Bioterrorism Scenario Tests California County Readiness

A simulated bioterrorism attack Wednesday on a school bus in Moreno Valley with 40 paramedic students was a sobering test in preparing for a large-scale disaster in Riverside County.

Firetrucks, ambulances and police cruisers converged on an overturned school bus at March Air Reserve Base to begin the practiced bioterrorism exercise. Paramedic students from Riverside and Mt. San Jacinto community colleges acted as victims infected with influenza who were trapped in the bus, howling for help and drenched in fake gore.

The countywide simulation tested the procedures health agencies and police and fire responders would follow to deal with an actual bioterrorism scenario, said March Air Reserve Base Maj. Donald Traud. From the radio calls to dispatchers to the arrest of a "terror suspect," the first responders and students practiced communication and rescue procedures.

"This tests our capabilities to respond to a mass-casualty accident or terrorist attack on a soft target in the area," Traud said. "Because of this area's infrastructure and growing population, a terrorist attack of this scale is definitely a potential scenario."

The scenario involved a fictional terrorist group infecting its members with a genetically engineered virus and hijacking a school bus in Riverside County. Pursued by police, the bus would crash and flip onto its side.

Firefighters wearing surgical masks broke through the back of the bus and used an A-frame ladder to rescue students in the overturned vehicle.

Student actors were carried out on stretchers, designated as having minor to serious injuries and taken away by ambulance.

Every emergency agency and all but one hospital in the county participated in the $300,000 drill. After the simulated bus accident, inoculation centers were set up at the Riverside Convention Center and the Palm Springs Corporate yard to hand out placebo candies to simulate the medications that would be dispensed to prevent a large-scale virus outbreak.

The Riverside County Department of Public Health received about $5 million this year for terrorism response and preparedness, said Kim Saruwatari, the department's chief of bioterrorism preparedness.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Saruwatari said, county agencies have been working on simulations to improve preparation and communication.

She said the biggest challenges for her department involve preparing hospitals that are already crowded for the possibility of a multiple-casualty situation.

"This reinforces or plans and tests us to refine our procedures to make them better," Saruwatari said. "There are so many types of threats we have to deal with that we always continue to be ready and evolve."

When the simulation was conducted two years ago, the agencies found communication flaws and problems with relaying information back to main operation centers. Since then, Saruwatari said, the Public Health Department has reformulated procedures and upgraded 800-megahertz radios to be able to communicate with central command centers.

On Tuesday, another terrorism exercise took place in San Bernardino County. More than 1,000 people from 70 local, state and federal agencies practiced drills at the Hyundai Pavilion in Devore, dealing with explosive devices and biological weapons, a San Bernardino County news release said. The California Golden Gate Homeland Security exercise also measured a large-scale earthquake response.

Today, Arrowhead Regional Medical Center will practice disaster drills using 16 decontamination showers and two decontamination tents. The equipment can be set up within 10 minutes and can treat contaminated individuals while preventing the spread of harmful components, hospital spokesman Jorge Valencia said in a news release.

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