A big response drill happened here over the weekend. Sounds like everyone's getting their act together. The Firefighters and Police can apparently communicate together now with improved radio technology. Unlike the mismatched frequencies and equipment they had on 9-11.

Here's the report from the NY Yimes:

Mock Terror Attack Response Provides Training for Disaster
by PATRICK HEALY, New York Times
Published: March 15, 2004

With the specter of coordinated terrorist bombings on railroads in Madrid looming in the background, New York City staged one of the largest mock terrorist attacks in the nation at Shea Stadium yesterday morning.

The drill began at 11 a.m., when the city's Office of Emergency Management detonated an unspecified type of fake weapon of mass destruction inside the stadium. Soon after, fire trucks and ambulances straggled through gridlock in the parking lot toward the stadium, while rescuers inside coped with fake rubble and terrorist suspects as they rushed mock victims to safety.

It was the 40th time that New York City had staged such a drill. The commissioner of the Office of Emergency Management, Joseph F. Bruno, said the more than 1,000 police, fire and rescue workers at the scene performed ably.

As an example, Mr. Bruno said the police had been able to detect and disable two mock radiological weapons hidden in the stadium's parking lot. He also said response times appeared swift.

At a news conference yesterday afternoon, Mr. Bruno and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said the three-hour drill was part of a series of attempts to gauge how New York agencies are prepared to respond to a terrorist attack, and how well they communicate during such a crisis.

"I think it went very well," Mr. Bruno said. "This drill was planned long before what happened in Madrid, but what happened in Madrid tells us how important it is." He was referring to last week's bombings.

Yesterday's demonstration, though vivid, left several questions unanswered. City officials could not say how they would evacuate the stadium if it were filled to capacity or how emergency vehicles could maneuver through a parking lot filled with frantic drivers trying to get out.

"You can never have the right script for a specific emergency," Mr. Bloomberg said.

In light of the Madrid bombings, Mr. Bruno said his agency would look at the subways as it stages mock attacks in the future.

It took more than five months, 1,000 emergency responders and 1,000 fake victims (mostly Fire Department cadets and auxiliary police officers) to pull off yesterday's drill, officials of the Office of Emergency Management said.

The result of all this preparation resembled something from a Jerry Bruckheimer soundstage. Overhead, helicopters swung across the cloudy sky. Whiffs of smoke drifted from the corridors of the stadium while a clot of "victims" paced up and down the stadium's ramps like a confused millipede.

In the shadow of the stadium, police officers arrested suspects in the mock attack. Emergency medical workers treated the injured, who were wrapped in Red Cross blankets. Officials with the city's Department of Environmental Protection set up computers a safe distance away and scanned the air for toxins.