Wichita to Test Itself Against Terrorism

Oct. 14--A taste of terrorism is coming to Wichita. Explosions, fire and confusion will rattle downtown Friday morning as a three-day disaster simulation starts.

The simulation, sponsored by the University of Kansas Medical Center and the South Central Kansas Homeland Security Council, is intended to help emergency service and medical personnel learn how to respond and treat mass casualties in a disaster -- whether it's caused by terrorists or nature.

As the simulation unfolds, officials say, first responders and emergency service workers will discover that the destruction wasn't caused by Mother Nature.

Training began Saturday at the Sedgwick County Emergency Operations Center just south of Main and Murdock, drawing more than 50 dispatchers and emergency management officials from around the region -- plus government officials from Armenia.

They're being taught how to set up and run an emergency operations center at the site of a disaster, said John Holgerson, president of Rescue Training Associates, a Florida-based company that has assisted after Sept. 11, the Oklahoma City bombing and Hurricane Katrina.

"Most of what they're trained to deal with is resolved in an hour or less," Holgerson said of dispatchers. "But when you're dealing with major disasters, you're talking days, weeks..."

It can even take years, as victims of Hurricane Andrew in Florida and Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast can attest.