Officials to participate in bioterrorism training
In the event of an attack of bioterrorism, the residents of Marion County should be able rest a little easier after next week when seven county officials are scheduled to attend a bioterrorism training exercise in Topeka.
On June 26 and 27, the State of Kansas will be the site of Prairie Plague 2002, an exercise designed to simulate a bioterrorism event within the state. Local, state, and federal authorities will be participating in this exercise to help them prepare to respond in the event of a bioterrorist attack or other widespread public health emergency.
An estimated 700 to 800 people, including 200 employees of state agencies and public information offices, have enrolled to participate. The bioterrorism exercise is funded by grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Kansas Health Foundation.
Michelle Abbott-Becker, director of emergency management; Lee Becker, sheriff; Joann Knak, director of emergency services; Jan Moffitt, Marion County health nurse; Carol Maggard, county clerk; Don Hodson, county coroner; and Ed Wheeler, assistant county attorney will attend Prairie Plague 2002. Abbott-Becker said that they are trying to get one more person to attend, hopefully one of the county commissioners.
The Kansas Emergency Management is responsible for coordinating disaster and emergency response and recovery and training for exercises to prepare the public for disasters of any kind. According to Joy Moser, public information/relations director from the adjutant general's department, Kansas has held other bioterrorism exercises including Star in 2000, Code Eddie in 2001, an animal disease exercise in 2001 and a Wolf Creek disaster exercise in 2001. In past years, 200 to 250 people have attended each exercise.
"This year we have had a strong response to our bioterrorism exercise," Moser said. "The increase in people attending might be attributed to the events of Sept. 11 and after."
Abbott-Becker said that county employees attend other training sessions throughout the year, but this is the first bioterrorism exercise she is aware of that they have been involved with.
The State of Kansas has established a pro-active stance toward addressing potential catastrophic events by working collectively to build the partnerships that would be necessary to respond to any such event. Educational and exercise activities help to develop these partnerships and to prepare local, state and federal responders to work together in the event of an emergency.
Prairie Plague 2002 is a bioterrorism exercise focused on the structure in place to address the consequences of a biological attack. Its purpose is to gain new insights on the realities of a massive public health crisis from a local perspective and to identify new planning and training priorities for every level of response. The exercise is designed around teams of local officials from each county across the state, representing a network of response systems. The response of local, state and federal authorities will be examined, laying the foundation to identify effective response capabilities that will benefit future planning and training endeavors.
There have been state level bioterrorism exercises in the past. The focus of this exercise, however, is on the facilitation of policy discussions and roles clarification at the local level.
