RE: San Francisco Weapons Of Mass Destruction Drill

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

YOU, American sheeples, are running out of time - THE ROUND UP IS COMING - YOU ARE NOT SAFE where you are - YOU must be prepared if you care about yourselves and your families - no I am not at the safest place and in the safest moment but at least I am trying to tell you to start getting your assets out of USA and start stockpiling on canned goods, antiseptic antivirals, radiation pills, and GET OUT OF MAJOR US CITIES - the dollar crash is coming, and the sooner that takes place the sooner you will see a massive false flag terror event on US soil - US is going to be invaded too, so better make PLAN B other than worrying about your next paychecks









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All San Francisco residents asked to participate in October drill
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BY PAT MURPHY
Sentinel Editor & Publisher
17 August 2008

A theoretical attack on downtown San Francisco honed skill of some 500 emergency responders Saturday, dispatched without being told nature of the mass casualty offensive

As part of the drill, resources were sapped by a mock nearby shooting rampage



Multi-agency weapons of mass destruction drills are conducted on a regular basis in San Francisco, — each time with challenging new scenario — drawn from San Francisco, surrounding cities, The California National Guard, the U.S.
Army and the FBI



While those agencies are at the forefront, many other agencies also participate such as state environment officials tasking nearby and outlying regional protection from spread of mass weapon contaminates

“It’s truly taxing the resources here in San Francisco, but that’s what it’s all about,” explained San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White in a briefing following the exercise



San Francisco Fire Department Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White bolstered
by San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong
and San Francisco Fire Commission President George Lau

“Each time we do, this the better off all of us are

“We can only learn so much in a classroom –we always work together very well — but it’s under these types of constraints and circumstances we are actually trying to simulate something as real as it can get”

The world headquarters of Bank of America, located at 555 California Street at Kearny Street, was volunteered as ground zero in public-private sectors training



Both San Francisco Fire and Police mobile command vans were in place as the Fire Department became lead agency for coordinating response.
Response protocol calls for both command centers to be on scene within 30 minutes of an attack

A new Fire Department mobile command van went into service this week



San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White, right, leads command
inside new Fire Department mobile command center



Agencies determine onscene response, communicating actions to the exeuctive and legislative branches of San Francisco government.
In Mayor Newsom’s absence, District 2 Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier served as Acting Mayor

Arriving situation assessment determined that the scene had been struck by chemical attack, with specialist responders quickly suited protectively for evaluation




Airtight and triple-gloved suits require frequent and demanding task of wiping mask
from inside the suit
Temperture rapidly rises inside suits
Protcol for staying in the suit is 30 minutes

Cyanide was discovered the klling agent and decontamination tents were erected while medical personnel triaged victims and initiated treatment protocols


San Francisco students volunteered as simulated victims

The next drill, termed Shake Up San Francisco, will strategize multiple attacks throughout San Francisco and will ask all residents to participate

Timed to begin with noon siren testing, the drill will be held in October at a date to be announced next week

Funding for the $250,000 August 15 drill came from federal grants




On Saturday, the San Francisco Fire Department, along with a group of other public and private agencies, ran a large-scale training exercise revolving around an urban weapons of mass destruction terrorist attack.
Here, an emergency worker in a full hazmat suit examines the faux chemical that was supposedly found in the attack, which was said to be sodium cyanide, a poison that quickly affects peoples respiratory systems On the ground behind, volunteers playing the role of dead victims lay prone

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Preparing for an urban WMD attack
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CNET
August 16, 2008 9:05 PM PDT
Posted by Daniel Terdiman

http://news. cnet. com/8301-13772_3-10018658-52. html

SAN FRANCISCO--"Weapons of mass destruction multi-agency exercise"

If I've ever covered an event with a more stark title, I can't think of it

But there I was Saturday morning, along with several hundred firefighters, police officers, Army National Guard personnel, and members of other local, state, and federal agencies for a large-scale exercise designed to help train all these emergency responders how to deal with a major terrorist attack involving suspected chemical weapons or other bio-hazards

