20051214 McDaniel students tackle bioterrorism scenario by Heidi Schroeder for The Westminster Eagle

20051214 McDaniel students tackle bioterrorism scenario by Heidi Schroeder for The Westminster Eagle

McDaniel students tackle bioterrorism scenario

12/14/05, By Heidi Schroeder

Members of the Carroll County emergency response team gathered at McDaniel College last week to discuss the release of an aerosol of plague at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore.

But not to worry - there were no patients flooding area hospitals, nor emergency notices being released to the public.

Instead, experts gathered at McDaniel for a bioterrorism exercise in a class, "National Security in a Changing World," hosted by Dr. Volker Franke.

The exercise is a cumulative project for the 14 upperclassmen enrolled in Franke's class this semester. In the scenario, each student is assigned the role of a member of the county's emergency response team.

Members of the Carroll County emergency response team, including emergency management coordinator Bill Martin, health officer Larry Leitch, HAZMAT team chair Jeff Kreimer, hospital infection control coordinator Brenda Kitchen, and Westminster police chief Jeff Spaulding and public works assistant director Jeff Glass, also took part in the project, as students took those roles in the class.

Each student was assigned a role on the response team, and interviewed their corresponding official in preparation for the Dec. 7 exercise.

For the drill, students were broken into two teams of seven and asked to prepare for a briefing to the mayor of Westminster. Former mayor Kevin Dayhoff reprised his role for the exercise - becoming mayor again for the night.

After an initial briefing, each team was given two updates on the scenario and five minutes to strategize solutions to each.

Over the course of two presentations, each team created a response to the possible spread of the plague.

In the mock scenario, nearly 3,000 guests of the Meyerhoff are "exposed" to the aerosol during a sold-out performance.

Students proposed everything from road blocks and quarantines to hiding emergency responders in an underground bunker to avoid media scrutiny.

At the end of the evening, the officials in attendance credited the student for their research and solutions.

"I truly believe that scenarios are more difficult to deal with than the real thing," Spaulding said, explaining that there are hard facts in a real incident - which are not always evident in an exercise.

Senior Alicia Feuillet played the role of Carroll County Hospital Center's infection control coordinator. She complimented the members of the county's emergency response team on hand - including Martin, Leitch, Spaulding, Kreimer and Carroll County Volunteer Emergency Services Association liaison Leon Fleming - on the challenges of their jobs.

"We definitely learned to respect what you guys do," Feuillet said after her team's presentation.

Class after Sept. 11

After teaching national security classes at George Washington University and having prepared national security case exercises for Syracuse University for years, Franke first offered his national security course at McDaniel in the fall semester of 2001.

But before the semester was a month under way, four planes were hijacked in real life, and Franke's class changed - along with the rest of the world.

"Sept. 11 made me change the class and focus on terrorism," he said.

With this new focus, Franke contacted Westminster's then-mayor Dayhoff about participating in and helping to prepare an emergency response exercise at a local level.

"I wanted to show (the students) that terrorism is not just important when you live in New York City or Washington, D.C.," Franke said.

Franke credited Dayhoff with sharing information about who would be involved in an emergency response and for his continued participation in the class each year.

"Now, we actually have a following," Franke said.

One of those participants is Spaulding, who said afterward that he was impressed with students' responses, given that they had only their research to rely on.

"I think that they did their homework and they were very analytical in their approach," Spaulding said. "It's always good to hear other people's ideas.

This was the first year for Martin to fully participate in the exercise - in the past he had only participated in interviews, not in the actual briefings - but said he is already looking forward to next year.

"Exercise is becoming the norm," Martin said of the county's own attempts at emergency preparedness.

He said the students performed well both in research and under pressure.

"You're taking a bunch of young adults who have more than likely not been exposed to problems of that nature, particularly to that depth," Martin said. "I thought they did very well."

E-mail Heidi Schroeder at Heidi Schroeder@patuxent.com

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Class projects puts McDaniel students on the front lines of a biological attack
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20031208 McDaniel College web site: Local leaders, political science students talk bioterrorism
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20051211 McDaniel students are tested on their studies by responding to a mock biological attack by Gina Davis for the Baltimore Sun
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20051211 McDaniel students are tested on their studies by responding to a mock biological attack by Gina Davis for the Baltimore Sun

20051211 McDaniel students are tested on their studies by responding to a mock biological attack by Gina Davis for the Baltimore Sun

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/carroll/bal-ca.bioterror11dec11,1,4787835.story?coll=bal-local-carroll

A practical exam for disaster

McDaniel students are tested on their studies by responding to a mock biological attack

By Gina Davis, Sun Reporter, December 11, 2005

It's two days after a sold-out concert at the Joseph B. Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore, where more than 2,000 music lovers were serenaded - and, unwittingly, poisoned at the hands of a bioterrorist who had covertly released an aerosol of plague.

