LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / February 11, 2000

TAFT – It was a worst-case scenario for emergency response agencies of every stripe – a terrorist attack at a local middle school. However, this wasonly a test, only a drill.

This time.

St. Charles Parish’s director of emergency preparedness, Tab Troxler,coordinated an “Abbottville” drill at the Entergy Education Center near Waterford 3 in which armed intruders made their way into Harry Hurst Middle School, shot four people and held several students hostage.

It was one of several scenarios practiced Wednesday through Friday, from a bank robber chase to a train derailment.

The drills were held to test various agencies’ ability to respond properly.

“Abbottville” is the creation of Don and Bev Abbott of Indianapolis, Ind., whobill themselves as the “Masters of Disaster.” They travel the country with atown-in-miniature to run tabletop exercises in everything from hazardous- materials releases, explosions, rail disasters, airplane crashes and, in this case Thursday, a terrorist attack on a school.

Emergency management coordinators participating included the St. CharlesParish Sheriff’s Office, 9-1-1, Emergency Operations Center, East St.

Charles Volunteer Fire Department, St. Charles Parish Hospital emergencymedical technicians and the St. Charles School Board.All got into character, working with walkie-talkies as if they were in the actual situation, even to the detail of public information officers dealing with the media.

At one point press representatives in attendance were suddenly drafted into the scenario, told to pretend to be a TV news crew and drill the public information officers as if the event was real.

Smoke billowed from a fire in the stricken school. Shots were fired. Astudent, portrayed by Bev Abbott, was interviewed about the situation inside.

“I’ve got blood all over me!” she sobbed. “They won’t let me call my mom! Ijust want to go home!” As the drill played itself out students were evacuated to the East Bridge Park, where they were loaded onto buses and taken to the Jerusalem Temple of the Shrine on Ormond Boulevard.

Meanwhile, entry was made to rescue the hostages, subdue the two men dressed in black and carrying shotguns and put out the fire.

“Don’t be creatures of habit,” Abbott cautioned the participants. “You don’tneed to be predictable, be flexible. You may need to tweak the plans.”What prompted the exercise was the Columbine High School tragedy of last spring, and the point was pushed home that emergencies such as that could happen anywhere and parishes need to be ready.

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