Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Emergency Planning: Be Prepared On The Family Level

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2003 16:30:08 -0500

Public Safety

Emergency Planning: Be Prepared On The Family Level
Teresa Brumback

Mar 28, 2003 -- Loudoun County
government and public safety
authorities yesterday urged the public
to be prepared for a potential
terrorist attack at the family level as
some noted that roads and local
hospitals are inadequate to deal with
mass evacuations of people.

Robert Griffin, chief of Loudoun Fire
and Rescue Services, joined local
leaders in urging the public to be prepared for all types of emergencies
from weather-related disasters caused by tornadoes and storms to
the worst imaginable ones as seen in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11
and now the current threat of chemical and biological warfare against
the United States stemming from the war in Iraq.

“They need to be prepared at the family level,” he said. “If families are
prepared that makes it easier for first responders.”

Griffin recommended residents keep bottled water, food, batteries and
candles on hand but not duct tape and plastic to seal off rooms as
part of a good preparedness kit, saying the county is looking at a
“common sense” approach to preparedness and not necessarily at
what the federal government recommends. Two federal agencies have
differed sharply on issue of duct tape and plastic. The Federal
Emergency Management Agency recommended it as part of the family
preparedness kit, but the Department of Homeland Security didn’t.

“We as citizens need to be prepared,” said Loudoun County Board of
Supervisors Chairman Scott K. York (I-At Large), whose Mormon faith
espouses a back-to-basics approach. He reiterated his support for a
second hospital in Loudoun, charging the state has failed to recognize
the need. State Health Commissioner Robert Stroube recently denied
HCA’s bid to put a hospital in the Broadlands area of Ashburn. He also
rejected Loudoun Hospital Center’s application for more beds.

York noted that the region has been assaulted since Sept. 11 by
various threats, such as sniper shootings, malaria-carrying mosquitos,
and a probable case of the virus SARS. Congress, with the help of
Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-VA-10), has secured $4.3 million in emergency
preparedness equipment for Loudoun, which has gone a long way in
helping the county to deal with emergencies of all kinds, county
administrators said.

“This is a very multi-faceted issue, and a multi-faceted agency
response,” said County Administrator Kirby M. Bowers.

“As situations dictate, we’ll look for resources” outside the county,
said Griffin, adding later he felt comfortable with the county’s
resources to respond to threats although it can always use more help
from the federal government.

Local, state and national agencies are cooperating to take proactive
measures to assure school and community safety, local administrators
said.

But they acknowledged they are further refining plans to deal with
evacuations of large numbers of people. Discussions are underway for
dealing regionwide with an exodus of federal workers and residents of
the nation’s capital, including a phased release of federal workers by
the federal government, Griffin said.

Griffin and others acknowledged roads in the region are in adequate to
handle a mass evacuation of people.

“As we saw after Sept. 11, the road systems will get bogged down
very, very quickly,” Griffin said. But he dodged a question about where
the county’s emergency evacuation route would be for residents who
ignore government warnings to stay home as a residential “shelter in
place” response to a threat.

Since Sept. 11, the county has worked to upgrade its emergency
preparedness and response plan and work regionally and locally to
enhance those plans as well as be equipped to assist other
jurisdictions who need help.

With the nation under a Code Orange alert, Sheriff Stephen O.
Simpson urged residents to report any suspicious activities to local
authorities first, rather than the federal terrorism tip line, saying that
local law enforcement will be physically closer to respond and can pass
along information to federal authorities for serious threats.

He said his department is trying to reactivate homeowners
associations and neighborhood watch programs to help with
community policing. “We all need to rely on each other to make this
work,” he said.

He noted that suspicious activity may be hard to define.

“See who your neighbors are,” Simpson said. “You’ll know best when
something is out of place. It’s not what we can describe in a couple
words, what suspicious is.”

A terrorist is not the stereotypical profile that people see on television,
the sheriff added.

As for an airborne attack of chemical or biological agents, local leaders
said those substances would likely disappear within a few hours which
is why they are concentrating on “shelter in place” programs that are
short-term as opposed to long-term.

Schools Superintendent Edward Hatrick said if dangerous airborne
agents were released into the community and posed a threat to
students in schools the sealing off a building under a “shelter in place”
program would last “minutes, at most hours, not days.”

Heating and air conditioning would be shut down as would a system
that constantly brings in fresh air, but he said those measures
wouldn’t result in making the buildings air tight. “We’re not trying to
hermetically seal the building,” he said.

On Feb. 13, he sent a letter home to parents describing the “shelter in
place” concept.

More than likely, terrorists using biological or chemical agents would
strike at congested, confined areas such as subways or crowded
buildings, he said.

Local and area leaders will communicate in the event of a major
emergency through multiple methods including a digital radio system,
phones, pagers, Nextel and satellite phones that he said will be able to
preempt cell phones, he said. Cell phone users complained many didn’t
work during Sept. 11, a result of too many users were trying to use
them at once.

Health Department Director David Goodfriend said his agency is
looking for volunteers should mass inoculations and vaccines become
necessary. Two positions, an epidemiologist and a planner, have been
added to deal with the threat of bioterrorism.
http://www.leesburg2day.com/current.cfm?newsid=6892

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