Terror Drill 2006: CambridgeSide and Everett Edition

September 17 terrorism comes to the Hub. The Boston Globe got hold of a memo outlining the plans for an upcoming terrorism drill to be conducted by federal officials and the City's office of homeland security. There is great value in staging drills, but there is a bit of complacency that comes along with knowing that a drill will happen. When the fire alarm goes off in the building it's a slow stroll out to the meeting place to check in. It could be a frantic rush with true fear that fire will block exits and cause real harm. Often that is not the case.

The drill to be staged on a Sunday morning starts in Everett with an explosion in a basement, followed by a threat on the LNG facility. The pièce de resistance will be a bomb threat at the Cambridgeside Galleria mall, and just as shoppers flea from the mall they will be confronted with a bomb scare at the Lechmere T stop. It will, however, be a Sunday. We'd recommend that if you're trying to get away from the Cambridgeside and you're not laden with a new TV or too many pairs of Old Navy jeans that you just head for North Station. Waiting for the once and a while green line to pick you up might result in imminent demise. A real $78,000, and an imagined 25 casualties and 150 injuries later the drill – dubbed Operation Posidon – will conclude. The readiness drill won't be of the same scale of last year's dry run, one which included F-15s and an airliner carrying a fake bomb landing at Logan. That exercise cost about $750,000 to pull off.

Looking for Homeland Security - make sure to ask your cashier. Flickr user dpurdy provides us a look at a sweet sign.