Exercise Gold was bigger and smaller than previously publicized.
Planners told some of the secrets of the biggest pre-Olympic security and safety rehearsal Wednesday at the Emergency Preparedness Conference 2009.
The Nov. 2-6 event involved 141 agencies at 48 coordination centres with more than 1,500 people, including undisclosed federal cabinet ministers, personnel in Washington, D.C., Colorado Springs, Colo., and NATO observers from Europe in Ottawa.
Emergency Management B.C. manager Heather Lyle said some of the 17 scenarios included a dangerous goods incident at the Lions Gate Bridge, a flu-borne illness spreading from Whistler, a rockslide at Whistler forcing evacuation of the athletes' village, three different protests, a hostage-taking and two chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive simulations.
"Or another nickname is 'Could Be Really Nasty, Eh?" Lyle joked.
The Steveston secondary and Via Rail simulations were the only "live-play" scenarios and even featured a mock TV station called CVNN with ex-TV reporter Alyn Edwards and ex-radio personality Michael Morgan reporting on-scene. Lyle called the Via Rail event, postponed by a paramedics' picket line, "a disaster within the exercise."
What didn't happen was a single round-the-clock day. Gold was compressed into 12-hour shifts because of budget constraints.
