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"This was a very demanding exercise, and I am pleased that the state
proved that we can protect the public under even the most extreme
conditions," Blagojevich said. "Our goal for the exercise was to
confirm that our response plans work, as well as to identify
weaknesses in our plans. So while the exercise scenario concluded
yesterday, this is really just the beginning. We're going to take
lessons learned from the exercise and work aggressively to improve
them so that we will be even better prepared if, or when, a disaster
of this magnitude occurs in Illinois." The exercise started
Tuesday afternoon when the state began dealing with a fictitious
influenza outbreak in the Chicago area. As state agencies continued
their response to the spreading flu on Wednesday morning, simulated
terrorist attacks in the Chicago suburban area forced the agencies
to respond to those incidents also. While the terrorist scenario
wound down Wednesday night with a terrorist takedown mission by the
State Weapons of Mass Destruction Team, the scenario Thursday jumped
ahead five months so that the state could tackle such issues as
distributing vaccines, long-term economic recovery, school closings
and other continuing concerns related to the pandemic flu.
"The scenario allowed us to test the capabilities of nearly all
our special response teams, and they all performed superbly," said
Col. Jill Morgenthaler, deputy chief of staff to Blagojevich for
public safety. "In fact, decisions made by the Unified Area Command
in Glenview actually prevented a hostage-taking situation that was
part of the scenario. In order to still test the State Weapons of
Mass Destruction Team's capabilities, we went ahead and played as
though terrorists had taken hostages."
Special response capabilities deployed as part of the exercise
included the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System, the Mutual Aid
Box Alarm System's technical rescue teams and Level A hazmat teams,
the Illinois Medical Emergency Response Team, the Civil Support
Team, and Citizen Emergency Response Teams.
Immediately following the close of the exercise, state officials
gathered for an internal review of the state's performance. Overall,
participants felt the exercise was very successful and that the
state met its goals. Strengths noted by participants included the
role of the State Terrorism Intelligence Center in providing
intelligence that helped prevent terrorists from taking hostages,
the ability to receive live-action video from the disaster scene via
the state's new satellite truck, and technology available in the new
State Emergency Operations Center, which opened in October. Areas
for improvement include stronger communications between senior
policymakers and the State Emergency Operations Center, improved
communications between state and local decision-makers, and a review
of certain technologies.
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 As part of the exercise, the Illinois Department of Public Health
activated its Public Health Emergency Operations Center and was able
to send numerous recommendations to local health departments,
hospitals, long-term care facilities and the public, as well as take
certain actions, including these:
-
Issuing general
prevention measures to avoid the flu
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Alerting first
responders to be aware of infection possibilities
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Assessing of hospital
resources, such as anti-virals, beds and equipment
-
Requesting Strategic
National Stockpile
-
Issuing order for
hospitals and physicians to use anti-viral only for treatment
and post-exposure
-
Providing guidelines
for cleaning and disinfection of environmental surfaces
-
Issuing infection
control recommendations for prevention of transmission of
pandemic influenza in health care settings
-
Issuing Illinois
Department of Public Health personal protective equipment and
infection control recommendations for hospitals
for prevention of pandemic and novel influenza
-
Providing guidelines
for social distancing to reduce risk of pandemic influenza
transmission
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Unveiling vaccine
distribution plan
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Issuing postmortem
care directives
While a formal evaluation of the exercise by the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security won't be received until the end of June,
evaluators did provide the state with preliminary comments.
Evaluators were pleased that the governor, members of his staff and
several agency directors were directly involved in crucial policy
decisions. They also noted that representatives from approximately
20 agencies in the State Emergency Operations Center were experts in
their fields, obviously well-trained and demonstrated good
decision-making abilities. In addition, Illinois' integration of
federal agencies into the exercise was commended. An initial
recommendation from evaluators was that Illinois employ the same
incident action plan format that the federal government is
encouraging the entire nation to follow.
[News release from the governor's
office]
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