How to handle terror by the veterans home
By TOM JACKSON
tomjackson@sanduskyregister.com


PERKINS TWP. - The small police department at the Ohio Veterans Home hopes it never has to cope with a terrorist incident.

But if something happens, officers want to be ready. OVH had an exercise Tuesday, rehearsing what it would do if terrorists set off a bomb at the home.

About 30 people, including OVH employees and representatives of local agencies, had a tabletop exercise in the OVH auditorium, going through how they would respond to a terrorist attack at the veterans home.

Under the scenario that played out Tuesday, a terrorist bomb is set off at a loading dock at the Secrest Nursing Home section of the OVH. Ten people are killed and many others are injured.

Staffers from the OVH, the Perkins Township Fire Department, Firelands Regional Medical Center and other agencies discussed how they would respond in such a situation.

For example, Wesley Poole, safety and security manager at Firelands Regional Medical Center, pointed out that the hospital would need to know as early as possible what had happened and how many patients were likely to be brought in so it could prepare for the influx and carry out its emergency plan.

The participants went over how they would go about calling in mutual aid from other agencies so the Perkins Township Fire Department would not be overwhelmed, and how Erie County would set up an emergency operations center to coordinate activities by local agencies.

"We've got mutual aid across the state of Ohio," said Bill Walker, director of the Erie County Emergency Management Agency. "You are not in this by yourself."

Walker also pointed out it would be important to contact Perkins Township's trustees and Erie County's commissioners quickly so that state of emergencies could be declared to make more aid available and to notify federal authorities.

"Going up channels doesn't hurt. It always helps," he said.


Gabriel Ferencz, chief of police for the OVH Police Department, said his department convened the exercise. It serves a joint purpose of testing the Ohio Veterans Home's emergency plan and training everyone how to respond in an emergency, he said.

Tuesday's exercise was on paper, but a more active rehearsal might be next.
"We're hoping we'll move to the next step, an actual physical exercise," he said.

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