Terrorism test will include ‘dirty bomb’ in Tempe

 It’s designed to hypothetically cripple transportation arteries

 Participants include 40 federal agencies, 26 state agencies, 11 counties and three American Indian tribes.

Associated Press | Oct 10, 2007

By Amanda Lee Myers

PHOENIX — Arizona authorities may be setting off a fictional “dirty bomb” next week to test their response to hypothetical mass casualties and widespread radiological contamination, but they hope the terrorism exercise goes entirely unnoticed by the public.

The Top Officials exercise — dubbed TOPOFF 4 — is part of what will be the nation’s largest terrorism drill ever and is the fourth in a series of exercises mandated by Congress.

It’s designed to hypothetically cripple transportation arteries to test local and national response to a terror attack. Details from the last national exercise, held in 2005, have yet to be publicly released.

In addition to the “attack” in Tempe at the busy intersection of the Loop 101 and 202 freeways, “dirty bombs” will go off at a Cabras power plant in Guam and on the Steel Bridge in Portland, Ore., according to a briefing of the coming exercise obtained by The Associated Press.

Dirty bombs are conventional explosives that include some radioactive material that would cause contamination over a limited area but would not create actual nuclear explosions.

Loops 101 and 202 will remain open during the exercise, and nothing actually will be detonated. Unlike Guam and Oregon, no actual emergency responders will be deployed in the Arizona exercise.

That means the exercise should go completely unnoticed by the public, said Arizona Department of Homeland Security Director Leesa Berens Morrison.

She said the three-day exercise, which begins next Tuesday, will be the largest terror drill ever in the state.

We need to make sure that Arizona is as prepared as it can be in the event of a terrorist-type incident or a natural disaster,” Morrison said. “This allows us to exercise our experience, and it allows us to take our planning efforts and see where it’s paid off, and see where we need to focus on improvement. The whole idea is to keep Arizona safe.”

Part of the reason for the drill stems from a finding by the 9/11 Commission that U.S. officials failed imagine what types of attacks could occur on American soil, said James Kish, acting assistant administrator for the National Integration Center, which is under the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington, D.C.

He said the emphasis in next week’s “attack” will be on how officials at the senior level respond.

“That means that we have to push organizations and people to some pretty hard edges, and as a virtue of pushing people to those heights, we kind of think we’re going to see some shortfalls,” he said.

“But people out there in America shouldn’t be fearful of that, they shouldn’t shy away from that,” he added. “We should be appreciative of the fact that we’re taking on these complex challenges of improving abilities to manage risk, and we’re doing it in a controlled environment.”

Marcia Barry, administrative director of trauma service at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix and one of many observers of next week’s drill, said she will be paying particularly close attention to how her hospital communicates and coordinates with the 16 other hospitals participating in the drill.

“Any time that you have large numbers of patients arriving at a hospital, you stress the system and you have to look at well-organized and highly efficient ways to effectively deliver health care to the public,” she said. “These drills are a very important part of making sure our processes are realistic and that they will be efficient in the event we need them.”

Although the Arizona Department of Homeland Security says the hub for the Arizona exercise will be at the San Marcos Hotel in Chandler, related activities will occur across the state.

Participants include 40 federal agencies, 26 state agencies, 11 counties and three American Indian tribes.