Crews stage attack at Expo Center

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Hundreds of emergency responders swarmed the Austin area this weekend to learn how to handle some of the worst disasters possible. From building collapses to terrorist attacks, teams spread out across Travis, Williamson and Hays Counties for Urban Shield .

The Travis County Expo Center came under mock attack Saturday with a bomb explosion and a chemical agent to follow. Scattered across the lawn outside among the bloodied and bruised with stage makeup, Sam Dykes and her family waited for help.

"Trauma, severe trauma,” Dykes said, pointing to an oozing sore on her neck and scrapes across her forehead. “My husband's dead."

Holding her husband’s head in her lap, Dykes asked her father Bob Alexander about his broken arm. The former military man said he knows proper training means the difference between life and death.

"A lot of it's inside buildings and with books and stuff like that, but to physically be able to do it, that's the best thing for them,” said Alexander.

For the day, their lives were in the hands of emergency responders from 25 different agencies statewide.

"Agencies around the nation do this all the time (for things like) the Super Bowl, the World Series," said Larry Jantzen, Austin Fire Department battalion chief over special operations and homeland security.

400 volunteers victims showed up Saturday morning to give those crews the most realistic scenario possible – a first for many responders.

"Different role players had different symptoms and reacted differently just as people would in real life," said Greg Pyles, chief executive officer of TEXSAR Search & Rescue – the group who organized the victims.

Handling security, dowsing chemicals off the wounded and providing medical services. One by one, crews learned how to help and got better with every victim’s assistance.

"A lot of people don't realize it's going to be 45 minutes before somebody gets to you,” said Alexander.

"I wish they would've been quicker, but I guess that's what happens in real life,” said Dykes.

Austin is one of three cities in the U.S. that has this Urban Shield training. 40 hours of training went into this weekend.