Replies

Homeland Security holds seminar on terrorism By Sally Schmid, Staff writer

November 26, 2001

Suburban Newspapers (Chicago)

http://reporterprogress.chicagosuburbannews.com/display/inn_news/WOODRIDGE/V5133.TXT

The Illinois Homeland Security Regional Training Seminars of 2001 made a stop in DuPage County Nov. 7, to address the terrorism threat in Illinois and how local protectors of the peace can be better prepared for an emergency.

Fire District representatives, police and municipal officials of DuPage County filled the Billy Graham Center of Wheaton College in Wheaton to receive an update from many Illinois agencies, including the Department of Emergency Management, the state police, the EPA, the Department of Public Health, the state fire marshals and the American Red Cross.

State representatives are traveling around the state to make sure all groups trained and equipped to handle emergencies are on the same page.

Chief Tom Freeman of the Lisle-Woodridge Fire District was already familiar with the information shared. As part of the subcommittee of the Illinois Terrorism Task Force (ITTF), Freeman directly brings updates back to the DuPage County Emergency Management Committee, which includes Dupage Mayors and Managers and DuPage County Police.

The information sharing seminar was mainly an opportunity for mayors and other municipal representatives to learn how Illinois is prepared for a terrorist attack, said Freeman. Most firefighters and police officers were already briefed on the information presented, but by piecemeal. The seminar offered an organized overview of where all Illinois agencies are in terms of preparedness.

Audience members were also invited to ask questions of state agency representatives. An audience member from one fire department asked whether there is a quick test that could be obtained to determine if a sample believed to be anthrax would need further scrutiny, since test results take so long to confirm anthrax. The answer from George Stevens, a representative with the Illinois Department of Public Health, was a simple ``no.''

In order to keep current, participants were invited to sign up for weekly updates on homeland security via e-mail.

Mike Chamness of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) described how Illinois quickly became prepared after Sept. 11. ``Within 15 minutes of the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, we activated the State Emergency Operations Center. Within 45 minutes, every agency was represented and we conducted the first briefing . . . Since then, we've had a skeleton crew that operates 24 hours a day with all agencies and it does a 15-minute call back,'' said Chamness.

The package Gov. George Ryan and Matt Bettenhausen, the Illinois security director, are taking to Washington to obtain funding includes supplies of antibiotics to protect first responders so they can do their job in the event of an emergency; a third, additional lab in Carbondale; an online response system that connects all first responders; and an urban search and rescue team that would include the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System groups (MABAS) and the Illinois Fire Chiefs Association.

``The answer that we've gotten repeatedly from FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) is that you don't need one. You have one. . . . These are the specially trained and equipped teams that you saw rotated in and out of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. We beg to differ with them. Gov. Ryan has been knocking on doors in Washington. He's spoken to Speaker Hastert and Sen. Durbin and the Illinois congressional delegation. I am predicting that we're going to win this and that we're going to have an urban search and rescue team very shortly,'' said Chamness.

Chamness stressed that ITTF would not be duplicating efforts of fire districts that have banded together for local MABAS and Hazmat teams that specialize in dealing with hazardous materials. Rather, the plan will build upon emergency crews that already exist.

The plan would work this way: a call would come in to the state's emergency office, IEMA, and then IEMA would turn to the state's fire marshals, who would then activate the system, and the actual dispatch would come out of a regional emergency dispatch center not yet built, referred to by Chamness as the MABAS red center.

Gov. Ryan has allotted $20 million for the system to be up and operational in two years and has gone to Washington, D.C., to ask for an additional $45 million to complete it.

``I spoke earlier of this being the first ever agreement for the state of Illinois. We don't have a state fire department or state fire equipment. Through this agreement, we now do have something like that. It's also the first of its kind, of my knowledge, in the country,'' said Chamness.

Chamness said that a statewide terrorism training center is also part of the package that Ryan is proposing.

``We think that we need a place in Illinois where first responders can go and get hands-on training in large numbers'' to deal with a scenario that the state might face someday, said Chamness.

An issue addressed at the conference was that most police officers do not have the bioterrorism equipment or training necessary to deal with a biological attack, like fire departments and Hazmat teams do.

The DuPage County Office of Emergency Management has requested $800,000 in funds from ITTF, which receives its funding from the Department of Justice, to pay for biohazard equipment. The equipment would be not just for fire departments but also for police and health care responders. The county's emergency offices are awaiting the Justice Department funds to trickle down to the local level.

Woodridge Police Chief Geoff Korous said he doesn't foresee his department receiving biohazard training anytime soon because the department does not even possess the equipment, which is very expensive, and the department has not yet received any funding for equipment and training. Korous said he is hoping to find out if there is any grant money available.

In August of 1999, the city of Chicago conducted a bioterrorism exercise at Comiskey Park.

``They learned a lot of things from that exercise and they put that into their planning,'' said Chamness, who stressed throughout the meeting that Illinois has been preparing for 17 months for a terrorist attack with ITTF, started by Gov. Ryan in 1999.

Chamness described a training exercise that took place in Denver but failed because antibiotics could not be counted and distributed fast enough to save people in the hypothetical situation. Chamness said the Department of Public Health is working on a plan for a national pharmaceuticals stockpile and that department members reported that they believe they have found solutions to the problem.

ITTF has applied to the federal emergency agency to have a training exercise in the fall of 2002. Half of the counties in the state have done some sort of training exercise, reported Chamness.

George Stevens of the Illinois Department of Public Health said the department is working on a response to smallpox.

In regards to the use of Cipro, Stevens called for physicians to hold back on prescribing it to a patient unless it has been confirmed that the patient has anthrax. Generic antibiotics work just as well and the country does not have enough Cipro to use it unwisely, said Stevens, who added that one of his concerns is that bacteria will become resistant to Cipro, therefore eliminating its effectiveness.

Stevens said his department is working hard to get through an overwhelming amount of white powder.

``We got trailer-loads full of powder. We got rooms full of powder, bags full of powder . . . we've tested. Everything's negative. Lot of bird poop out there. Lot of crushed Lifesavers,'' said Stevens, who elicited laughter from the audience.

Korous said the Woodridge Police Department has expended a lot of energy on anthrax scares. However, the department takes all calls seriously, said Korous, who advises residents that if they are suspicious of any package, they should not transport it.

Sally Schmid's e-mail address is:

sas@libertysuburban.com