: Could you discuss the EMIS Future project some? John Smith: ? Ian Whyte: I will do my best, I am not the technical expert. EMIS future will address user friendly issues. We have a Users group that meets regulary to give input. Amy Sebring: William U next please. William Ulicny: How well did the local governments (cities) perform in technical areas related to rad? Did they have the proper training and equipment to perform surveys? How was this evaluated? Jeff Phillips: ? Ian Whyte: The local cities did their own evaluations. LA County Fire did respond to one city, as a contract city... Steve Detwiler: ? Steve Detwiler: ? Ian Whyte: The initial findings show that most of the cities were able to treat this as a HazMat, but they did request specialized resources from both the County and the State. Amy Sebring: Quentin next please. Quentin Frazier: Your slides shows two events occurring in the City of Long Beach. How were schools [k-12] and Higher Ed {Cal State Long Beach] concerns addressed in your drill? Did schools participate? These are large in place operations with thousands of people during the day. Ian Whyte: Schools did participate in Torrance. They were able to have one school play the exercise live... william lorenzen: ? Ian Whyte: while other schools in the district used the exercise as an opportunity to run tabletop exercise one emergency shelter in place issues... Ian Whyte: Long Beach had to alter their participation late in the process. They had to run a tabletop instead, but they still simulated all issues from their EOC. Amy Sebring: Sunnie next please. Sunnie Baldwin: What support and response functions did the American Red Cross provide in your exercise? Ian Whyte: We have a great relationship here with the ARC... ray pena: ?? Ian Whyte: They sat on the design team, sent reps to the County EOC, State REOC, and were present at most of the field sites... Ian Whyte: They were also present in many city EOCs as well. Amy Sebring: Susan next please. Susan McElrath: How did your first responders recognize there was radiation involved in the first place, and how long did it take for outside agencies to become involved? Thank you. Ian Whyte: That was a tricky point for us in the design process... Ian Whyte: We realized actual detection of a radioactive material could take a while and that would go beyond the scope of the exercise... Ian Whyte: so we built in an artificiality of earlier threats that mentioned radioactivity. This allowed first in units to assume there was radiation... Ian Whyte: Also, after the first incident it was apparent that all incidents could be radiactive in nature... Ian Whyte: Some cities have enacted protocols to look for radioactive materials at any explosion. Amy Sebring: Art B. next please. Art Botterell: Ian, for this exercise how did the County approach the coordination of public warning and emegency public information among all the agencies and expert (and "expert") sources? Any learning points? Ian Whyte: We utilized a new dialogic system for mass notification for EOC staff... Ian Whyte: We also tested the County PIO staff, based out of the County EOC... Ian Whyte: and each city that hosted an event used their PIOs as well. Amy Sebring: John Smith next please. John Smith: What was the level of federal participation and was there any housing impact? Ian Whyte: The FBI sat on our exercise design team, although we did not have them represented in the County EOC... Ian Whyte: In the future we will make sure they are here in our EOC. However, we did have the State REOC activated... Ian Whyte: and under SEMS, the State is the primary link to the federal government... Ian Whyte: so our goal was to maintain a strong link to the State, thus keeping in touch with the Feds. Amy Sebring: Jeff next please. Jeff Phillips: Will you state the exercise objectives that your jurisdiction used? Were you able to test the FRP? Ron Gloshen: ? Ian Whyte: First, no we did not test the FRP since under SEMS that is not the role of an Operational Area (County)... Ian Whyte: Our objectives focused on assessing the use of technology in our EOC (GIS, EMIS, etc.), integration of our Sheriff Department's Terrorism Early Warning group into EOC operations... Ian Whyte: we also looked at interaction between the Operational Area, the State, and local jurisdictions... Ian Whyte: This was a good learning opportunity for us and our County policy makers are giving us a lot of support. Sunnie Baldwin: ? Amy Sebring: William L next please. william lorenzen: At the hospitals, what level of PPE is being employed for radiologicals? Linda Underwood: ? Ian