by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
Crowd safety will remain a top priority when Jacksonville hosts the 2005 Super Bowl, officials say. To further prove their point, “a mock terrorist attack” was staged Wednesday at Alltel Stadium with various agencies practicing security and rescue procedures.
Six months worth of preparation went into the exercise.
“Something like this goes a long way in getting the city better prepared to host an event like the Super Bowl,” said Jeff Alexander, a co-chair of the Regional Domestic Task Force, the group responsible for organizing the simulation. “Many of the agencies who don’t usually get together were given the opportunity to work in a more collaborative way, which is very beneficial.”
Representatives from emergency medical services, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and Fire and Rescue all participated.
It was approximately 9 a.m. — about seven minutes behind schedule — when two explosions inside Alltel Stadium signaled the start of the exercise. Volunteers acting as Super Bowl spectators quickly filed out while several “injured victims” were taken to safety.
Though the number of volunteers was roughly a fourth of what the RDTF originally planned for, Alexander said the turnout was still a “workable number.”
“We would have liked to have had more people to lend more realism to the exercise,” he said. “But we were still satisfied.”
Super Bowl Host Committee president and COO Michael Kelly agreed, calling the event “very impressive.”
“I was only a spectator, but the coordination among Jacksonville’s law enforcement agencies was great to watch,” he said. “I’ve always felt the City and the sheriff’s office could provide a proper level of safety for the Super Bowl that everyone could be very comfortable with.”
By early afternoon, the simulation ended and Alexander called the results overwhelmingly positive.
“It went extremely well and we learned a lot,” he said. “We started a little late, but within the first two hours we made up for that. By the end of the day, we were nearly 28 minutes ahead of schedule. There’s no doubt in my mind that Jacksonville will be extremely well prepared by 2005.”