Today marked day one of a two-day emergency preparedness exercise in Anaheim. Code-named “Golden Guardian 2007” the annual statewide exercise seeks to improve California’s response to disasters.
This year’s exercise was a full scale field exercise.
Sometime in the past few days, a retired OCTA bus was blown up in a simulated homicide bomber attack out at a San Bernardino Sheriff explosives training range. The bus was severely damaged, looking somewhat like this bus in Israel that was hit by a terrorist bomber. 
The bus and all its pieces (some blown as far as 65 yards away) was packed up and hauled to the Angel Stadium parking lot where every piece of the ruined bus was placed out in the parking lot in the same relative position it was in after the explosion.
Another retired OCTA bus was tilted on its side where it crushed a passenger car. This was to simulate the force of an explosion from a car bomb that was to have gone off at about the same time as the bomber hit the bus. A third bus held a terrorist suspect whose vest either did not blow or who lost their nerve and did not blow themselves up.
At 9:55 a.m., the CHP shut down the 57 Freeway so as to minimize the likelihood of a spectator crash on the road overlooking the northeast side of the Angel Stadium parking lot. Why might a motorist crash? Well…
At 10 a.m. the “car bomb” exploded in a huge ball of fire. This explosion set off a secondary explosion in a nearby car. In the VIP stand 100 yards away or so, we felt the heat on our faces. Mayor Curt Pringle, the host of this major preparedness event was in the stands, as was Anaheim councilmember Lucille Kring, City of Orange Mayor Carolyn Cavecche, Mission Viejo Major Gail Reavis, and Buena Park Councilman Art Brown. Earlier I saw Anaheim councilmember Harry Sidhu while later I saw Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby.
A few minutes later, the first Anaheim Fire Department engine rolled up. At the same time, 200 volunteers, most of them having been gone over with moulage kits to simulate injuries, poured out from under a 57 Freeway overpass to assume their positions around the wrecks.
The first engine crew was extinguishing the fires as the second, third, and fourth fire trucks rolled up, all timed to simulate their arrival through heavy traffic.
On a nearby train track, a Metrolink train with two engines and five passenger cars remained stopped. Special SWAT team members would later search the train for explosives.
As the “injured” were treated and evacuated, law enforcement began to show up. The area was swept for additional explosives. I saw bomb dogs, a bomb robot, and a bomb disposal container in action.
The exercise continues tomorrow with forensic and coroner team members exercising their skills.
The exercise was paid for with $1.7 million of Homeland Security Training money. The State of California coordinated the effort (other exercises were occurring in Stockton and San Jose) with some 45 agencies and 3,000 participants statewide. Officials from the State of California in Anaheim today included Matt Bettenhausen, California director of Homeland Security, and Brigadier General Jack Hagan, the head of the volunteer State Military Reserve force and officials from the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. Even Orange County's John Cruz, the Appointments Secretary, was there.
I had a small role in planning some of the Golden Guardian effort before I retired from the California Army National Guard in April after 24 years of service. In addition, as one of the six members of the Budget Committee, Subcommittee 4 on State Administration, I have oversight on the emergency preparedness budget.
It was good to see California’s considerable human and equipment assets come together to practice responding to an event we all hope will never happen – a terror attack on our ground transportation system.
Those who are complaining about Chuck posting are hillarious! I have yet to find a state legistlator so eager and willing to correspond with his contituents. So much so that he takes the time to blog. I say good job Chuck and keep up the good work. I think all legislators should take the time to be more in touch.
Posted by: Flowerszzz | November 15, 2007 at 09:38 PM