1. Government creates new Washington evacuation plan By Jason Peckenpaugh The federal government has created a new procedure for evacuating federal employees in Washington in the case of possible terrorist attacks on the nation's capital. The protocol, which took effect in May, tells who can decide to evacuate federal employees from agencies and how the government will communicate the decision to employees and to city and state agencies that would be affected by a mass exodus of civil servants from Washington. It is an attempt to improve on the ad hoc process used on Sept. 11, when the Office of Personnel Management closed federal agencies without first notifying state and transit officials in the Washington area. "Basically the only emergency plan that was available that this area had [on Sept. 11] was the snow emergency plan," said Scott Hatch, OPM's director of communications. The new protocol was designed to handle federal evacuations in Washington, but could be used to make evacuation decisions for civil servants in other cities, he said. Full story: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0802/080902p1.htm Return to Top