Emergency response representatives from the University worked with Charlottesville City and Albemarle County officials this weekend in a disaster-preparedness drill, which included a mock plane crash at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport.
"We have an annual requirement from [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] to do a community disaster drill, just to test our readiness for an emergency situation," Albemarle County spokesperson Lee Catlin said.
Over 300 people from fire and rescue teams, social services, law enforcement and transportation groups participated in the four-hour drill. Although the participants knew when the drill was taking place, they were not notified of the specifics of the disaster until they received the emergency calls.
The scenario included the crash of a plane that was hit by a terrorist missile. As the mock disaster continued, a mock hostage situation developed at Chris Greene Lake Park, where officials were told a missile launcher and a tank of sarin gas were discovered.
Officials in the command room at the county office building monitored the drill, and the response will be evaluated in the coming weeks. The drill was a chance for local officials to not only practice coordination but also to test new technology, such as an Internet-based communications system that many officials used for the first time this weekend.
The involvement of University officials in the drill displayed the coordination between local groups necessary to respond to a potential disaster, said Susan Harris, assistant to the University Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
"We have a regional disaster plan that involves the City, the County and the University," Harris said. "Whether or not the disaster directly involves the University, we have a role in working with the City and the County on whatever the disaster is."
As participants in the drill, University police secured a shelter in a local school. Representatives from the University Medical Center also were present, and the hospital conducted a drill of its emergency department Sunday.
Chief J. "Dan" Eggleston of the Albemarle County Department of Fire-Rescue said he believes the drill was a success.
"It went well," he said. "The whole purpose of having this is to create a list of things to do next time. We achieved our objective as far as the drill goes."
According to Catlin, while the drill was not necessarily planned to coincide with Sept. 11, the anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center did highlight the need for emergency preparedness drills.
"It had been planned not with an eye toward Sept. 11 or Hurricane Katrina, but with those events so near our drill, it brought a new sense of urgency," she said.
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