CITY HOSTS: SIMULATION OF FAKE DISASTER LARGEST IN U.S.

Cape Girardeau in October will host the largest emergency medical response exercise in the nation's history, federal, state and local authorities announced Monday.

The exercise, "Operation Steel Cure II," will be carried out over a two-day period starting Friday, Oct. 23 to respond to a simulated major earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale. The mock earthquake will be centered three miles west of Cape Girardeau.

The exercise, involving medical airlifts of hundreds of people to coordination centers both in and outside of Missouri, will begin at 9 a.m. and end at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24, authorities said.

The New Madrid Fault, site of some of the worst earthquakes in the country in 1811 and 1812, runs through Southeast Missouri from Marked Tree, Ark. to Cairo, Ill. Experts say a major earthquake could strike anytime along the fault.

Officials announced the exercise in a Monday afternoon press conference at the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center, 1121 Linden. Announcing the exercise were representatives of the State Emergency Management Agency, the Missouri Air and Army National Guard, and the U.S. Public Health Service.

Also on hand for the announcement were the city's Emergency Operations Coordinator Mark Hasheider, and city Police Chief Howard "Butch" Boyd.

About 700 to 1,000 emergency response personnel from various agencies are expected to respond to the simulation in addition to local agencies, said Dr. Mike Hayek of the Missouri Air National Guard and the project's originator. Among them, authorities said, will be medical and support units of the Army and Air National Guard.

Some units will respond from as far away as Jackson, Miss. and Oklahoma City, Okla. The earthquake, authorities said, will result in 1,000 simulated serious casualties.

Hayek said the ranking agencies for the exercise will be the city and county of Cape Girardeau.

The simulation is an expansion of "Steel Cure I," a smaller disaster-response exercise carried out last June in the northwest Missouri city of St. Joseph. In that exercise, a simulated tornado destroyed a hospital.

"When I was first dreaming this up we were kind of taking a look at an area (where) the concept we were trying to test would fit," said Hayek, a surgeon and director of trauma services for Christian Hospital Northeast/Northwest in St. Louis.

"Frankly Cape Girardeau is the medical center for a rather large area. It has the services of a regional airport. It fit a lot of the requirements that we were looking for in the genesis of this project."

Following the press conference, Hayek also flight surgeon for the 131st Tactical Fighter Wing at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport said that the exercise would be a good way to test some ideas for the rapid deployment of medical resources. The tactical fighter wing will take part in the exercise.

The exercise title refers to surgical tools, Hayek said.

"I'm a surgeon. You use steel tools in your work. We were sitting around one day trying to figure out what to name this thing."

It was eventually suggested, he said, that the exercise be named "Steel Cure." "It's kind of hokey, but it caught on," he said.

After the simulated earthquake strikes the morning of Oct. 23, city and county officials will notify Gov. John Ashcroft's office, according to authorities.

The planned scenario includes:

The earthquake will result in damage to Cape Girardeau's two hospitals, leading to the establishment of a temporary medical treatment facility at the Cape Girardeau Arena Building.

Notified by the governor, the state's adjutant general will activate medical and support units of the Army and Air National Guard. By 8 p.m., said authorities, medical teams from St. Joseph and the 131st Tactical Fighter Wing will be on the ground at Cape Girardeau.

An Army Guard hospital unit from Kansas City and a medical battalion from outstate Missouri will fortify those units, they said.

Authorities said additional emergency response units from Jackson, Miss. and Oklahoma City, Okla. will arrive early Saturday morning, with the first aeromedical evacuation flight departing at 5 a.m. C-130 and C-141 transport aircraft will fly up to 600 simulated casualties from a temporary patient holding facility at Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport to coordination centers in St. Louis and Kansas City; Lincoln, Neb.; Little Rock, Ark.; and Jackson, Miss., said authorities.

Col. Jerry Uhlmann of the Missouri Army National Guard said the exercise was scheduled because it fit in well with other activities the Guard has going on. He said the exercise was not "predicated" on projections of a major earthquake along the fault.

New Mexico climatologist Iben Browning erroneously predicted that a major earthquake would occur along the New Madrid Fault between Dec. 1 and Dec. 5, 1990.

Yet Boyd, the city's police chief, said the area must prepare for a major disaster.

"We know that that potential is there and hopefully that will be 500 years down the line. But I think it should be rather reassuring to the population that it has always been our intention to do everything we can to recover as quickly as we can, and to get medical attention to the injured people...."

County Emergency Management Coordinator Brian Miller said the focus of the exercise would fall on the city. The county's role will be to support the city, he said. Cape Girardeau Police Sgt. Carl Kinnison said city authorities would primarily assume a "table-top" coordination role.

The October exercise will take place shortly before the nation's presidential election. Boyd said he expects presidential candidates to contact authorities about attending the exercise, though none have done so yet.

"Just being realistic, I expect we will have someone of national importance show up," he said after the press conference. "Who, I have no idea."