Copyright 2006 Little Rock Newspapers, Inc.
By JIM BROOKS
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock)
Emergency managers from central Arkansas descended on Barton Coliseum in Little Rock on Tuesday for a drill testing the area’s readiness for a bioterrorist attack.
The simulated sarin gas assault was the most recent test scheduled as part of a $12 million federal grant for improving bioterrorism preparedness in the state.
Among the agencies participating in the drill were police and fire departments from Little Rock and North Little Rock, the Conway Fire Department, the state Department of Emergency Management, and members of the Arkansas National Guard.
There were no real victims, but Cabot High School students energetically played the roles of casualties in the three-hour simulation.
Randy Granderson, an assistant principal at Cabot High School who also coordinates the school’s Medical Academy, said 77 sophomores, juniors and seniors were recruited to portray victims.
“It’s a good learning experience for these kids, who are part of a larger group of about 300 students who are interested in medical careers,” Granderson said.
Little Rock police spokesman Sgt. Terry Hastings said the exercise allows first responders to practice coordinating rescue efforts with other agencies in the wake of a large-scale chemical attack.
“If we don’t have the training and practice, we can’t make a determination of what may work and what won’t in the case of a real event,” Hastings said. “The incident may not be real, but the experience we get in working with the other agencies is helpful.” The students arrived at the State Fairgrounds about 7 a.m. and were given sheets specifying what types of injuries and symptoms they were to portray. Some students donned makeup, and all students were given military fatigues to wear in case responders had to cut their clothing off.
“One student found $9 in her fatigues,” Granderson said. “They let her keep it.” A few students were assigned slight symptoms, but others were instructed to portray more serious injuries.
“We had one student trade his sheet and $2 for one that gave him a broken bone,” said Laurie Prather, a Cabot teacher.
Minutes after the exercise began, a small group of “walking wounded” students wandered out of the coliseum, limping downhill toward a firetruck, where they were to be decontaminated. Cold weather prevented firefighters from actually dousing the students with water.
Later, firefighters wearing fluorescent yellow “hazardous materials” suits entered the building, where other students lay on the ground, some moaning loudly while others lay twitching on the floor.
The students were evacuated to another building at the fairgrounds, where first responders had set up decontamination centers to treat chemical exposure. “I don’t think we have an antidote for overacting,” joked one military observer.