Airports
Active Shooter Presentation Peaks Interest, Concerns
By: Rae Nguyen
It was a full house for the Active Shooter Tabletop Presentation held Dec. 5 at the Ellison Onizuka Kona International ARFF station. Airline carriers, car rental tenants and even other government agencies learned of incidents that resulted in mass casualties. Presenter David Bell, Assistant Airport Superintendent and Airport Tactical Officer Dave Sommers posted grim stats that included limited beds at the local hospital and varied response times from Hawaii County PD.
From left: Airport Police Dav e Sommers, Asst. Airport Sup erintendent David Bell, retired Hawaii Fire Capt. Sea n Sommers and Civil Defens e Officer Josh Black
The tabletop also served as a think tank with attendees divvied up into groups and sharing their initial emergency response. Ideas and suggestions would then be taken back to their respective employers to implement into their emergency safety plan.
“Depending on circumstances, HPD may not have enough time to get to us,” said Sommers. “Police would also need to take care of the rest of the community and can’t pool all their resources to just one location.”
Another tabletop exercise is planned for early next year.
SAFEGUARDING continued from page 4
according to the Associated Press. The United States in 2019 reported its highest number of cases in 25 years, and last year protracted outbreaks caused four European countries where measles had been eliminated to lose that status, the World Health Organization reported this month. The partnership between HDOT, the state Department of Health and CDC matured about 10 years ago because avian flu was going around, and the relationship has been “pretty robust” since then, according to Ireland. “It all started with (figuring out) how to screen passengers for avian flu and SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) when that
was a concern,” Ireland said. “Now we have procedures ready for everything, so to speak.” Ireland said the current measles outbreak isn’t quite as concerning compared to other communicable diseases that have been in circulation, like SARS, ebola or avian flu, because many in Hawaii are already vaccinated for measles. “Hawaii has high vaccination rates with pockets of people in the counties that don’t vaccinate,” Ireland said. “With these high vaccination rates, if measles were to be introduced, most people wouldn’t get it.”
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