Preparedness

[Declan McCullagh]

At 06:12 PM 9/21/01 -0700, Tim May wrote:
>Look, friends (and non-friends), I need to say a few words about 
>"preparedness." I've gotten questions from list readers about where to get 
>KI tablets, what to stock up on, etc. A kind of replay of Y2K.
>
>The odds of anything "really bad" hitting any particular reader of this 
>list are small indeed. Even the WTC event which hit NYC only had a small 
>chance of hitting any list members working or living in NYC.

Some brief thoughts in response:

* It's not just getting hit by an attack that we citydwellers may need to 
worry about, but the disruption afterward. It seems, based on news reports, 
that many thousands of New Yorkers were left without basic 
water-gas-electricity-phone service after last week's attacks. Water, food, 
warm clothes -- lucky it wasn't winter -- can be vital. Better than a Red 
Cross handout shelter.

* Folks in DC are starting to think through this. My intern told me today 
he has a gas mask (not new, he's had it a while). It's sorta a nervous joke 
-- echo of Y2K -- but as soon as there's another attack anywhere, folks in 
DC and NYC will get serious real fast. Biochemwomdnuke attack and all bets 
are off.

* I have family in NYC who were out of the country during the attacks. Now 
they're back, and they say they're not as willing to live in NYC 
permanently. Suburbia is looking far more attractive.

* Aimee posted something in the last week or so that was comprehensible for 
once (I've since lost the post), which was a URL for a folding plastic 
gas-mask with a charcoal filter. I recall it didn't seem designed for 
chemattacks; it would be interesting to know what it could filter.

* The Washington City Paper has a horrific cover story this week on the 
city's beyond-pathetic response to Tuesday's attacks:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/cover/cover.html
>Even before the fire at the crippled Pentagon across the Potomac had been 
>extinguished, frightening shortcomings in the District's emergency 
>preparedness were laid bare. Communications broke down, and key District 
>leaders scrambled to exchange information via e-mail and pagers. The fire 
>department had scant reserve equipment, a single hazardous-materials unit, 
>and no search-and-rescue units available to dispatch. There was no master 
>terrorism-response plan in place, so agency heads reached for whatever was 
>available on the nearest shelfwhich for some meant Y2K plans and, for the 
>fire department, a 1968 deployment guideline drafted in response to the 
>riots following the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

* Based on this kind of report, you've got to wonder what would happen if 
there were biochemwomdnuke attacks. I note this WOMD is coming up a bit 
more on the news than last week; part of it may be the news networks 
looking for another story. Or it could be that DC-NYC city dwellers are a 
bit more worried, and what they're worried about is reflected on the air.

* If we knew what we know now and were building a terrorist-resistant 
society, we could. Not terrorist-proof, but resistant. No high buildings, 
no large underground complexes, very spread out, transportation perhaps 
based on cars, bicycles and light rail. Airports far away from city 
centers, ala Denver and Pittsburgh, to avoid the problem that 
still-not-open Reagan National airport is having, and other airports like 
LaGuardia, Logan, and SF could have. The problem is that we already have a 
terrorist-prone society, or at least terrorist-vulnerable, and instead of 
rebuilding and "flattening" our vertical construction, we're trying to 
terrorist-proof it.

-Declan