`STEEL CURE II' SHOULD HELP CITY'S EMERGENCY PLANNING

Operation Steel Cure II, billed as one the nation's largest emergency response exercises, will provide an ongoing benefit to Cape Girardeau's emergency response efforts.

Mark Hasheider, the city's emergency operations coordinator, said Sunday that working with local, state and federal agencies will enable the city to devise a better emergency response plan in the event of a real emergency.

"It definitely gives us an edge on training, because we were able to look at emergency response from a lot of different agencies," he said. "We were able to talk to other agencies face to face and understand them and how they would interact with us in the event of a real emergency."

Hasheider said that over the next few weeks, the various agencies involved in the massive exercise will evaluate their response and seek way to improve.

"I think everything went real well," he said. "But there's always room for improvement, and that's part of what this exercise is for."

Operation Steel Cure II involved a total of about 2,000 civilian and military personnel. During the two-day event, officials responded to likely problems associated with a large earthquake near Cape Girardeau.

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." The simulated casualties totalled about 1,000.

Participants included more than 600 Air National Guard troops from Missouri, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas and Mississippi. Other reserve units were involved, along with doctors, nurses and other emergency response personnel.

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

Cape Girardeau firefighters and area emergency medical personnel responded to victims trapped in a "collapsed" structure, in which 20 to 25 people supposedly were killed and another 80 injured.

The earthquake scenario revealed that both local hospitals were damaged by the quake.

With such an elaborately scripted "disaster," Hasheider said officials soon learned there were some deficiencies in the city's emergency response plans.

"I don't think you're ever really prepared unless you continually try to test it," he said. "It's really too early to tell what we can do to improve some of these areas. I think trying to coordinate the problems was the most difficult thing, and information-gathering would come second."

Hasheider said the drill forced local authorities to assess damages from the quake based on reports from "field sources" on the scene. The information then was relayed to a command center, where response priorities were established and dispatched.

"When you think of things like damage assessment and the needs of the community, it's a challenge."

But Hasheider said he was confident the city met its objectives for the exercise. Although certain aspects of the city's response weren't perfect, officials now know better which areas need improvement.

"I can't say that we got an A-plus," he added. "But in an exercise like this, we weren't really trying to grade ourselves.

"Hopefully, the community will realize from the events this weekend that there are things we can do to become better prepared and to plan for a real emergency."

Hasheider said people in this area have been encouraged to store adequate supplies and plan to "fend for themselves" for at least 48 hours after an emergency.

He said it's also important for the city to establish an emergency plan that doesn't rely on outside agencies.

"We want to be able to meet the city's needs and take care of ourselves for the first 48 hours," Hasheider said. "This exercise will help us.

"It's not the answer, but it's definitely another step in the right direction."

Hasheider said that although the massive training exercise was an inconvenience to some, the event will better prepare the city for a real emergency.

"We had a lot of businesses that helped support the exercise through donations and equipment, but we need to give a big thanks to the general public for putting up with us for the weekend," he added.

"But I feel it was well worth our effort, and it will make the city better able to respond to a real emergency."