As a bulletin announcing the exercise put it, the goal was for the agencies' personnel to "identify the emergency and work as one large team to protect and save lives and mitigate the hazards"

Practically speaking, this was quite the undertaking Upon arriving in the middle of San Francisco's usually crowded financial district, I encountered no traffic, but a wide variety of emergency vehicles and dozens upon dozens of people in almost every official uniform you can imagine

This is not the first time San Francisco has run an exercise like this. Last year, the city ran another such scenario at the famous pyramid-shaped Transamerica building. This time, the owners of 555 California St.
, one of the city's largest office buildings, had asked the city to prepare an exercise in their building And so for the last year, the city and the owner of that building and another nearby had been planning this day


For the exercise, the fire department blocked off several streets in downtown San Francisco These streets were clogged with fire trucks and many other emergency vehicles from several state and federal agencies

The scenario was this: a terrorist with a backpack full of sodium cyanide--a chemical used in gold mining operations that quickly attacks and shuts down the human respiratory system--unleashed it inside 555 California

The attack instantly kills a number of people and injures others

Because of the victims, the fire department is the first to arrive on the scene, and when the firefighters discover what's happened, they isolate the building's lobby and deny entry into the building by anyone else, and then quickly set up a mass decontamination system nearby And then they call in the specialists

This is, of course, the whole point: to bring in the many different types of specialists to deal with the variety of complexities a situation like this creates

But to make it even more complicated, the scenario had more to it: emergency personnel also discover an improvised explosive device inside 555 California, and just when they're dealing with everything going on there, there's also a shooting in another office building nearby

By the time the press was allowed into the scene, all this was under way We got a quick briefing from SFFD public information officer Mindy Talmadge, who explained that the exercise, which cost about a quarter million dollars, was paid for with federal grant money

One of the elements of the scenario was that no one actually knows at first what the terrorist has attacked with.
It seems obvious it is some form of chemical weapon, but the specifics are still a mystery Finding out and then disseminating that information is one of the goals of the exercise


Volunteers playing dead victims lay on the floor in the lobby of 555 California Street, one of the largest office buildings in San Francisco The scenario run on Saturday was that a terrorist had unleashed sodium cyanide inside the building, instantly killing many victims and potentially contaminating the surrounding area

"They knew it was a CBRN (chemical, biological, radioactive or nuclear) event," said Talmadge, "and that it was a terrorist event.
They don't know what the chemical is They have to decide based on what they find and what they heard"

In the scenario, the attack has happened on a busy weekday, but of course, it's actually a quiet Saturday and downtown is rather empty There are some random pedestrians walking through the scene--which is closed to automobiles, but not foot traffic, since many local businesses were open--and it is sort of odd to see them passing through what is otherwise an extremely unusual and macabre scene

"I doubt people would be walking calmly around" during a real emergency, Talmadge admits

But of course, shutting down several blocks of the city's financial district on a weekday would be a pretty significant thing

At a press briefing later involving the chiefs of both the fire and police department, I asked if there was any possibility of ever running this kind of exercise during a workday, since it would seem that it would be helpful for these emergency personnel to learn how to handle such a situation with countless people and vehicles around

"It would be a challenge, but if the community wanted it, we would plan and find the resources to do it" and deal with the inconveniences, said SFPD Chief Heather Fong

Another interesting part of all this is just how slow everything and everyone seems to be moving

Even as the exercise was in full swing, everywhere you looked, emergency personnel were standing around in groups, talking, sitting on overturned newspaper boxes, and otherwise waiting for something to do


Members of the San Francisco Fire Department sit down inside their hazmat suits awaiting the order to enter the building in which the chemical attack was said to have happened

One man from the 95th Civil Support Team--a federal agency that specializes in WMD situations--in a blue hazmat suit that was pulled about halfway up his body, was intently looking at a device in his hands that had an orange antenna and looked a little bit like a Wi-Fi router He said it was an air monitor and was used to measure what was in the air nearby

