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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Greg Nickels, Cortez Trotter

Aired May 11, 2003 - 09:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Beginning tomorrow, the office of Homeland Security is going to run two simultaneous exercises in Chicago, as well as in Seattle, to test the readiness of state, local, and federal agencies to handle a terror attack. We've been talking about this a lot with this morning with various people. Joining me now are, Cortez Trotter, the executive director of Chicago's office of emergency management, as well as, Seattle's mayor, Greg Nickels. Appreciate both of you joining us today.
Mayor Nickels, let me start off with you. How is Seattle preparing for the exercise?

MAYOR GREG NICKELS, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON: Well, Anderson, we've been preparing for the last several months, sitting down and assessing our capabilities, giving ourselves table top exercises and obviously coordinating with the federal, state and our county government as to how to respond when the events begin on Monday.

COOPER: Now, in Chicago -- in Seattle, the drill is a radiological terrorist attack. In Chicago, it's a biological attack. Mr. Trotter, how is Chicago dealing with this?

CORTEZ TROTTER, CHICAGO OFFICE OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Well, similar to Seattle. We've been, over the last several months, working with our regional partners, as well as, with the federal partners and here in Chicago, many city departments and agencies have come together over the table and around the table to discuss many of the issues that we may face in this exercise.

COOPER: Mayor Nickels, can you really learn much from this exercise? I mean, in a sense, officials already know what's coming down the road, I mean, it's all sort of mapped out what you're going to be responding to. So, how much of a test really is it?

NICKELS: Well, it's a -- it's what's called a limited notice exercise, so we do have the broad outline of what to expect, but we know things are going to be thrown at us. But the key is that we've already learned a lot. We've had the opportunity now to sit down with the governor's office and our county executive and talk through how we're going to respond if and when the day comes that we're going to need to deal with a disaster of this dimension. I, last Monday, had the chance to meet with Secretary Ridge and about half of the federal cabinet and talk through how local government would be responding and what federal assets would be available. It's already a yielded a great deal of value for us. COOPER: Mr. Trotter, how are you going to get the information? I mean, how does the drill actually work? Some the -- the office of Homeland Security, which is running this thing, what -- they call you on the phone and there's some sort of centralized office? How is information disseminated? How do you find out what you're supposed to be responding to?

TROTTER: Well, as Mayor Nickels mentioned a moment ago, some of this exercise is in fact outlined or scripted, but there are injects. There are things that we have no idea as to what they are that will come from a central control area. In -- for example, in Chicago, in dealing with some of the bioterrorism that we intend to be a part of this exercise, we don't know that during our response to that, that some other issue would come up, be it something like a massive fire or a water issue or something like that, so we're preparing for all of these things.

COOPER: And, Mayor Nickels, what does it really test? What do you learn? I mean, you learn how better to communicate, how better to disseminate information, what?

NICKELS: Well, it will test our communications; it will test our preparedness; it will test how well our top officials work together, federal, state and local; and finally, it gives us an opportunity to focus on, one of my goals, which is to make Seattle the most prepared city in America. It does all those things for us.

COOPER: Mr. Trotter, you've no doubt heard some of the criticism, people say look; it's expensive; it's $16 million; it's paid for by the Homeland Security department. A, is it worth the money? And B, what they say is that in past tests, you know, this thing has been run once before, pre-9/11, they said some of the after- action reports were kind of watered-down, that people didn't want to be too critical of their own local governments. Your response?

TROTTER: Well, I think that the operative phrase here is that, pre-9/11. I think people have certainly taken a different look at what we should do as cities to prepare and as a nation to repair. Now, the cost, I'm not sure what -- what price you would put on preparedness and readiness and the ability for to us protect assets and to, certainly, protect our most valuable assets, the people of the city of Chicago and the rest of the nation. I certainly believe that this is something that Chicago is proud to be a part of, and it will test our ability to respond and I think that anyone who can look at a situation from many different angles and say, how can we do this better, is our plan where it should be, I think those people should be encouraged to do that.

COOPER: All right. Mayor Nickels and Cortez Trotter appreciate you joining us this morning. Good luck on the exercise. Love to talk to you and see how it goes next weekend after it's done. Thanks very much.

NICKELS: Thanks, Anderson.

