Newport Beach emergency workers prepare for ‘our local 9/11’
Newport Beach city employees who gathered in the Emergency Operations Center at the Civic Center on Wednesday morning received some chilling — albeit fake — news.
A radio transmission indicated to the roughly 60 police, fire and other municipal employees that a series of terrorist attacks had occurred in Huntington Beach, Anaheim and Irvine. The threat to surrounding cities was unknown, so everyone needed to be prepared for other attacks.
Though it was simply a drill, the exercise provided emergency workers an opportunity to practice their roles in case of an actual disaster, said Katie Eing, Newport’s emergency services coordinator.
“These are things that we plan for,” Eing said. “We hope they don’t happen, but we have to be prepared.”
Several times a year, city employees gather at the Emergency Operations Center to run through the city’s response to simulated disasters, including terrorist attacks, earthquakes and tsunamis.
Every staff member in the room has a role, whether it be coordinating communication with local schools, calling in additional emergency personnel or dispatching resources to neighboring cities.
On Wednesday, Newport Beach joined Aliso Viejo, Buena Park, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, Laguna Niguel, Westminster, the Coast Community College District and several other agencies in the exercise.
The scenario included a van being driven into people on the Huntington Beach Pier and explosions at a soccer match in Irvine, leaving scores of people injured or killed. Elsewhere in the county during the exercise, explosive devices were found and disabled.
“It would be our local 9/11,” Eing said of the imagined event. “This is a situation that would tax all of our life safety resources.”
Newport Beach Municipal Operations Director George Murdoch, who participated in the drill with some of his staff, said it’s essential for a city to be prepared when disaster strikes to minimize chaos in an already stressful situation.
“It’s better to spend time now preparing rather than spend time learning the process when something happens,” he said.
Twitter: @HannahFryTCN
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