Rescue team lauded in disaster drill
Oakland-Alameda County task force handles annual training exercise with aplomb. The Oakland-Alameda County Urban Rescue Team received preliminary high marks Wednesday during a training exercise for a natural disaster or terrorist attack at Network Associates Coliseum. “The task force is very well-structured,” said Mark Kramer, a search-and-rescue team commander from Orange County and an evaluator at Wednesday’s event. “Their people know exactly what to do. This is going very well.” The 70-member Oakland-Alameda County task force mobilized at the Coliseum, erected an operations base in the parking lot and conducted a search-and-rescue training exercise inside the Coliseum. Employing six search dogs, a small reconnaissance team hunted for 21 victims during a simulated collapse of several sections of the stadium. The training event was the annual readiness exercise for the Oakland-Alameda task force and was not related to the Bush administration’s announcement that terrorists may be preparing to strike the United States this summer. Full Story