Members of a Westminster emergency response team are huddled with the local mayor, cobbling together the city's strategy to deal with a possible outbreak of the pneumonic plague. They must put their heads together to present a solid plan to community officials and to reassure a near-panicked public.

For a group of McDaniel College students, the team effort is the culminating exercise of a class called National Security in a Changing World. It's their chance to put the book knowledge they have acquired during the past semester into practice.

"The goal is that students learn about national security and learn how to translate the classroom into a practical experience," says Volker Franke, a national security expert who has been teaching the course at McDaniel since 2001.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks - which occurred during the course's first semester - Franke included further discussion about government response to terrorism.

"We had talked about terrorism, but it used to be two or so lectures," says Franke, who is also a case director for the National Security Studies program at Syracuse University in New York. "I revised the course to address those issues. Terrorism has become a bigger part of the course."

He says that in 2002 he incorporated a bioterrorism exercise in the class, but it was an ungraded discussion. Since then, he has developed a simulation exercise for students that takes them out of the classroom and engages them with community officials as they research the roles they must assume for the project.

Franke says he discussed his idea with then-Westminster Mayor Kevin Dayhoff and came up with a list of roles for the students.

"I asked him, 'Who would your team be?" Franke says. "That's how we came up with the list of emergency responders. Then [Dayhoff] contacted other agencies within the county."

Dayhoff enlisted volunteers from various Carroll County offices, such as the health and public works departments.

The roles that Franke and Dayhoff decided would be critical to an emergency response team included: county emergency management coordinator, county health officer, city police chief, fire department spokesman, hazardous materials team chairman, city public works director and Carroll County Hospital Center's infection control coordinator.

This semester, the 14 students in Franke's class were divided into two teams and each participant was assigned one of seven roles on the emergency response team. During the course, they interviewed their real-life counterparts to gain an understanding of their roles and prepared descriptions of what they would bring to the situation.

"National security is not just about missiles, tanks and Marines," Franke says as the students arrived last week at a lecture room in Hill Hall for their mock disaster response planning drill, which counts for 15 percent of their grade.
"It starts at the local level," he says. "We have to bring it down to the level that pertains to them on a daily basis."

The exercise focuses on public officials' response to a bioterrorism attack in a command-center style arrangement. The students - in their roles as emergency responders - are seated at a semicircular table on one side of the room, while the real-life emergency responders are seated at an identical table across from them.

As part of the exercise, the real-life emergency responders listen as the students brief them on the status of the bioterror attack and the ensuing panic. The students then field a volley of questions from the experts.

"Mr. Incident Commander, you have thousands of people waiting for antibiotics and now you don't have enough. What's your plan?" Jeff Spaulding, Westminster's police chief, asks Mike Habegger, who has assumed the role of county health officer and director of the emergency response team.

"This is kind of unexpected," Habegger answers. "We will urge people to stay out of public places. It's very disturbing that people have not heeded our messages to stay home."

When one student suggests that local officials use a school as a quarantine site, the county's real health officer, Larry Leitch, questions that advice.

"Do you think it's wise to use a school building as a quarantine site?" Leitch asks. "Don't you think parents will be afraid to send their children back into that school?"

Students, undeterred, say they could use a large area, such as the gym, and install filters that would prevent bacteria from spreading to other parts of the building.
At two points in the exercise, students are given new information that they must quickly assess to reformulate their response plans.

In the end, the real-life emergency responders critique the students' response plans and their reactions to the evolving crisis. They tell the students how they would've responded had the exercise been real.

The students describe the exercise as eye-opening.

"With national security, you usually think, 'What can we do to prevent terrorism?' " says student Donnie Bell. "But there's really not much we can do other than try to stop it. What we have to do is figure out how to react."

gina.davis@baltsun.com

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Class projects puts McDaniel students on the front lines of a biological attack
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20031208 McDaniel College web site: Local leaders, political science students talk bioterrorism
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20031208 McDaniel College web site: Local leaders, political science students talk bioterrorism

20031208 McDaniel College web site: Local leaders, political science students talk bioterrorism

http://www.mcdaniel.edu/news/archive03/bioterror2.shtml

Local leaders, political science students talk bioterrorism

December 8, 2003

Consider this scenario: Pneumonic plague has hit Baltimore, and city leaders suspect bioterrorism.

Bracing for the disease to spread across county lines, the Westminster mayor convenes a team of advisers.

Tension runs high. Not only are Mayor Kevin Dayhoff and other local leaders asking difficult questions; this new team of advisers has never handled an emergency plan – never mind one for a bioterrorist attack.

They are McDaniel students in a political science class, "National Security in a Changing World."

And when the students met with local emergency responders Dec. 3 to lay out their strategy, their real-life counterparts were quick to complete their plans with advice – from critique to praise for the students' creativity.

As two groups of students presented their proposals to local leaders, they offered a range of ideas. They discussed aspects of their plans, from blocking main roads and screening entrants to quarantining people who had been exposed, offering treatment for patients at the former Lowe's building and area schools, and even shuttling the sick so they wouldn't create extra traffic on area roads.