TROTTER: Thank you. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired May 11, 2003 - 09:07   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Beginning tomorrow, the office of Homeland Security is going to run two simultaneous exercises in Chicago, as well as in Seattle, to test the readiness of state, local, and federal agencies to handle a terror attack. We've been talking about this a lot with this morning with various people. Joining me now are, Cortez Trotter, the executive director of Chicago's office of emergency management, as well as, Seattle's mayor, Greg Nickels. Appreciate both of you joining us today.
Mayor Nickels, let me start off with you. How is Seattle preparing for the exercise?

MAYOR GREG NICKELS, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON: Well, Anderson, we've been preparing for the last several months, sitting down and assessing our capabilities, giving ourselves table top exercises and obviously coordinating with the federal, state and our county government as to how to respond when the events begin on Monday.

COOPER: Now, in Chicago -- in Seattle, the drill is a radiological terrorist attack. In Chicago, it's a biological attack. Mr. Trotter, how is Chicago dealing with this?

CORTEZ TROTTER, CHICAGO OFFICE OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Well, similar to Seattle. We've been, over the last several months, working with our regional partners, as well as, with the federal partners and here in Chicago, many city departments and agencies have come together over the table and around the table to discuss many of the issues that we may face in this exercise.

COOPER: Mayor Nickels, can you really learn much from this exercise? I mean, in a sense, officials already know what's coming down the road, I mean, it's all sort of mapped out what you're going to be responding to. So, how much of a test really is it?

NICKELS: Well, it's a -- it's what's called a limited notice exercise, so we do have the broad outline of what to expect, but we know things are going to be thrown at us. But the key is that we've already learned a lot. We've had the opportunity now to sit down with the governor's office and our county executive and talk through how we're going to respond if and when the day comes that we're going to need to deal with a disaster of this dimension. I, last Monday, had the chance to meet with Secretary Ridge and about half of the federal cabinet and talk through how local government would be responding and what federal assets would be available. It's already a yielded a great deal of value for us. COOPER: Mr. Trotter, how are you going to get the information? I mean, how does the drill actually work? Some the -- the office of Homeland Security, which is running this thing, what -- they call you on the phone and there's some sort of centralized office? How is information disseminated? How do you find out what you're supposed to be responding to?

TROTTER: Well, as Mayor Nickels mentioned a moment ago, some of this exercise is in fact outlined or scripted, but there are injects. There are things that we have no idea as to what they are that will come from a central control area. In -- for example, in Chicago, in dealing with some of the bioterrorism that we intend to be a part of this exercise, we don't know that during our response to that, that some other issue would come up, be it something like a massive fire or a water issue or something like that, so we're preparing for all of these things.

COOPER: And, Mayor Nickels, what does it really test? What do you learn? I mean, you learn how better to communicate, how better to disseminate information, what?

NICKELS: Well, it will test our communications; it will test our preparedness; it will test how well our top officials work together, federal, state and local; and finally, it gives us an opportunity to focus on, one of my goals, which is to make Seattle the most prepared city in America. It does all those things for us.

COOPER: Mr. Trotter, you've no doubt heard some of the criticism, people say look; it's expensive; it's $16 million; it's paid for by the Homeland Security department. A, is it worth the money? And B, what they say is that in past tests, you know, this thing has been run once before, pre-9/11, they said some of the after- action reports were kind of watered-down, that people didn't want to be too critical of their own local governments. Your response?

TROTTER: Well, I think that the operative phrase here is that, pre-9/11. I think people have certainly taken a different look at what we should do as cities to prepare and as a nation to repair. Now, the cost, I'm not sure what -- what price you would put on preparedness and readiness and the ability for to us protect assets and to, certainly, protect our most valuable assets, the people of the city of Chicago and the rest of the nation. I certainly believe that this is something that Chicago is proud to be a part of, and it will test our ability to respond and I think that anyone who can look at a situation from many different angles and say, how can we do this better, is our plan where it should be, I think those people should be encouraged to do that.

COOPER: All right. Mayor Nickels and Cortez Trotter appreciate you joining us this morning. Good luck on the exercise. Love to talk to you and see how it goes next weekend after it's done. Thanks very much.

NICKELS: Thanks, Anderson.

TROTTER: Thank you. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com