<

Huge Homeland Security Drill Planned

Monday, May 5, 2003
By Edward Walsh & John Mintz
Washington Post Staff Writers

"We want to be able to test strategies, responses and protocols," Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said in an interview. "When you simulate people and technologies interacting, you learn a lot about your response capabilities."



Another Homeland Security official said, "The whole idea is to stimulate lots of what we call 'free play,' where events are not scripted. We want to play out actions and see what goes on."



This is the scenario: At noon in Seattle, a hidden bomb explodes south of the central business district, causing more than 100 casualties. Significant levels of radiation are detected near the site of the explosion and it soon becomes apparent to local officials that this was no ordinary bomb, but a radiological dispersal device, commonly known as a "dirty bomb."

The next day and some 2,000 miles to the east, people complaining of flu-like symptoms begin to trickle into hospitals in the Chicago area. Over the next 24 hours, the number of arriving patients escalates dramatically. Local officials diagnose the cause of the illness and ask the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to confirm their worst fear -- a deadly, biological agent has been released near Chicago.

These fictional events are set to unfold over five days beginning May 12 in what federal officials say will be the largest homeland security exercise in U.S. history. Dubbed TOPOFF 2 (for Top Officials), the exercise will cost an estimated $16 million and involve more than 100 federal, state and local agencies, the American Red Cross and Canadian government agencies and organizations.

Federal officials said TOPOFF 2 is designed to test the response to widely dispersed, almost simultaneous terrorist attacks using weapons of mass destruction, and to glean from the experience lessons that can be applied in case of the real thing.
(More: WashingtonPost.com)
2003 © The Washington Post Company.

Dan