Don’t be alarmed if you see scores of emergency vehicles and hear sounds of “gunfire” near TCU on the morning of Oct. 27.
It’s just an emergency response exercise involving about 250 volunteers who portray disaster victims, hostages and spectators.
Public safety agencies across North Texas will take part in a three-day training exercise called MetroX, beginning Monday. The full-scale emergency training, coordinated by the North Central Texas Council of Governments, will simulate terrorist attacks and mass casualty incidents in several local cities.
MetroX is one of the largest regional exercises coordinated by the council’s Emergency Preparedness Department and regional public safety teams, officials said.
“This will help test our systems, plans and capabilities to ensure we are ready as a region for any large incident or disaster,” Todd Little, executive director of the council of governments, said in a statement.
The training will include hospitals, schools, dispatch centers, emergency managers and city officials. On-site responses training will occur at TCU’s Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Plano Fire-Rescue Training Center in Plano and Frederick P. Herring Recreation Center in Lewisville.
Residents may see and hear simulated gunfire, emergency vehicles, role players acting as victims and increased first responder activity near exercise locations, according to a council of governments news release.
Texas Christian University officials said they are sending out multiple messages and reminders to students, faculty and staff prior to the exercise.
“They will come via email, newsletters, social media and our TCU Alert emergency mass notification system,” Holly Ellman, TCU associate director of communications, said in an email. “We also sent a message to the city’s neighborhood liaison to share the message with our neighbors so that they are not alarmed.”
Eric E. Garcia is a senior business reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at eric.garcia@fortworthreport.org.
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