`CURE': DRILL TESTS EMERGENCY RESPONSES

A mock earthquake struck the Cape Girardeau area Friday morning, launching a massive two-day emergency medical response exercise involving about 2,000 civilian and military personnel.

In all, about 1,000 "casualties" were handled in the drill.

The emergency response exercise involving local, state and federal authorities had been billed as the largest in the nation's history.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, however, had to basically pull out of the exercise because it was too busy dealing with the aftermath of recent hurricanes in Florida, Louisiana and Hawaii.

Still, the drill called Operation Steel Cure II a reference to surgical tools was enormous by any standards.

"It's the largest medical evacuation exercise the Missouri Air National Guard has ever done," said Maj. Ken MacNevin, a Guard spokesman.

Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport resembled a military base Saturday, with hundreds of Air and Army National Guard troops participating in the evacuation of earthquake "victims."

Maj. Jim Mohan of the Missouri Air National Guard said, "For all intents and purposes they let us come in and take over the airport."

More than 600 Air National Guard troops were involved, with about half of them from Missouri units and the rest from units in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas and Mississippi.

Also involved in the exercise Saturday were units of the Army Reserve, Air Force, Air Force Reserve, Navy Reserve, Civil Air Patrol, the U.S. Public Health Service, and about 160 doctors, nurses and other emergency response personnel from the National Disaster Medical System.

In addition, State Emergency Management Agency officials participated in the weekend exercise.

Rows of military tents were set up at the airport to house hundreds of troops. An airport hangar housed injured earthquake victims. Communications equipment, including a large satellite dish, was set up on the airport grounds.

Even real construction work taking place at the Cape Girardeau airport terminal helped promote the earthquake scenario, giving the look of a damaged building.

Of course, there were signs it was still a drill. For example, the local cable television service provided cable hookup in the tents.

Giant military transport planes, C-130s and C-141s, thundered in and out of the airport Saturday, evacuating the "injured" to airports in St. Louis, Kansas City and Columbia, as well as to out-state sites at Jackson, Miss., and Lincoln, Neb.

About 500 military and Civil Air Patrol personnel, depicting earthquake victims, were evacuated in flights that began at 5 a.m. Saturday and continued throughout the day, said Mohan.

In all, the operation Saturday involved nearly 30 flights, the last departing around 11 p.m. Most of the troops were expected to pack up and leave today.

"The morale of the troops was really good," Mohan said Saturday afternoon.

While Saturday's exercise tested the military response, Friday's activities focused on testing local emergency response capabilities.

The mock earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.4 on the Richter scale, struck at 8 a.m. Friday. Under the scenario, the quake was centered about three miles west of Cape Girardeau.

The drill began with Cape Girardeau firefighters and area emergency medical personnel responding to victims trapped in a "collapsed" structure, the old Harris Truck and Trailer building at Independence and Kingshighway.

About 15 Cape Girardeau firefighters participated in the rescue effort, and another seven helped evaluate and coordinate the drill.

About 20 to 25 people were "killed" and another 80 "injured" in the collapse of the building, which, as part of the script, housed everything from an auto repair shop to a paint store.

Signs were posted on the exterior of the brick building to indicate the various businesses.

Simulated smoke was used to portray a fire in the auto repair shop.

E.J. Lorenz, 71, of Cape Girardeau, his face red with simulated burns, was one of those trapped in the auto repair shop. He said the simulated smoke was so thick it was difficult to see. "It was pretty real," said the retired nursing home administrator.

Lorenz said many of the victims, who ranged from elementary students to retired persons, really acted their parts.

"Obviously for safety reasons, we didn't collapse the structure," said Jim Lawrence of the Missouri Department of Health bureau of emergency medical services.

Lawrence scripted the local portion of the disaster exercise. He spent Friday visiting various sites where disaster drills were held, including the two Cape Girardeau hospitals.

The earthquake script envisioned that the local hospitals were damaged by the quake.

A large tent was set up on the grounds of St. Francis Medical Center to handle some of the casualties as doctors and nurses tended to the injured.

Jean Seesing, a St. Francis employee left work at 7 a.m. Friday at the end of her regular shift. But instead of going home, she volunteered to be a victim.

She ended up dying.

"I bled to death before I got here," she said, removing the blanket from over her make-believe pale face.

At Southeast Missouri Hospital, damaged by the quake, a parking garage became a makeshift treatment area. As part of the scenario, a baby was delivered in the parking garage.

By Friday afternoon, the A.C. Brase Arena Building had been turned into a casualty collection point, with rows of cots covering the floor. A temporary mortuary was set up in a nearby livestock barn at Arena Park.

Victims were brought in throughout the afternoon and well into the evening as medical teams worked to treat the injured.

Sites in Jackson and Delta were also used as casualty collection points.

"It's not real, but it's real-life training," said Mark Hasheider, emergency operations coordinator for the city of Cape Girardeau.

Adding to the realism was the job done by Bill Kasting and others who handled the moulage or simulation of injuries, depicting people's wounds with a variety of make-up and generous amounts of fake blood.

"I'm real popular around Halloween," said Kasting, who is coordinator of emergency medical training at the Cape Girardeau Area Vocational Technical School.

"We've got some real good victims," he said Friday afternoon.

U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson stopped by the Arena Building to view the earthquake drill. Emerson, who sponsored legislation designed to improve the nation's earthquake preparedness programs, said there's no substitute for emergency exercises.

Organizers of the exercise said that in the event of a real earthquake or other disaster, the National Guard would not have been able to act as quickly.

"This was a planned exercise that involved lengthy planning," said MacNevin.