How do you quickly evacuate 70,000 sports fans from a stadium attacked by terrorists?
Sports fan do not like to stand in a slow moving, snaking line to get into a stadium for a big game; they do not like inching forward in a long, snaking line to get out of the stadium at the end of the game; imagine what would happen if a bomb were to explode, or a chemical agent released, in stadium packed with 70,000 spectators; DHS Science & Technology Directorate is working in a solution
A typical "packed house" // Source: sportsfanscoalition.org
Sports fan typically grumble while waiting in a long, snaking lines to get into the stadium for the big game. Quite a few begin to leave before the final whistle to avoid these long, snaking lines on the way out of the stadium. If you think it is a hassle getting into or leaving a sold-out game, imagine trying to get out after a bomb explodes — or even to get out under a bomb threat, for that matter.
We may start with the emergency lights failing. If you are thinking of feeling your way out by the light of your cell phone, join the crowd — they are right beside you, pushing fifty-across and a thousand-deep in a stampede. It is everyone for himself.
Scenes like this may sound like a trailer for a Hollywood thriller, but their grim prospect is all-too-real. Last year, DHS and the FBI jointly warned of terrorist interest in attacking crowded stadiums. A bomb or noxious plume released over a throng of captive sports fans would cause considerable mayhem and terror.
Mindful of the threat, those in charge of stadium security have been laying plans to manage and minimize the anarchy that would follow such an attack. Just how would authorities whisk 70,000 people out the gates and onto the roads quickly and safely? For an evacuation on this scale, there are no dress rehearsals or practice drills — just simulation software.
Now, a new breed of simulation software — dubbed SportEvac — is being funded by the DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) as part of the Southeast Region Research Initiative (SERRI), and developed and tested by the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety & Security (NCS4) at the University of Southern Mississippi.
“SportEvac isn’t simply more realistic,” says program manager Mike Matthews of S&T’s Infrastructure and Geophysical Division.. It will become a national standard.”
Using blueprints from actual stadiums, the developers are creating virtual, 3D e stadiums, packed with as many as 70,000 avatars — animated human agents programmed to respond to threats as unpredictably as humans. Security planners will be able to see how 70,000 fans would behave — and misbehave — when spooked by a security threat.
SportEvac avatar need not be a sports fan. The simulation includes make-believe stadium workers, first responders, even objects, such as a fire trucks or a fan’s car. SportEvac tracks them all, accounting
