CRA Provides A Full Scale Mass Transit Terrorist Exercise in Atlanta,

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WHAT WE HAVE DONE - MASS TRANSIT TERRORIST EXERCISES

CRA SUPPORTS FULL-SCALE TERRORISM EXERCISES FOR MARTA RAIL AND BUS IN ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Atlanta Exercise In late 2004 and early 2005, CRA supported the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) with a series of two exercises; a Senior Leaders Seminar (SLS) and a Full Scale Exercise (FSE). The MARTA Police Department coordinated and funded both exercises.

The MARTA/Fulton County SLS was a 1-day exercise simulating a terrorist event at a MARTA rail station. It was held on December 15, 2004 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

The senior leaders’ attention was directed at various critical issues during the seminar, such as awareness of mass transit security and vulnerabilities; continuity of operations; inter- and intra-agency communications; public relations; joint planning efforts among senior-level executives; and level of readiness for a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) rail attack directed at the MARTA rail corridors. The seminar focused on the senior leader response and collective decision-making process. It was designed to be an open, thought-provoking exchange of ideas to help develop and/or expand on existing policies and procedures when deemed necessary.

The Operation Transit Response FSE was a 4-hour exercise simulating a terrorist explosion on a MARTA train. It was held on April 3, 2005, in Atlanta. The exercise scenario involved the detonation of explosive devices placed in small backpacks on a southbound MARTA train at the Sandy Springs Rail Station in Atlanta, GA. The devices caused extensive (simulated) damage to the targeted train, but only minor damage to the structure of the Sandy Springs rail station. The blasts resulted in more than 10 fatalities and hundreds of injuries. The incident required the evacuation of the rail station during a simulated morning rush-hour commute.

Responders were challenged with ingress and egress difficulties from an underground rail station, the need to rescue and evacuate multiple casualties, and the control of 200 self-evacuating commuters.

Responders were also tasked with the coordination of multiagency command and communication issues, the management of the crime scene and investigation, and the search for potential secondary devices that required bomb squad assessment.

Marta Train This exercise helped the MARTA Police Department as well as other responders in Fulton County identify capabilities, available resources, and issues each agency would face during an actual emergency involving the MARTA transit system.

The significance of this and all CRA mass transit exercises was made clear three months after the MARTA FSE, as suicide bombers detonated four coordinated devices in London on July 7, 2005, killing 56 and injuring over 700.

Featured Exercise: Atlanta—MARTA Full Scale Exercise

On November 13, 2005, CRA supported the highly successful City of Atlanta/Midtown Full Scale Exercise focusing on the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit System (MARTA). The exercise employed a simulated and highly-realistic terrorist “attack” on a passenger bus at MARTA's Midtown Station to practice how MARTA and other agencies would respond to a terrorist bombing at a MARTA station.

Several State, local, and private response agencies and control elements as well as the local business community participated, including the MARTA Police Department, the Midtown Business Alliance, City of Atlanta Police and Fire, Atlanta/Fulton County Emergency Management, Grady Emergency Medical Services, St. Joseph’s and Piedmont Hospitals, and Georgia Emergency Management. More than 200 personnel from these organizations participated.

The City of Atlanta broke new ground in preparing for a possible terrorist attack by facilitating the participation of many local Midtown businesses. At the start of the early Sunday morning exercise, Midtown business representatives assembled at a Business Operations Center. CRA helped facilitate the activation of the Center to offer businesses a realistic opportunity to compare respective individual emergency operations plans with a live emergency exercise situation. The Center aided the members of the Midtown Business Alliance in communicating with City agencies and coordinating among themselves on how to respond to such an emergency situation - likely to take place when businesses are in full operation.

ATL Robot for CRA's MARTA Exercise The exercise gave all participants, government and private sector alike, the opportunity to explore:

Emergency response coordination
Resource integration
Communication
Problem identification
Situation resolution

Regarding communication, the exercise provided an excellent framework for participating agencies to identify possible issues relating to exchanging information across functional areas within the City of Atlanta. In particular, it gave MARTA the opportunity to practice communicating with emergency responders, Atlanta-Midtown businesses, and the State of Georgia under the stress of a simulated crisis situation.

On October 28, 2005 CRA supported a Senior Leaders Seminar that afforded leaders of the various agencies the opportunity to discuss the interaction their respective agencies would have with response elements and businesses during such an emergency. The seminar helped to review the effectiveness of current State, local, and private plans and agreements that will be activated during a real-world event.

The exercise was part of MARTA's aggressive training program for emergencies. CRA supported a similar series of MARTA transit system exercises conducted at the Atlanta Sandy Springs station in April 2005. Both the April and the November exercise series were highly successful, receiving major local and national media coverage.

To discuss how CRA can assist you with your needs, email CRA today
at cra@cra-usa.net.