"Mostly what we're trying to do is prevent the spread and go a little overboard," said Nate Getchell '05, acting as the health officer for one of the groups. "Offense is your best defense."

The students proposed developing hotlines for people seeking information and spreading the news via local TV and radio stations. One of the groups wanted to broadcast the hotline information from police cruisers.

"Has the mayor declared marshal law?" Dayhoff asked.

Without hesitation, Jon Fitzgerald '06, serving as the public information officer for his group, responded. "No, the mayor has not. Quite frankly, we are trying to remain as calm as possible."

Looking ahead, the students even tried to find solutions such as sending contaminated hospital materials to an incinerator in York, Pa., and storing dead bodies in refrigerators at a meatpacking plant.

"I think the identification of a temporary morgue is a great thing," said Mike Webster, director of Campus Safety. But be prepared, he told the students, for the liability issues after destroying a local business's reputation.

Dayhoff complimented the students on their plans, which they developed after interviewing their real-life counterparts and then grappling with the scenario, created by their instructor, Volker Franke, assistant professor of political science and international relations.

"Some of those things that you didn't get right … you didn't get it right with a lot of depth and a lot of thought and a lot of integrity, and that never bothers me," Dayhoff said.

In a real incident, Dayhoff said he would have declared marshal law – as he did during Hurricane Isabel – along with turning to the National Guard and Maryland Emergency Management Agency for extra support.

"You're going to be absolutely amazed at how much of your future roles will be absorbed with public health, safety, and welfare," Dayhoff told the students. "I wish I had taken this class when I was your age. I've just had to put it together over the years."

For Leon Checca '05, acting as public information officer for one of the groups gave him a glimpse into what he might like to do after college, possibly working for the National Security Agency.

"It was definitely really interesting," he said. "We didn't really think anything would happen in Westminster. We thought it would happen elsewhere."

But if it does happen in Westminster, Dayhoff may have a few extra advisers.

"There were no incorrect or wrong decisions. What's really important is that you planned," he said. "I would go into any emergency response with you all."

For more information, contact Rita Beyer, associate director of media relations, at 410-857-2294.

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20031204 Class projects puts McDaniel students on the front lines of a biological attack by Jamie Schmidt for the Carroll County Times

20031204 Class projects puts McDaniel students on the front lines of a biological attack by Jamie Schmidt for the Carroll County Times

Class projects puts McDaniel students on the front lines of a biological attack

By Jamie Schmidt, Times Staff Writer

December 4th, 2003

Westminster city officials gathered and spent several hours discussing how to respond to a biological attack. The plan unrolled like a Tom Clancy novel, including road barriers, hotlines, shelters, press releases, volunteers and preparing a hospital for infected patients.

However, there was no real infectious outbreak, and the officials were actually McDaniel College political science students - although the real officials attended, to observe and question the students' research.

The students convened in a mock round table Wednesday night attended by Westminster Mayor Kevin Dayhoff, Westminster fire company chief Kevin Utz and Larry Leitch, health officer at the county's Health Department, among others.

The students' teacher, Volker Franke, assistant professor of political science and international studies, said that one student came to him earlier Wednesday worried about presenting a plan to men and women who thought about emergency response for a living.

Franke consulted Dayhoff in designing the exercise.

"He gave me a list of people he told me he would want to hear from, and I assigned the roles of the responders to the students," he said.

Students then had to interview everyone to learn about the roles they would have to play. Howard "Buddy" Redman Jr., director of emergency management for the county, spoke to several students about his responsibilities managing manmade disasters and attacks.

"It is interesting to have others interested in what you do," Redman said. "I have been working in emergency management for 27 years, and for the first 25, we were there but people didn't think about us as much."

Student Farzin Farzad said that he gained an enormous admiration for Tom Beyard, Westminster's director of planning and public works, after learning about his responsibilities.

Franke said that he wanted the students to understand their roles before he gave them a pretend scenario: plague bacilli released during a sold-out performance at the Joseph Myerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore.

During the roundtable, as students threw out plans, Dayhoff piped up that the students should consider recommending that the mayor declare marshal law.

"With the hurricane, I ordered everyone off the streets at 6," Dayhoff said. "If I did it for a hurricane, I'd sure as heck do it for this."

Utz piped up that he immediately wanted to know the names of every person who attended the symphony hall. Bob Cumberland, longtime Westminster volunteer fire company member, told students to remember the fire company's mutual aid agreements - that it was okay to ask for help.

"Let's look to Pennsylvania to assist," he said.

In the last 12 weeks, Franke's students discussed and studied the threats on the United States that developed over the past decade and examined changing global security requirements. Franke said that he was impressed how the students worked together in their culminating project for the semester.

"Preparing is hard," said student Danielle Goodnow. "You get a great amount of respect for what people do."

*****

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