KLAS-TV Channel 8 News Las Vegas'Surprise' Terrorism Drill Underway in Las Vegas

'Surprise' Terrorism Drill Underway in Las Vegas

Contact Reporter Brian Allen

This terrorism exercise was designed to be a total surprise. A majority of the search and rescue team had no idea it was coming. They first found out when they received a page Wednesday morning.

The message is simple but serious, and Wednesday -- surprising. "When the page goes off you know it's time to do the job we trained for." Physician Phillip Hess is a medical manager for Southern Nevada's Urban Search and Rescue Team. He answered the call. So did Diego Luna.

"You're a little nervous because you don't know what to expect." Diego, Phillip and nearly every other member of the team were intentionally in the dark on this terrorism drill.

The man who initiated the drill said, "They don't know what they're going in on. They don't have any idea what the exercise is going to be about. So all that has been kept very quiet so they don't have any idea if they're going in on an earthquake, a terrorist attack or what."

That man is Paul Bailey, the team's program manager. He says the element of surprise makes the drill seem more real. "Oh it does it does and that's what we built it in for."

The team has to move 50,000 pounds of rescue equipment to the exercise site -- torches, rigging equipment to move heavy objects, powered hammers to chop through concrete and microphones sensitive enough to pick up breathing through debris. It's equipment paid for with Homeland Security money.

"We need to care for victims that are found in rubble piles, collapsed buildings, earthquakes." Doctor Phillip Hess, and every member of this team, takes the exercise seriously. They know this simulated terrorist attack could be a reality in Las Vegas at any given time. "This is a reality that, unfortunately after 9/11, that we live with every day now in this country. It is part of our life now."

Actual search and rescue operations began at 4 a.m. and are expected to go through the night and into early Thursday morning.

The search and rescue team operates as part of federal Homeland Security, but this wasa test only for local and regional plans.