At the same time, a fireman in a bright yellow hazmat suit was brandishing another device, this one looking like a circa 1984 cell phone He said it was a gas detector used to determine what gases might be in the area

All in all though, most of the people milling around, many in hazmat suits, others in a variety of official uniforms, were looking bored and like they wanted something to do

But this is according to plan That's because one thing that seems very important to everyone in charge here is that in the course of trying to help out the victims of the attack, the emergency responders don't themselves become victims



An emergency worker prepares to go into the building to test the chemical weapon in order to determine what it is

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)
And that means moving slowly and methodically

According to SFFD Chief Joanne Hayes-White, one of the main goals of this scenario is to the members of all the various agencies that would be involved in the response to a real attack together so that they begin to know each other

"It's difficult to have the level of seriousness (you would have) in a real situation" in an exercise, Hayes-White acknowledged, "but it's a good lesson for us"

She said that prior to September 11, emergency personnel were trained to charge right into buildings where something had gone seriously wrong But the lessons of the post-September 11 world is that it is important to know exactly what the situation is before sending vital personnel in unprepared

Still, Hayes-White admitted that it is hard for highly trained responders to just stand around and wait for as much as two hours--which is what was happening Saturday

"They might be feeling a little frustrated and a little awkward about standing around," she told me.
"But we want to keep everybody safe And it's sometimes difficult to simulate that"

After awhile, we went back inside the lobby of 555 California where the man from the 95th CST and another from the police department, both in serious hazmat suits, were investigating what was clearly supposed to be the chemical agent causing all the ruckus

With the "victims" still lying prone on the floor nearby, the two methodically worked on the chemical in an attempt to identify it

The idea here is that until now, no one knew what the chemical was, and therefore how to respond to it Soon enough, however, word came that they had identified it as sodium cyanide, and quickly the word went out over the radios

The men take three samples of the chemical, one that is put away, never to be opened, one to be tested and a third for a re-test, if that's necessary

And it's tricky work, largely because the men are trying to work with cotton swabs and other small items while wearing thick gloves Indeed, as they work, they drop their swabs on the floor at least once

They are also working with a small computer that a member of the 95th CST tells me is called an Ouera, and is used to analyze the chemicals found at the scene

"It tests whatever the substance is," said Sgt. Maj. Daniel Morales of the 95th CST.
"We take the sample over to our mobile laboratory And if they're not able to determine what it is, they'll take it over to Lawrence Livermore" National Lab

Eventually, the two men in hazmat suits are done, and they leave. They walk across the street where they are put through what is called technical decontamination.
This is a process involving a careful and thorough scrubbing down of their suits, and then each part of the multiple layers they are wearing The idea is to ensure that nothing touches their skin until they are completely clean


The exercise will continue for several hours, but the major activity is over now

Since this wasn't the first time San Francisco has had an exercise like this, it's natural to wonder what the city learned from doing it again

Hayes-White said that, among other things, she felt that the various agencies had found some improvements in the way they were communicating with each other during the exercise And of course, such communications are vital since with several hundred emergency personnel on the scene, it's crucial that everyone know what is going on and what they should be doing

But Hayes-White also stressed that much about the day would only be known afterwards at a series of reviews of the exercise

For me, it was very interesting to watch this evolve

Given that such an attack would almost certainly happen during a busy weekday, it's hard to feel like this exercise, held on a quiet weekday is anything like what the real thing would be like

I think, ultimately, the real point of this is what Hayes-White alluded to: the need for the various agencies to learn how to work together and to build a collective command structure in the event something horrible like a WMD attack actually happened

And to be honest, anything that these agencies can learn about how to proceed during what Fong called an "inevitable" attack is worthwhile Let's just hope these agencies have the time to carry out a few more of these scenarios and learn a few more lessons before that happens