County set to gauge readiness for attacks
Franklin County will play host to a series of simulated terrorist incidents on Saturday as part of a full-scale exercise to help law enforcement, emergency responders and other agencies prepare for the possibility of the real thing.
The “Complex Coordinated Terrorist Attack” exercise is part of a Franklin County Emergency Management & Homeland Security effort to ensure local officials are ready to respond, in concert, to large-scale threats to public safety.
“This project addresses those coordinated terrorism attacks that overwhelm your local responder resources,” said Jeff Young, county Emergency Management & Homeland Security director. “It really brings together the leadership to make sure that we identify what our resources are and then how are we going to apply those if they’re faced with a situation that is so extreme… How do our public safety personnel respond and coordinate their efforts across a large geographic area where they might not have the resources to just flood a single incident scene?”
About four years ago, Franklin County received an $830,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help gauge the region’s capabilities for responding to, and recovering from, potential attacks. The federal funding came, in part, in response to terrorist incidents overseas, though domestic incidents over the past year further spotlighted the need for local officials to be prepared.
“There’s no doubt, the past past year has shifted everybody’s focus to violent extremism… whether it’s external or internal to our borders, it is just violent extremism,” Young said. “… The lessons are all the same. I think it does give us a new awareness, though…. We need to be prepared for any eventuality, any threat to our communities and our residents.”
The larger Franklin County project will culminate with a series of simulated attacks from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday.
Newport Music Hall at 1722 N. High St. near Ohio State University, Bolton Field public airport on Norton Road on the Far Southwest Side, Cardinal Health in Dublin, and the Historic Crew (Mapfre) Stadium near the state fairgrounds are among the sites that will be used for simulated active shooter incidents, bomb threats and other faux terrorist activities.
“It’s a variety of active aggressor, explosive devices, chemicals — all of the worst things that we can imagine or have witnessed in movies is what we’re applying to that day,” Young said. “This is something that we hope no community ever has to experience. It’s a very lowfrequency, exceptionally high-risk, highintensity event, which is why we need to do an exercise to work through how we would respond to those.”
About 50 different law enforcement agencies, fire departments,other emergency responder agencies and about 500 people will participate. No live ammunition will be involved.
The scenarios will be contained at each site, and there will be signs and other indications that activities are part of an organized training exercise so as not to alarm the public and to prevent calls to the 911 system.
“It should be pretty obvious to people outside that it’s an exercise,” Young said. “We’re hopeful that nobody gets confused or has increased anxiety or concern.” mkovac@dispatch.com @Ohiocapitalblog