Testing the response

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation employees begin a Tuesday morning exercise that might have alarmed police scanner listeners not paying close attention. The hazardous material/explosives drill involved USBR security and emergency response, Grand Coulee's ambulance and Coulee Medical Center in a scenario that started with a security officer approaching two suspicious subjects claiming to enjoy the view and some coffee. Within minutes, a bomb exploded (on paper only) and the two subjects and the officer were supposedly suffering from an unknown malady. The bureau's emergency responders arrived, as did Grand Coulee's ambulance. Anyone who missed the word "exercise" repeated several times on the public airwaves might have been alarmed, but it was just a drill. - Scott Hunter photo