Agencies discuss catastrophe plans

The American Society for Public Administration teamed up with Bluewater Consulting to present a roundtable discussion on emergency preparedness Monday. Representatives from various local and state agencies involved in disaster response discussed responses to several possible disaster scenarios, from a toxic spill during a University of Tennessee football gameday to an outbreak of the avian flu.

Kimberly Douglas, ASPA chapter president for East Tennessee, said ASPA hosts yearly roundtables on a “timely topic.” Bill Johns, president of Bluewater Consulting, a management consulting firm, said the purpose of such roundtables was “to allow the community to have more access to government and become more aware.”

Representatives from Tennessee Emergency Management, Knox, Blount and Anderson Counties Emergency Management, the American Red Cross and the Knoxville Fire and Police Departments attended.

One scenario discussed was a toxic chemical spill at the CSX rail yard behind campus during a game day. An incident similar, but less severe, took place about 12 years ago, according to Alan Lawson.

“A railroad car leaked casing head (unrefined) gasoline that was a fire hazard,” Lawson said.

The leak happened during a Vols night game. The surrounding area was evacuated and decontaminated by early morning, but “fans at the game probably never knew what happened,” Lawson said.

A spill occurring close to one of the largest stadiums in the nation poses unique problems.

Mark Foulkes, assistant chief for Special Operations for KFD, said each game is managed “as an incident, there is a unified command post set up.” Foulkes said that in the event of an emergency, the fire department would send HAZ-MAT teams to identify and contain the spill, but evacuation is the police department’s responsibility he said.

Capt. Nate Allen in charge of KPD Criminal Investigations division said a perimeter would be set up by officers wearing gas masks, and the immediate area would be evacuated first. The stadium evacuation would take place if necessary using one of the two evacuation plans. One calls for a total evacuation in the case of emergency and the other is called a “cover plan,” used for inclement weather. Neither has been used or fully rehearsed but Allen said he estimates the time it would take at 45 minutes to accomplish either.

The lack of full-scale regional rehearsals was recognized as a major problem by Steve Payne, director of Anderson County Emergency Management.

Knoxville Emergency Management launched two city drills in the last two years. One involved a simulated chemical incident at the Civic Coliseum and the other was a building collapse exercise, Lawson said. Personnel costs alone ran as high as $120,000 and $80,000 respectively, according to Lawson.

Students volunteered to set up the event. Robert Koewler, freshman in Political Science, helped out because, he said, “after Katrina and seeing the debacle there I wanted to see how they were preparing here.”