Q-C officials have not trained for bridge disaster
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By Dustin Lemmon | Friday, August 03, 2007 |
Local authorities have never planned specifically for how to react if a local bridge collapses, but emergency preparations made after the 2001 terrorists attacks would likely be used in such an event.
Area police said they have been practicing disaster response drills for years and now have systems in place for drawing help from not only area departments, but those within the region as well.
“I don’t think we’ve ever really discussed that other than an interstate bridge over a river could be a (terrorist) target,” Rock Island County Sheriff Mike Huff said.
Huff said Wednesday’s collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis was a surprise for everyone and something most authorities never would anticipate happening naturally.
“I was shocked when I saw it,” he said. “When I first heard a bridge was falling, I thought it was a little bridge.”
Bettendorf Police Chief Phil Redington said many preparations made for a terrorist attack on local bridges could be implemented if a bridge simply collapsed.
“It’s hard to train for something like that,” he said. “We do train for disasters. (The training) would fall into place pretty well for a bridge collapse.”
Huff said his department would use the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System, known as ILEAS, if necessary, to call in help from other departments such as Peoria, Ill. They likely would ask for assistance from the U.S. Coast Guard and the departments of Natural Resources in both Iowa and Illinois, he added.
He said the mobile command center Rock Island County received a few years ago from ILEAS could be used to help coordinate the response, which would include setting up treatment areas for victims and staging locations for volunteers.
James Lehman, vice president of quality for Genesis Medical Center, said hospital staff also drill for handling mass casualties.
“A lot of them have actual people who are made up as real victims, and we proceed just as we would a real patient,” Lehman said of the drills.
Area hospitals would also communicate to decide where to send victims so no one facility is overwhelmed, Lehman added.
Leslie Anthony, of the American Red Cross of the Quad-Cities, said the agency would provide mental health counseling for witnesses and members of the disaster response teams. An emergency response vehicle would be used to distribute food and water to workers at the scene.
“Our response is pretty much the same for all disasters,” she said. “We drill for man-made and natural disasters.”
Several local officials said Wednesday’s incident is something they can learn from.
“Many of us were not able to cross the bridge this morning without thinking about that,” Anthony said. “It really did get us talking and thinking about that.”
Dustin Lemmon can be contacted at
(563) 383-2493 or dlemmon@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.
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