Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy, Nebraska's Director of Homeland Security, and other state officials including Dr. Joann Schaefer, Chief Medical Officer were on site to lead the executive group responsible for policy decisions during an incident."With increased attention on the risk of an infectious disease outbreak, this exercise provides a perfect opportunity to test Nebraska's readiness in responding to a public health emergency," Lt. Gov. Sheehy said. "Nebraska has been recognized as a national model in emergency preparedness and drills such as this are part of our ongoing commitment to ensuring our state is ready to respond to emergencies of all kinds."
The Nebraska Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) staged the statewide event in coordination with theNebraska Health and Human Services System (HHSS). The exercise involved at least nine state agencies, two federal agencies, the University of Nebraska, and 19 local jurisdictions.
The scenario began earlier in the week with simulated reports of a flu-like illness in central Nebraska. By Wednesday morning the Nebraska Public Health Lab had identified the hypothetical outbreak as the pneumonic plague, and participants were briefed, as the exercise became fully operational Thursday morning.
Dr. Schaefer said, "We are working to identify areas where our response plan can be strengthened should we ever face an outbreak that puts Nebraskans at risk. This exercise dealt with an illness that has symptoms similar to those associated with pandemic flu, which provided a good opportunity to test Nebraska's readiness to respond to a public health emergency, now and in the future."
TERREX 2005 is designed to test a number of statewide functions, including compliance with the National Incident Management System and the Nebraska Homeland Security Exercise Evaluation Program. It also provided an opportunity to evaluate Nebraska's interagency communications.
Key objectives being tested as part of the exercise include: rapid confirmation of the nature of the incident; the ability to gather information and coordinate with local Health Departments -- hospitals, state Emergency Medical Services, and members of the Nebraska Health Alert Network -- and activation of the state Emergency Operations and Joint Information Centers.
Other agencies involved in the exercise include the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, Department of Roads, Department of Agriculture, Department of Insurance, the Nebraska State Patrol, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, the Nebraska Energy Office and the Heartland Chapter of the American Red Cross.
Al Berndt, Assistant Director of NEMA said, "The level of commitment our state agencies bring to Homeland Security exercises and emergency response preparation demonstrates their dedication to readiness. Nebraska is ahead of the curve and exercises such as this will ensure we remain prepared."
NEMA plans and coordinates an annual statewide exercise with a different scenario tested each year. TERREX 2005 is the second wide-scale emergency response exercise and one of a series of exercises conducted on an ongoing basis. Planning for this year's TERREX exercise began more than a year ago. Last year's event simulated a terrorist attack on state infrastructure.
