October 8, 2007
Terrorism Department
More On the Marathon Problems
The story of yesterday's marathon meltdown is taking shape. Runners continue to report water shortages along the way, but marathon officials insist there was plenty of water to be had. Friend-of-the-blog John Ruberry ran in the race (and finished it), and he reported no problems getting water. On the other hand, I was in Chinatown briefly in a largely unsuccessful attempt to take pictures, and a spectator told me that she didn't see as much water available along the course as in previous races.
I suspect the truth, when it emerges, will encompass both views of the race. It will probably turn out that there was plenty of water along the way, but somehow the runners weren't able to find it when they needed it---too few distribution points, or too many small ones that ran out quickly, or water not being moved to the front lines fast enough---something like that.
Meanwhile, Second City Cop has an analysis of the city emergency response, and he's calling it a screw-up:
...[W]e certainly hope the comment we read earlier wasn't true, that CFD pulled every ambulance off the street leaving the neighborhoods uncovered. That would point out a glaring weakness in any sort of terror response. But the fact that numerous outside agencies had to send ambulances to Chicago to help out with a sporting event disaster does not bode well for an Olympic bid...
...Squad cars were being told to pick up stragglers needing medical attention and transport them to the medical tents in Grant Park, making a bad traffic situation still worse and reducing police presence along the race route...
...No alternate frequency made available. Too few dispatchers overwhelmed, bad system in place...
...The chirping of radios with dying batteries was supposed to be unbelievable. The inability to coordinate a response to get runners safely back to Grant Park clogged the streets badly...
This doesn't sound too good. I'm curious what City Hall has to say about this, but I don't think we'll hear from them unless the major media starts asking questions.
Update: In response to Marathon Pundit's remarks in the comments, I should add that evaluation of the city's emergency response depends a lot on how much of it was planned. For example, were all the suburban ambulance/EMT units a last-ditch effort to avoid a problem? Or did the city bring in suburban units ahead of time so that outlying city units could remain on call in the neighborhoods they were familiar with?
Also, it's not clear that anything bad happened due to the city's response. It's not clear that a faster emergency response could have saved the runner who died or kept anyone out of the hospital.
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Runners are a gossipy bunch, and some of the stories they were telling ended up in the mainstream issue.
On the water/Gatorade issue, at some of the later stations, the very first tables were overwhelmed and had trouble keeping up. But since each station consisted of over a dozen fluid tables on both sides of the street, participants just move on down the station.
Perhaps the slower runners (But everyone was slow that day) experienced empty water tables, but right now I'm skeptical. Most of the runners at the end of the running-mass were detoured off the course at Mile 16 and told to walk the two miles back to Grant Park. Not coincidentally, it was at the part of the race where I saw my first collapsed runner.
As for the ambulances, the question has to be asked, did the city pull all of the EMS vehicles from the neighborhoods, or did the city put out a distress call of its own? I hung around the finish area for a couple of hours after the race, and there wasn't a time wherer I didn't here the piercing wail of siren. On my walk back to my car--park in the Grant Park underground garage--I walked past the marathon first aid tent, where I saw about eight parked private ambulances with a marathon "official vehicle" sticker emblazoned on each front hood.
While on Michigan Avenue a few minutes later, I saw two suburban ambulances--one from Summit, the other from distant Mundelein.
I know very little about EMS procedures, so I can only observe, report, and ask questions.
There was at least one casualty due to the combination of heat and the shortage of water.
There was one death, as I mentioned in my final paragraph, but at the time I wrote this it wasn't clear that race day conditions were part of the cause. He had a heart condition and he entered a marathon and he died. Could more water have saved him? I don't know.