SEPTA preparing for busy summer by conducting full-scale emergency exercises

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- SEPTA police, the Philadelphia Fire Department and the Office of Emergency Management spent the day conducting joint emergency simulations underground.

The focus was on subway travel to prepare for potential incidents on the transit system during what is expected to be one of the busiest periods of the summer.

Maryann Tierney, chief of SEPTA Control Center, said the agencies are planning for overlapping major events.

"We're simulating July 4 because we expect that, of all the FIFA games, our busiest day because we have a FIFA game at 5 o'clock, but we also have several July 4 America 250 activities happening."

The coordinated effort is designed to prepare for an estimated 30,000 FIFA fans using the system at the same time as Independence Day crowds.

The drills focused on "worst case" scenarios to test how responders handle simultaneous emergencies.

"Individuals will be dealing with one thing, they found a suspicious-looking package and they're trying to work through that, and then we have a medical emergency that arises, so you're really stressing what's going on at one scene," said Chief Charles Lawson of SEPTA police.

SEPTA is deploying additional employee ambassadors and police patrols. The goal of these run-throughs is to uncover weaknesses before real emergencies occur.

"To be honest, in my experience, if everything went well in the exercise, then we didn't do a good enough job planning the exercise. The whole point of the exercise is to identify issues now," said Tierney.

Teams of observers are documenting what succeeds and what needs improvement to make sure they're ready for whatever may come.