Posted on 02/14/2005 1:42:47 PM PST by shanec
Edited on 02/14/2005 3:41:49 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Why first responders won't respond
Posted: February 14, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Shane Connor
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
Though the war on terror continues, the U.S. government has left the public completely exposed to the aftermath of a radiological attack. There is no better evidence of this than the actions of the Department of Homeland Security. The DHS is very focused on interdiction, government continuity and infrastructure protection, but it has not yet prepared for civil defense, which is the protection of civilians in time of war or disaster.
Recently a Toronto Star news reporter was given a guided tour of the fallout shelters in Beijing and was told that the entire population of the city could be underground in three minutes. Russia has a vast civil defense establishment that they have begun to upgrade within the last year. What are the Chinese and Russians preparing for? Why aren't we equally concerned? Why does America, the richest nation in the world, have no civil defense?
During the Cold War, 6 million high-level radiation survey meters were distributed in communities from coast-to-coast. Civilians were trained in their use and taught simple defensive techniques for nuclear and chemical threats. Since JFK, successive administrations have degraded our civil-defense structures.
Under President Clinton, civil defense was completely disbanded and the equipment largely disposed of. It has not been replaced.
The only radiological threat the government wants to discuss is small-scale "dirty bombs" because that is the only threat they have prepared for, but even for that they are ill-equipped. Hazmat teams and a few first responders now carry overly sensitive, low-level instruments that will be useless after a nuclear detonation or even a large dirty-bomb explosion. We are woefully unprepared to assure public safety in a real nuclear event.
The DHS response to this deplorable situation has been to develop a standard for instruments carried by "first responders." Radiation meters meeting this standard are overly sensitive and so expensive ($2,000 to $12,000) that very few will be deployed. The highest level of radiation measurable by the approved instruments is equivalent to the exposure one sometimes receives on an airline flight during a solar flare – clearly not life threatening.
When the responders encounter even this meager reading, they will be forced to back off, abandoning the public within a perimeter that cannot be entered for lack of instruments that identify TRUE hazards.
It will be impossible to map the footprint of a nuclear event because there are insufficient suitable instruments deployed. They will not be able to recommend a wise course of action because they will not know where the greatest hazards are. Because of these exotic, over-sensitive instruments, emergency responders will be unable to prioritize neighborhood evacuations or to assure the safest routes out.
The DHS approved instruments are appropriate for customs agents screening for smuggled radioactive materials at close range, but these are police duties – our responders should have emergency response equipment, not detective gear!
Do you think your community is protected? Visit your local fire department and ask about their radiation detection equipment. Most likely, they have little or nothing. The good news is that radiation hazards are relatively easy to defend against with simple training of the population and appropriate instruments widely distributed. The American people should immediately demand civil defense from their government. Meanwhile, in the years that it takes for government actually to do anything, evaluate your own preparation to protect your family from a radioactive cloud drifting toward them from an event even hundreds of miles away.
Just as we all see the need for family medical insurance, while still hoping and praying never to have to use it, so too, acquiring this knowledge and these preparations are equally prudent as we race toward nuclear disaster – a day that no one will ever forget!
When the TV or radio program switches abruptly to a terse announcement saying: "We interrupt this program for a special bulletin!" and your kids look up to you with questioning, wide eyes, eager for assurances, know then that you are confidently ready for them with your own plan of action and preparations ready to go.
That's what this is all about ... protecting our precious children!
"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences."
Proverbs 22:3
ping
The author is both serious and correct. If there is a dirty bomb or a small nuke detonated in the U.S., the response will be disorganized and the bungled response will cost hundreds to thousands of lives.
The damage from a dirty bomb are mostly psychological, unless you happen to be standing next to it when it goes off.
There's not much the authorities can do if a nuke goes off in a US city. People within the blast zone will die quickly, people within a certain radius will die slowly and people within a certain radius will have their cancer rates go up.
In broad terms what you say is true. But based on this article, it seems that many burn victims will die waiting to find if they are too hot to move.
The Chinese one-child policy has reportedly encouraged families to abort female children. With the high population, that is probably causing a large imbalance of males to females. That's a lot of "surplus" young males who will be condemned to live life without female companionship. In the event of a ground war, the Chinese could probably field an army of several million of these disaffected youths.
Maybe that's how they intend to solve their burgeoning population of young men.
Which would work for the Chinese about as well as recruiting Crips and Bloods into the US Army would work for us--and it would fail because of the same underlying issue. Read some of George Gilder's early stuff (from before he tried to become a geek guru).
Which would work for the Chinese about as well as recruiting Crips and Bloods into the US Army
exactly, they would self destruct
"...the bungled response will cost hundreds to thousands of lives."
Perhaps that is the intended consequence?
My comment above is only PARTIALLY tongue-in-cheek. The sad part is, that my response COULD be the truth.
Has anyone read about the Georgia GuideStones?
http://www.radioliberty.com/stones.htm
It makes one think ....
"Maybe that's how they intend to solve their burgeoning population of young men."
Reminds me of something Mao was supposed to have said when presented with the prospect of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, "Good! Give me a hundred million fewer mouths to feed."
True, but there are a couple things to know to minimize radiation inhalation exposure downwind.
There's not much the authorities can do if a nuke goes off in a US city.
True, but more families could start to become better prepared the sooner they grasp the reality that they've always been on their own. Also, from the guide
People within the blast zone will die quickly, people within a certain radius will die slowly and people within a certain radius will have their cancer rates go up.
True, for the ground zero blast zone victims, but there is really 'Good News' awaiting that larger vast majority that will be downwind that will only have to deal with radioactive fallout. See the guide linked above for effective and practical tactics to dispel those widely held and self-defeating nuclear un-survivability myths. They are what will have many families tragically failing to even try for lack of well proven basic knowledge.
-Shane
Do the words "Potemkin Village" come to mind? There's a sucker born every minute, isn't there?
I live no more than 3 miles from the White House and the Capitol. If someone nukes DC, I figure I have about a 0% chance of surviving, so I'm kind of fatalistic about the whole thing.
What to cut in order to fund Civil Defense. Let me start the list, others welcome to add on:
1. UN dues
2. Foreign aid to backstabbing anti US countries
3. All funding of abortion
4. Most non business related grants
5. Agricultural subsidies
http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chapter1.html
have you seen this site? navigate using the chapters on the bottom...
The biggest surprize to the greatest number of people will be that they actually did survive the inital blast. But, they will then need to know what to do next, and quickly, or they risk not surviving for too long. Ideally, they need to have found out well beforehand, figured out their sheltering/evacuation best options and already acquired some minimum preps, mostly stuff they can someday use anyways even if nothing bad ever does get unleashed. Read the guide linked above, and discover how many more families could survive than currently think so.
-Shane
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