The City of St. Louis to Host Disaster Response Training Exercises
The City of St. Louis Emergency Management Agency, in partnership with several City agencies, will be hosting three days of disaster response training exercises from July 15-17. This multi-day event will bring together local and military emergency responders to coordinate and mitigate dangerous scenarios in the aftermath of a catastrophic disaster.
The training exercises, facilitated by Task Force 46 of the Michigan National Guard and in cooperation with the Missouri National Guard, will include reconnaissance, urban search and rescue, mass casualty decontamination, and damage assessment of structures and infrastructure. These drills will take place in the vicinity of Busch Stadium and the Missouri River, spanning from Grafton to St. Charles.
While the exercises will be visible in downtown St. Louis, the public is advised not to visit the drill area. In addition, residents are asked to avoid the 8th Street side of Busch Stadium as 8th Street at Clark Street will be closed to traffic during daylight hours. Motorists on Interstate 64/40 approaching Busch Stadium should also exercise caution and avoid distracted driving as they pass by military exercises and equipment. Military vehicle traffic is also expected on Highway 55 early in the morning on July 15.
The scenario for the three-day exercise will simulate an 8.4 magnitude earthquake along the New Madrid Seismic Fault. The focus of the exercise will be on responding to structural damage, civilian casualties, and chemical contamination in the vicinity of Busch Stadium during a baseball game. Another key aspect of the training will be Multi-Role Bridge river crossings of the Missouri River, as the drills will assume that bridges have been damaged.
Approximately 500 individuals, including local emergency responders, military responders, hospitals, and volunteers, will be participating in the exercises. Military helicopters and vehicles, damaged vehicles and debris, and multiple staging areas will be utilized in the vicinity of Busch Stadium.
Task Force 46, based in Lansing, Michigan, is a National Guard element that is deployed to provide command and support for military response forces in the event of catastrophic chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear incidents. This is the first time that the St. Louis area has been chosen to host these full-scale, multi-domain exercises. Last year, Task Force 46 conducted similar exercises in Nashville.
The exercises are being coordinated with STARRS (St. Louis Area Regional Response System), which is housed within the East-West Gateway Council of Governments. STARRS works with emergency responders across local jurisdictions to enhance the region’s capabilities in preventing, protecting against, responding to, and recovering from natural disasters, terrorism, and large-scale industrial accidents and hazards.
