Imagine a “dirty bomb” exploding in downtown Albany.
Now envision two going off only blocks apart.
That very possibility was simulated Tuesday as hundreds of federal, state and local law enforcement officials manned would-be command posts on Albany-Shaker Road to prepare for the potentially catastrophic event.
The mock reaction, part of a three-day exercise called “Empire 09,” was staged around a hockey facility near Albany International Airport. It featured radiation screenings, officials in white “space suit”-type outfits and aircraft to surveil contaminated areas from the sky.
The exercise, hosted by the New York State Disaster Preparedness Commission, was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. It comes only weeks after the FBI arrested four alleged conspirators in a plot to blow up two synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes at Stewart Airforce Base in Newburgh.
“Our enemies are patient and they are ruthless,” said Mary Kavaney, assistant secretary for public safety in Gov. David Paterson. “We can’t let our guard down and this exercise shows we will not let our guard down.”
The “attack” showed the aftermath of two radiactive dirty bombs going off during the workday – one at Eagle and State streets, the other at Eagle and Madison Avenue. Projected maps show evacuations, from mandatory to voluntary, would stretch from a wide range of downtown Albany across the Hudson River to the city of Rensselaer.
