Oklahoma Emergency Managers See Expanding Role

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- If terrorism comes to the far western Oklahoma prairie, Cordell Fire Chief Tommy Merrill and his town's new $43,000 decontamination trailer are ready.

The trailer is among two dozen such units recently distributed to communities across the state by the Oklahoma Department of Homeland Security and serves as portable evidence that emergency managers like Merrill are trying to be prepared for just about anything.

''Emergency management to us now doesn't mean just dealing with a flood, a hurricane, a tornado,'' Merrill said Tuesday. ''It's all hazards.''

About 300 emergency managers from across Oklahoma began a three-day conference Tuesday in Tulsa to talk about their role in homeland security and disaster preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation.

Roles once shaped by tornadoes and floods are changing, as reflected in conference topics that included a briefing on homeland security, lessons learned from the 9-11 attacks and the latest on outbreaks of bird flu.

''It's an important shift,'' said David Barnes, director of Oklahoma County Emergency Management. ''It's brought additional resources to the table.''

Along with federal funding, the emphasis on homeland security has led to better communication among various emergency responders, he said. Emergency managers are now sharing information, resources and training.

The communities that received the decontamination units have become the centers for regional response teams that even the state's largest cities know they can call in.

''It's not just for one little town or a little area,'' Barnes said.

David Grizzle, emergency response coordinator for Norman, said law enforcement now shares once-sensitive information if it's important for the community being prepared for a potential hazard.

Under the veil of terrorist threat, the theft of a tanker truck, for example, is no longer just a simple heist but a potential rolling bomb that emergency responders must be ready to address

''Information sharing is extremely vital,'' he said.

Melissa McLawhorn Houston, chief of staff for the Oklahoma Department of Homeland Security, said that working together is essential to the state's security and emergency response. That's one reason the agency has taken a regional approach to distributing equipment, including the trailers.

''There are critical assets and significant vulnerabilities in all 77 counties in our state,'' she said. ''It is very important that we provide protection and some level of response for each part of our state.''

Emergency responders said natural disasters remain their primary concern. But even in Cordell, which lost a third of its homes and businesses to a 2001 twister, being equipped for manmade disasters will pay off, Merrill said.

He figures he could have used the decontamination trailer four times in the past five years for emergencies that included leaking anhydrous ammonia, a common fertilizer in the surrounding farmland.

The trailer holds a collapsible decontamination shelter that can be erected in four minutes and serve 50 people. It has showers for victims who can move and those who can't and a plastic berm to catch all the tainted water, he said.

Sitting about 10 miles off I-40, the town of 2,900 sees loads of hazardous materials, even nuclear waste, that are banned from transport on the interstate pass through every day, he said. With Altus Air Force Base to the south and military planes making practice runs at a former Air Force base 14 miles to the west, it's not so far-fetched that even Cordell must prepare for the worst, he said.

''You ask me if terrorism can come to western Oklahoma? Yeah,'' he said bluntly.

Nearly 80 people _ policemen, fire fighters, health care workers and others_ from across Washita County have signed up for training to use the equipment from the decontamination trailer.

And most of them, Merrill said, want to join an emergency response team that will go with the unit wherever it's needed in Oklahoma.