Whyte: I will answer this with the understanding that I am not a health professional... Terry Liaboe: ? Bill Lang: ? Ian Whyte: They used the hazmat protocols (i.e. barrier protection, SBA if available, etc.) ... Ian Whyte: however, our rad experts advised us that most patients could be decontaminated using gross decon methods (i.e. washing, etc.) Amy Sebring: Ray next please. ray pena: 2 q's - why was it important to view bomb as area denial weapon rather than as a mass casualty weapon (why not both), and will an After Action report be available for review? Ian Whyte: Because the source of radioactive material may not be strong enough to cause immediate mass injury... Ian Whyte: Most local public safety protocols call for stabilizing an area immediately, then test for the actual levels of radiation... Chris Effgen: ? Jeff Phillips: ? Ian Whyte: most areas can be closed down fairly quickly after this type of incident. Amy Sebring: Ron next please. Ron Gloshen: Did you utilize plume dispersion modeling software as a decision making tool in the exercise? If so, what model was used and as part of your GIS? Ian Whyte: The city of Carson worked with the National Guard for plume modeling... Ian Whyte: they used that information in their EOC. We used the Civil Air Patrol in the County EOC to provide on site visuals... Ian Whyte: That's about all I can here about that subject. Amy Sebring: Sunnie next please. Sunnie Baldwin: I am an ARC local planner for exercises. For general guidance for our future local exercise planning, what functions did ARC perform at field sites? Ian Whyte: The provided canteen and shelter services mostly... Ian Whyte: And they also provided mental health services. Sunnie Baldwin: Thank you. Amy Sebring: Linda next please. Linda Underwood: Is there any way CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) members can participate in your next one? Ian Whyte: We definitely look to include all groups in the Operational Area... Ian Whyte: CERTs in LA County work with individual cities, so we ask that local cities coordinate that aspect of the exercises. Amy Sebring: Terry next please. Terry Liaboe: What were the casualty and injury estimates for this scenario? Ian Whyte: We had about 400 injuries, and approximately 200 fatalities. We did have many evacuations though. Amy Sebring: Bill Lang next please. Bill Lang: Please describe any coordination with the private sector businesses. Ian Whyte: We did have a private entity in the County EOC that was testing software to coordinate local business status... Ian Whyte: Also, a member from the Business and Industry Council for Emergency Planning and Preparedness (BICEPP) on the design team. Amy Sebring: Christopher next please. Chris Effgen: Given your experience are you more or less concerned about terroist use of NBC's? And why, if you can explain? Ian Whyte: To be quite honest, I have about the same amount of concern as I did before the exercise... Ian Whyte: We know it is a possibility, but we have to aware of ANY possibility. After all, look at 9/11... Ian Whyte: We never thought commercial airliners could be used as weapons... Ian Whyte: So, yes, I think it is a risk, but it is one of many. Amy Sebring: Jeff next please. Jeff Phillips: How did you go about selecting one TV station to help with the video? Did this cause any problem with the other Stations? Amy Sebring: And this is our final question today. Ian Whyte: We worked with our Public Information Director in the EOC, and he has a good working relationship with KNBC... Ian Whyte: I believe they were the first station he called and they were extremely helpful... Ian Whyte: this really strengthened our relationship with the media. Amy Sebring: That's all we have time for today. Thank you very much Ian for a fine job. As usual, we will have a transcript posted late this afternoon. Some business to take care of ... Amy Sebring: If you are not currently on our mailing list and would like to get program announcements, please see the Subscribe link on our home page. Amy Sebring: Also, we would like to welcome some new EIIP partners: Amy Sebring: SYTEX, Inc. -- http://www.sytexinc.com/sytexinc/default.asp Amy Sebring: Yale New Haven Health System, Office of Emergency Preparedness -- http://www.ynhhs.org/ and Amy Sebring: Enterprise Soutions Inc. -- http://enterprisesolutionsinc.com/ Amy Sebring: If your agency would like to become an EIIP partner, please see the Partnership link. Amy Sebring: Thanks to everyone for participating today. Our session is adjourned but before you go, please help me show our appreciation to our speaker.