Updated: 09-Oct-2003 EADRCC Exercises

Overview Exercise “Dacia 2003”, scheduled to take place from 7 to 10 October 2003, is a contribution of Romania to the Partnership Work Programme (PWP) for 2003 More... Exercise "Dacia 2003" Day 2 - 8 October 2003 Early morning on Tuesday, it appeared that many civilians would need radiological screening and possible medical assistance. So as of 8:30, the local authorities – also called LEMA - decided to ask the Romanian, Italian, Ukrainian and Turkish teams to deploy and start checking the population. In the course of the same morning, there were a series of reports of suspicious packages spotted in various locations in town, namely in the water filtering station of Trivale and in the southern railway station. An Austrian and a Romanian detection team as well as two Romanian demining teams were sent to investigate. Radioactivity also kept increasing in the area of the stadium where the first dirty bomb had exploded the day before. Teams from Armenia and Italy monitored the gamma dose rates. The authorities also decided to measure radioactivity in 4 other areas downtown, with the support of joint teams (Bulgaria, Italy, Norway, Ukraine) and a wide array of equipment. Private firms producing food became increasingly concerned about the quality of their products and also asked for radioactivity tests which were performed by Romanian teams. All the tests proved negative. Unfortunately, as often in such situations, misinformation started spreading….A restaurant and a company were rumored to have contaminated their clients through the air conditioning system. The Croatian detection and monitoring team’s intervened to monitor the levels, reassured the population by rebuffing the rumor. At 11 o’clock in the morning, while Pitesti was still under shock from the previous blast, a new explosion occurred near Polygone Jandarmerie and heavily damaged the ground floor of an apartment block. Ukrainians, Hungarians and Romanians were sent for radiological detection which proved positive. There were also 3 casualties rescued by the Austrian NGO Johanniter Umfallhilfe. Norwegians conducted the decontamination of the victims and the personnel on-site while Portugal ensured first medical aid. In the meantime, the Belgians who had offered the previous day to build a temporary camp for the evacuated civilian population had finally identified a location, Glambocu, in the North of Pitesti. The initial camp was designed to accommodate 220 people. Following an immediate request from the mayor, 70 persons (50 students and 20 adults) were evacuated and received by the Belgian and Uzbek teams. The Romanians indicated that they could upgrade the capacity of the camp to 500 people. Other events of the day included the medical evacuation of seriously contaminated individuals. After medical screening performed by a Romanian team, one victim was urgently air-evacuated to Bucarest to receive specific treatment. Another 10 victims were evacuated by road. Assessment of the second day In the field, the cooperation between the teams went very well, with the second day seeing major improvements. The cooperation between the national/Romanian component and the foreign teams was enhanced through a better understanding of each others' constraints working methods. A lot of effort was put in improving the communication procedures, a process which facilitated a better interaction between the local authorities and the foreign teams and ensured an appropriate response to requests. By the end of the day, one of the officials of the LEMA, the body in charge of the coordination, admitted that the success of such a multinational exercise clearly relies on a very good organization, “from the beginning” as well as clear mechanism of communication. “And if this is important to maximize the benefits of an exercise like Dacia 2003, it becomes crucial to save lifes in the case of a real tragedy. We know it, but it’s a lesson we keep learning every day,” he concluded. Participating countries Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy, Moldova, Norway, Slovakia, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.