Taking A Stand: Some things should not be kept secret
It was like Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” as people took to the streets in terror after hearing the news on the radio, only to find out, just like the radio program which caused so much havoc years ago, that none of it was real.
Yep, I’m talking about the great Ferris wheel incident of the 1990s, which still remains a sore spot for those who were part of the now-infamous event. I, as a young reporter, was right in the middle of it, not realizing the alarms which had been raised across the county.
I think of this now because the city is planning an emergency disaster drill within the next little while, but, given the experience of the Ferris wheel incident, they have announced their plans for the drill so the public will be prepared. A very good idea when you consider some people still bring up the incident, which happened over 10 years ago.
The Ferris wheel incident also began as a drill, using volunteers from the local schools to simulate victims of a disaster so local emergency agencies could have an emergency preparedness drill.
Given the fact schools were out on Friday due to the fair and there were a lot of kids who volunteered to help out, it was decided the drill would be held at the fairgrounds on what is always school day at the fair. And, of course, given the venue of the drill, guess what disaster the emergency workers dreamed up. Yep, a Ferris wheel disaster whereby the large ride (which made its debut at the world’s fair of 1893 by the way) came crashing to the ground, throwing kids everywhere.
And, to make it more realistic, some of the volunteers put on a little blood make-up and simulated other injuries in the staging area in front of the grandstands. Yes, the whole thing was setting the stage for Warren County’s own version of “War of the Worlds.” All that was needed was the …
“We’ve had a major accident at the fairgrounds,” crackled the dispatcher across every police scanner in the county. “Several casualties. All units respond mutual aid to the fairgrounds.”
Yes, at some point the dispatcher did note it was a drill, but by that time parents across the county were traveling top speed toward the fairgrounds and phones were lighting up everywhere, each time with the story getting a little more added to it. You know how everyone has to add a new spin to a story they are told.
“The Ferris wheel had about 100 kids on it and it landed on the Himalaya,” said one parent over the phone. “And, I heard it exploded too.”
Adding to the realism, even as the havoc spiraled, were scene reports from the fairgrounds detailing horrible injuries. Casual passersby could also see several children lying on the ground, being tended to by rescue workers. Had cellular phones been all the rage back then as they are now, I can only imagine the scale of panic that would have happened as every parent in the county would have been alerted within one minute of the drill.
While feathers were ruffled, the incident led to no injuries. But, it did lead to better alerting of the public to such disaster drills since most people here have police scanners and are quick to get on the horn to tell their buddies when something big happens.
With this said, I guarantee you, when this planned and publicly announced drill does happen in the near future, some scanner-listener will be taking to the phone to alert his friends network of the horrible disaster which has befallen our county even as the dispatcher can be heard in the background repeating for the billionth time “this is just a drill.”
Duane Sherrill is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].