St. Louis Region to Conduct Dense Urban Terrain Emergency Exercises July 15-17

The City of St. Louis Emergency Management Agency, in collaboration with several City agencies, will participate in three days of disaster response training exercises July 15-17. The multi-day event allows local and military emergency responders to coordinate, deploy, and mitigate dangerous scenarios in the days after a catastrophic disaster. 

Facilitated by Task Force 46 (Michigan National Guard) in cooperation with the Missouri National Guard, the drills involve reconnaissance, urban search and rescue, mass casualty decontamination, and structural and infrastructure damage assessment in the vicinity of Busch Stadium and the Missouri River between Grafton and St. Charles. 

The exercises will be visible in downtown St. Louis, but the public is asked not to visit the drill area. Residents should avoid the 8th Street side of Busch Stadium, as 8th Street at Clark Street will be closed to traffic during daylight hours. 

Motorists on Interstate 64/40 approaching Busch Stadium should also be asked to take care and avoid distracted driving while driving by military exercises and equipment. There will also be military vehicle traffic on Highway 55 early in the morning on July 15. 

The drill scenario involves an 8.4 magnitude earthquake along the New Madrid Seismic Fault. The three-day exercise will simulate a focused response to structural damage, civilian casualties, and chemical contamination in the vicinity of Busch Stadium during a baseball game. Another focus area for the exercise includes Multi-Role Bridge river crossings of the Missouri River due to notionally damaged bridges. 

The drills will involve approximately 500 individuals, including local emergency responders, military responders, hospitals, and volunteers. The exercise will use military helicopters and vehicles, damaged vehicles and debris, and multiple staging areas, in the vicinity of Busch Stadium. 

Based out of Lansing, Michigan, Task Force 46 is a National Guard element that is deployed to provide command and support of military response forces in support of civilian responders to manage catastrophic chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents. This is the first time the St. Louis area has been chosen to host the full-scale, multi-domain exercises. Last year, Task Force 46 conducted similar exercises in Nashville. 

The exercises are being coordinated with STARRS, the St. Louis Area Regional Response System, which is housed within East-West Gateway Council of Governments. STARRS coordinates with emergency responders across local jurisdictions to enhance the region’s capabilities to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from natural disasters, terrorism and large-scale industrial accidents and hazards.