Emergency preparedness test scheduled for March 10

On March 10, if you are driving into work or doing some shopping on Mill Ave., don’t be startled by the number of emergency vehicles in evidence, particularly in the Tempe area near ASU. You will be witnessing a portion of the Coyote Crisis Campaign (CCC), a five-day event beginning on March 9, which will test disaster preparedness.

Approximately 25 hospitals from the Phoenix area will participate in the exercise along with police and fire departments from the federal, state, county and local levels. The focus will be on planning issues surrounding a hypothetical Improvised Explosive Device (IED) domestic terrorist attack.

On March 10 approximately 1,200 volunteers will be used to assist in an important portion of the exercise. The majority of the volunteers will be used as mock victims to assist in the evaluation of the State’s Mobile Medical Response (MMR) and the hospitals’ response to a domestic terrorist attack.

“The region is assessing the ability of responding fire service participants from 10 to 15 different agencies to triage, treat and transport 100 victims in a four-hour time period following the mock detonation of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED),” said Gil Damiani, Mesa Fire Department Assistant Chief.

“The ASU Police Department and members from the Arizona Department of Public Safety, along with members from other local, state and federal law enforcement agencies will participate in Coyote Crisis 2009 in an effort to build upon our already great working relationships. Though several areas will be evaluated, we will focus heavily on interoperability and interaction with other emergency responders to control, mitigate and recover from a major incident,” said Allen Clark, Arizona State University’s Assistant Chief of Police.

Exercise objectives for participating hospitals include evaluating mass casualty management, fatality management, forensic evidence collection, family notification/reunification and medical surge.

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