‘That Day Our Gates Got Locked’

Attacks Prompt Better Equipment, Training For Emergencies

By Dan Craft

Posted: September 11, 2011 at 5:56 a.m.

Andy Shupe
Jeff Shetlar, University of Arkansas Police officer, works Sept. 2 with his dog, Dox, while beginning a sweep of Razorback Stadium ahead of the Razorbacks' game with Missouri State in Fayetteville.

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FAYETTEVILLE — Orno and Dox aren’t old enough to remember 9/11. They don’t know about terrorism, national security or the power of explosives. It’s just a game to them. The mere presence of the two police dogs sweeping Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium before University of Arkansas football games, however, is just one of the many signs of change in the decade since 9/11.

“It’s literally a game. We hide it, they find it,” said Jeff Shetlar, the university police officer who handles Dox. “We just hope there’s nothing in the stadium for them to find.”

The events of Sept. 11, 2001, prompted re-evaluations of safety, security and preparedness.

“That day, our gates got locked. Our whole outlook changed dramatically,” said Alan Fortenberry, director of Beaver Water District, the water supplier for much of the region. “That’s what really started us thinking about what could be done to our water supply, how long it would take us to detect and respond to a problem and how big the impact could be.”

The impact was both immediate and long-term at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, said Kelly Johnson, airport director. Flights were canceled immediately, and airport security has been changing ever since, she said.

“The airport was designed with the idea that everyone would go through security and see folks off at the gate,” Johnson said. “The security was tightened immediately, but we realized that some of our services, like the bar and restaurant, ended up on the wrong side of security than we would have wanted them to be.”

The implementation of the Transportation Safety Authority also meant baggage-checking stations were placed in the foyer of the airport, in front of ticket lines, because there was no room available behind the counters. That was fixed last year as airport officials turned back-office space into a new baggage-scanning area.

For others, 9/11 brought distant threats to the forefront.

“That day really put a focus on things we’d been warned about for years,” said Mike Cerasale, head of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Hazmat Team. “We’d heard about the possibility of dirty bombs after the Atlanta Olympic bombing, and of course, the anthrax attacks after 9/11 were a major source of concern, but 9/11 is what really caught the nation’s attention.”

Bentonville is the home headquarters for Walmart — a point not lost on emergency responders.

“The one thing it did right away was take suspicious packages to a different level,” Police Chief Jon Simpson said. “Suspicious vehicles, people, all get checked out now. And you look at planes differently.”

The after-effects linger, Simpson said.

“At Walmart, we still make regular responses to check out oversized vehicles or vehicles out of place,” Simpson said. “Even suspicious people. Our response is totally different still today, 10 years later. It definitely changed the way we do business.”

One plus is that the area is better equipped to handle emergency situations, Simpson said.

“We’ve got better tools,” he said. “Fifteen years ago, we’d have to wait maybe six hours for the Arkansas State Police Bomb Squad. Now, we’ve got our own.”

The regional bomb squad is just one agency that benefited from the better equipment and training provided through a variety of federal grants and programs post-9/11.

“The preparedness grants let us buy protective gear for the bomb squad, lifting equipment, ropes for high-angle rescue, airpacks that could be used in a hazmat situation, all sorts of specialized equipment we couldn’t have afforded otherwise,” said John Luther, director of emergency management for Washington County. “The great part about it is that pretty much all of this equipment could be of use in many situations, not just a terror attack. It’s made us better prepared overall for any catastrophic event.”

The money came from many different federal agencies. Some was allocated from specific post-9/11 programs, while more came from existing budgets that suddenly had more to disburse. Because the sources of funding were so diverse, it’s hard to pin an exact number on how much Northwest Arkansas received, said Michael Teague, spokesman for Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark.

Another lesson learned and applied was the need for emergency personnel from many agencies to communicate effectively through interconnected radios and a standardized protocol for incident management.

“9/11 led to a realization that our national emergency response system needed to be better organized, which led to the development of the National Incident Management System, an all-hazard emergency management system,” said Dan White, Bentonville fire chief. “It is an all-hazard system because what can apply to the management of a terrorism event, can also apply to the more frequent natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes.

“It is a system that begins on a small scale at the local level and can expand as needed all the way up to mobilizing resources on a national scale as seamlessly as possible.”

Most recently, those advances were applied in Springdale, as more than a dozen agencies coordinated the evacuation of a Tyson Foods plant after a chlorine leak July 26.

The changes have trickled down to volunteer operations.

“9/11 has led to another expansion of the role of local fire departments,” White said. “Fire prevention and suppression duties have expanded over the years to include technical rescue, emergency medical services, hazardous materials response and now awareness and preparation for a multitude of types of terrorism events.”

“Our fire stations and apparatus are better kept secured as we have discovered our vulnerability to harmful intentions. But we have also seen an increase in the instances when people thank us for our service, and displays of that appreciation are seen much more often.”

Community Emergency Response Training programs also prepare Northwest Arkansas residents to take care of themselves and their neighbors in times of large-scale emergency events, White said.

Many of the lessons from 9/11 were reinforcements of earlier ideas, and some of the same points have again been hammered home since.

“We saw quickly what was working and what wasn’t during the response to Hurricane Katrina,” Luther said. “Terror can be man-made or come from Mother Nature. Our job is to deal with it as best we can.”

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