It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 10:27 pm



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 3 posts ] 
 Government rethinks strategy on unthinkable 
Author Message
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 8:59 am
Posts: 6532
Location: Friendswood, TX
Post Government rethinks strategy on unthinkable
Either a very slow news day or veddy interesting... :hmm


Suppose the unthinkable happened, and terrorists struck a major U.S. city with an atom bomb. What should people there do? The government has a surprising new message: Do not flee. Get inside any stable building and don't come out until officials say it's safe.

The advice is based on recent scientific analyses indicating that a nuclear attack is much more survivable if you immediately shield yourself from the lethal radiation that follows a blast, a simple tactic seen as saving hundreds of thousands of lives.

Even staying in a car, the studies show, would reduce casualties by more than 50 percent; hunkering down in a basement would be better by far.

But a problem for the Obama administration is how to spread the word without seeming alarmist about a subject that few politicians care to consider, let alone discuss. So officials are proceeding gingerly in a campaign to educate the public.

"We have to get past the mental block that says it's too terrible to think about," W. Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said in an interview. "We have to be ready to deal with it" and help people learn how to "best protect themselves."

Officials say they are moving aggressively to conduct drills, prepare communication guides and raise awareness among emergency planners of how to educate the public.

"It's more survivable than most people think," said an official involved in the planning, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "The key is avoiding nuclear fallout."

Read more here: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/7341596.html

_________________
The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. - FDR


Thu Dec 16, 2010 7:36 am
Profile
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 8:59 am
Posts: 6532
Location: Friendswood, TX
Post Re: Government rethinks strategy on unthinkable
L.A. dry run shows urban nuke attack 'a survivable event'

By Steve Sternberg, USA TODAY

The plotters decided to trigger their bomb in Los Angeles during the morning rush, at a metro station a stone's throw from Universal Studios and the set where Steven Spielberg filmed scenes from "War of the Worlds."

This was no ordinary explosive. It was a 10-kiloton nuclear device packing roughly the destructive force of the Hiroshima bomb. A blast of that magnitude could engulf 50,000 to 150,000 people and reduce parts of L.A., Hollywood and Studio City — the historical heart of the movie industry — to radioactive rubble.


Al-Qaeda played no part in planning the July 28 attack. The conspirators were the leaders of a dozen state, local and federal agencies who were taking part in a simulated L.A. County security exercise code-named Operation Golden Phoenix. Their mission: to assure that if a terrorist does detonate a nuke in Los Angeles, first responders will be prepared to wade into the devastation and rescue survivors suffering from traumatic injuries, radiation sickness, shock and flash-blindness.

"This is a survivable event," says Brendan Applegate, of the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Asymmetric Warfare, who helped design and carry out the exercise. "L.A. isn't going to fall into the ocean and be gone forever. It will be a really bad day, but we need everyone to show up to work and save lives."

Operation Golden Phoenix offers a rare public glimpse of the government's behind-the-scenes effort to bolster national preparedness. Few places take the threat more seriously than Los Angeles and post-9/11 New York.

Read more here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-12-15-nuclear-fallout-test_N.htm?csp=34news

_________________
The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. - FDR


Thu Dec 16, 2010 7:50 am
Profile
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2007 8:54 am
Posts: 4952
Location: Canada
Post Re: Government rethinks strategy on unthinkable
Ya know I read stuff like this and think, hmmmmm now what are they trying to hide?

Is it really safer to stay in the fall out zone or are they just trying to reduce numbers???

Things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm :hmm :sherlock

_________________
Image Please Obey the Golden Rules viewtopic.php?f=31&t=3563&p=40912#p40912


Sat Dec 18, 2010 6:31 am
Profile WWW
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 3 posts ] 


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 9 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group.
Designed by Vjacheslav Trushkin for Free Forums/DivisionCore.