FORT LEWIS, Wash. -- After being criticized for its slow reaction time to Hurricane Katrina, the federal government put the lessons learned to the test on Monday.

At Fort Lewis more than a thousand people participated in a drill to see whether federal officials have learned how to speed up the process of getting to the people in need.

The scenario was this: the Alaskan Way Viaduct had been hit by an explosion and a chemical truck full of deadly gas had burst.

Specially-trained Marines moved through the crowd, looking for victims of a terrorist attack as looters ran rampant. Some victims were willing to be helped while others barricaded themselves indoors, fearful of the looters and the people in masks.

But the members of the Chemical Biological Incident Response Force knew that people are going to panic.

"(We're used to) dealing with people who are in a chemical environment and scared and there's been an explosion and they don't know what's going on, helping them get through decon (decontamination) and saving lives," said Marine Cpl. Dan Peters.

There were more than 30 deaths including some of the first fire crews due to deadly gas. But the special military operational command post was flown in within 24 hours.

"We've learned many lessons from that catastrophic event in terms of how we've revised our plans, how we've revised our procedures," said Maj. Gen. John Basillica, command post commander.

It's the same kind of set up they'd use for industrial accidents.

The citizen role players from this area know this could be real life emergency at any moment and are glad to have a hand in getting the troops ready.

"Absolutely, because these guys are getting this equipment out, they're knowing how to use it," said Mike Shelton.

On Tuesday the exercise will move to Whatcom County, where Ferndale will be the scene of another huge disaster drill.