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Creating Terror for NYC
By
Jen Chung
Published May 17, 2005
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published May 17, 2005
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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For our weekly dose of terror fears, New York magazine gives us a look at how terror simulation drills are scripted. While Gothamist thought that many books and movies provided some good fodder for "What if?" scenarios, what the the Office of Emergency Management’s Deputy Commissioner of Planning and Preparedness, Edward Gabriel, thinks of is much more crazy and, well, disturbing. In the article, he describes terror drills at Shea Stadium and at the Bowling Green subway station:
"Obviously, we 'kill' a lotta people in these exercises," says Gabriel at his desk in OEM’s bunker near the Brooklyn Bridge. "We have to imagine that any large assembly of people in New York automatically makes our major arenas, baseball stadiums, and convention centers targets. Our job is to make this play as realistic as possible, so at Shea, we had a thousand victims in the stands, we had areas roped off so there was constricted access, we had debris, we had moulage, which is the makeup for the wounds. I even had smoke machines out there. These are not clean scenes, you know."
Moulage, according to Websters, is "an impression or cast made for use especially as evidence in a criminal investigation." Anyway, after readng the article, Gothamist has decided we liked our terror in drills only.
Gothamist on the Shea Stadium terror drill and how the MTA could possibly work their security. And check out the OEM's photo galleries: Bowling Green drill and Shea Stadium drill.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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