Urban Shield comes to Austin Texas

from the City of Austin Office for Homeland Security and Emergency Management  website:

1,000 volunteers needed for disaster preparedness exercise

Saturday, Dec. 1, the City of Austin Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (Austin HSEM) will host Urban Shield, a multi-scenario full-scale disaster preparedness exercise.1,000 adult volunteers are needed to portray victims and participate in the event.

Urban Shield – the first exercise of its kind in Texas - is designed to test responders’ skills at handling an incident involving contamination, mass injuries and casualties. This preparedness exercise will include emergency management, hospital personnel, law enforcement, EMS, and hazmat responders from Travis, Hays and Williamson County.

Volunteers will experience what happens in a real-world response to this type of event. Many “victims” will have moulage (fake injuries) applied, experience "decontamination", and be transported to area hospitals where they are “treated”.

If you are interested in taking part in an event that will test our community's ability to respond effectively in a disaster of this kind, please go to www.texsar.org/urbanshield to find out more and register.

We encourage you to register as soon as possible. Registration will ensure that you receive additional event details as they become available.

Lunch, beverages, and t-shirts will be provided to volunteers. The event will be held at the Travis County Exposition Center, 7311 Decker Lane. Volunteers can expect to participate for about eight hours in the disaster exercise.

Linda Haynie, Urban Shield Volunteer Coordinator, office (512) 974-0471.
For more information contact Austin HSEM at (512) 974-0450.