When an emergency or disaster situation arises in a city, there
is little or no time for officials to plan, which is why emergency
preparedness courses, such as the one Morgan Hill Police Lt. Joe
Sampson recently took part in, are so valuable.
When an emergency or disaster situation arises in a city, there is little or no time for officials to plan, which is why emergency preparedness courses, such as the one Morgan Hill Police Lt. Joe Sampson recently took part in, are so valuable.
“It was as close to the real thing as you can get,” Sampson said of the final exercise. “It was a terrorist incident – appropriately so – involving the bombing of a shopping area in a mock city.
“In addition to that there were other incidents going on at the same time: a rock concert with small riot, a small protest going on at time we got report of the explosion at the mall, and there were activities at the local university requiring police and fire personnel.”
The training was put on by Cal Specialized Training Institute, based in San Luis Obispo, at the Sheriff’s Office in downtown San Jose. Sampson and Morgan Hill city employees Shairon William, Morie Struvey, Bob Kelley and volunteer Donna Krein attended the four-day session in March, which was funded by Homeland Security.
Morgan Hill City Manager Ed Tewes said Morgan Hill is not alone in its efforts to remain ready for any disaster.
“This is part of an effort to make sure every city in the county has an extra level of emergency preparedness,” he said. “This is an important issue especially as we are in an area which is prone to earthquakes and flooding … In light of Homeland Security, we are required to update our training.”
The training Sampson and the others participated in was a combination of classroom time and situational training.
“We spent much of our time going over emergency management procedures,” he said. “We reviewed how mutual aid works at the local level, county level, regional, federal and national.
“The first day was primarily spent in the classroom. In the evenings, there were planning session for various groups, including management groups, logistic groups, operational groups, on different nights throughout the week. In the afternoons, there were exercises at the Sheriff’s emergency operations center.”
For the exercises, Sampson said, the trainees would have different roles to play. They were given information on a simulated incident and a particular assignment.
“They had created a city, and we received all the pertinent information on the mock city, the demographics of it, and given press briefs on activities going on in the city,” he said. “There were some relatively – simulated – stressful moments. The magnitude of some of the type of incidents that we were trained on, with phones ringing, getting requests for equipment, for personnel, for information by the press. It was relatively hectic. It was great training for all.”
For the final incident, Sampson said the trainees were actually in the classroom when they received word about the “terrorist attack.” Because of the other incidents going on simultaneously, the mock city’s emergency manpower was severely stretched.
“It was depleted within 15 minutes of our being notified,” he said. “At that point, we were forced to make decisions about assistance. It had become a regional incident now, requiring FBI notification. The information was coming in bits and pieces, just as in a real life situation, and it took us an hour to determine exactly what was happening.”
Sampson said there were FBI agents and other specialists on hand to bring reality to the training.
“We phoned a specialist in terms of radiation and its impact on people, and a doctor showed up at the ops center and gave us a real briefing,” he said. “In a real situation, we would have to be in touch with experts to know how we would have to react.”
The training is offered throughout the year, every few months, Sampson said, and there are a variety of courses, from officer safety to simulated ammunition tactical scenarios. Instructors come from the FBI and Homeland Security, as well as local agencies. The instructors are field operatives, who would aid local agencies if the incident rises to the level of a regional situation or other large scale incidents.
Sampson said this will not be the last training for Morgan Hill officials.
“This is something that in the future, as we broaden our capabilities, more of the city staff will have an opportunity to attend this type of training,” he said. “It’s an excellent opportunity to hone your skills, to give our city employees a sense of confidence that they can handle situations that you hope will never arise, but the possibility is there.”
