Is Alaska prepared for a Mass incident?
We know there have been many efforts to prepare for an event such as an earthquake… but are we prepared for a mass casualty related to terrorism here in Alaska?
Erin Terry, Victim Specialist with the Federal Bureau of Investigation Alaska, tells us about the need for a Mass Casualty Plan in Anchorage and in Alaska as a whole. One of the many things that Victim Specialists’ in the FBI have to do, is have a plan in place in the event that something were to happen in the communities they serve. The “Mass Casualty Plan” allows headquarters (Washington, DC) to back-fill support to the communities the Victim Specialists serve and provide services to the next of kin in a timely manner.
Most of us have heard of the incident on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada on October 2017. A shooter opened fire on the crowd during a Route 91 Harvest Music Festival killing 58 people and leaving 413 wounded. Unfortunately, there were many Alaskans present at the event, two of whom were murdered. According to Erin, 57 Alaskans present at the horrifying event sought FBI assistance. A month after the incident, the FBI field office in Anchorage, organized a gathering providing an opportunity for survivors to talk to each other and build a network of support. According to Erin, this incident prompted the need for a Mass Casualty Plan starting in Anchorage. Alaska is such an isolated State that we don’t have the possibility of counting on neighbor States in the event of such an act of violence.
About 18 months ago, a task force called the Alaska Victim Assistance Partnership was formed. This task-force meets quarterly and the participants are a mixture of victim service agencies, emergency managers, non-profits (VFJ, Arc of Anchorage, Language Interpreter Center, etc,), law enforcement and anyone who is interested in being a part of the group. The goal is to identify the needs that will arise from a mass casualty event and what options are available in the community to meet the victims’ needs.
Erin mentions that one of the challenges that the plan faces is that there are countless possibilities of how someone could choose to terrorize our community and it is difficult to have a perfect plan in place for all of those scenarios. Another one of the challenges, which Erin is actively tackling, is that this a great plan for urban communities but will exponentially be more of a challenge in rural areas due to isolation and lack of resources to provide assistance in a timely manner. She is working on expanding the Alaska Victim Assistance Partnership to areas such as the Mat-Su, Juneau and Fairbanks. Erin hopes to expand to other hubs in the future and shares that the plans overarching goal is for each community to provide support to each other in the event of a mass casualty and all have access to the same information.
Erin Terry. FBI Anchorage, Victim Specialist.
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