We have been waiting for this day at my work for months. I have been to countless meetings about TOPOFF 4, so you would think today would be anticlimatic. It won't be though. For those of you who are not familiar with TOPOFF, it is an international disaster drill that will occur simultaneously at 3 locations today, Portland, Guam and Phoenix. Last year, it was in Seattle and according to our info it was a complete disaster of a drill, not in a good way though.
I am department safety officer for my lab so I have a big job. I had to determine, based on the location of everyone's office/lab if they would be a fatality or an injury. The dirty bomb will be set off 1/4 of a mile from our building ( simulation: the actual bomb will be set off at Portland International Raceway within a facsimilie of ground zero) Most of the people in offices facing ground zero, I killed off. And they get to stay in the building and play dead all day. But people in areas farther from shooting glass had to be injured. Only one person in my lab was willing to be severely injured. We will carry her out and transport her, somehow, to Emmanuel hospital, our sister facility, about 1 1/2 miles away. They have triage and decon tents set up for the exercise. We don't know how we will transport the injured as yet. Not enough ambulances for everyone during an emergency so the same is true during the drill.
The drill will have timed envelopes that will be released to us at 30 min to hour intervals explaining our situation to us. This should mimic what would happen in a true emergency. We don't know if our bomb will have radiation or biological agents, if our building will be structurally safe enough to re-enter at any time during the day. (We are playing out the scenario for 8 hours). Oh, yeah, it's supposed to rain all day of course. Am I looking forward to this, NO! Is it necessary and preparing us for an emergency, probably. Vice president Cheney and Dept. Homeland Security, FBI, and other acronyms will be around followed by media. I may be on TV, watch the news tonight!!!
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7 comments:
I sitting here in my office and I haven't heard anything. Don't have too much fun.
I went to Emanual Hospital as a severly injured, unconscious person. I was decontaminated, sent to ER, tested, treated and diagnosed, admitted to hospital where I was put in a bed with a TV on and blood pressure cuffs and heart monitor on. They asked if I wanted an IV. I said no, that's ok. I was gone almost 2 hours, a very interesting experience.
That does sound like an interesting experience. How neat to be a part of that! I will watch the news tonight.
That sounds fun. I wish we could play games like that around our office.
Yeah, that actually sounds fun. Did you make it on the news?
No, some of the actors did though.
Sounds fascinating really. It sort of goes with all the reality show fascination we have doesn't it? I've seen those practice things on tv before, obviously not this one.
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