Here's a detailed map pinpointing their "roughest areas"
Posted on 07/09/2005 5:42:24 AM PDT by leadpenny
WHEELING - One day after bombs exploded in downtown London, a West Virginia official painted a grim picture of what might happen if a "dirty bomb" were detonated in downtown Washington, D.C.
Nearly 7 million people would head for West Virginia, said Jim Spears, state director of Military Affairs, Veterans Affairs and Public Safety. He plans to ask for $15 million in additional federal homeland security dollars this week to build a communications network for use in the event of such an emergency. Spears addressed the 87th Annual American Legion West Virginia State Convention on Friday at the Ramada Plaza City Center Hotel in Wheeling prior to the main speech given by Gov. Joe Manchin. As director of public safety, Spears oversees homeland security concerns in the Mountain State.
Spears worked in Washington prior to taking the director's job, and he told those present Friday that the No. 1 concern of homeland security officials there was that a dirty bomb might be detonated in the downtown. Such a device is actually a crude bomb that nevertheless contains radioactive agents, and even a small dirty bomb is capable of sending a radioactive plume into the air, according to Spears. Those in the immediate area would be affected.
There are 7 million people living in the Baltimore-Washington area, Spears noted, not including those who live in outlying rural areas.
"If you were one of these people home watching news of the bomb on television, would you stay home and wait for the wind to shift the radioactivity your way or would you try to leave the area?" he asked.
Spears speculated most would try to flee the Baltimore-Washington area, creating major gridlock on the highways.
The cars likely would head toward exits in West Virginia, and the state of 1.8 million residents would be absorbing 7 million visitors.
"They would be entering in some of the roughest areas of our state," he pointed out. "There would be widespread panic. There would be a shortage of medical supplies, water, decontamination sites and fuel for those who want to move on further."
Washington homeland security officials term the idea of a dirty bomb there "a highly possible scenario," Spears said.
"We don't know when or where terrorist attacks will occur, but we are sure there will be continued attacks," he added. "We are just trying to think ahead and about stockpiling supplies that can be brought out at the right moments to stop a panic.
"This week I will go to Washington to ask for $15 million to build a communications network in the state. This would enable us to put the right people in the right place at the right time if a large number of people from out of state start to come in."
West Virginia is a homeland security target for other reasons, according to Spears. There are 109 chemical facilities in the state.
"Nearly 7 million people would head for West Virginia, said Jim Spears, state director of Military Affairs, Veterans Affairs and Public Safety."
I can just imagine how many weeks it would take considering the mess at rush hour. How many cars can you move on the Beltway? How many directed to Charlestown and Hagerstown? How about trying to get to I64 and the Infamous Mixing Bowl in Virginia?
Oh yeah.
Gives new meaning to the slogan, almost heaven, West Virginia, doesn't it?
Here's a detailed map pinpointing their "roughest areas"
I told my daughter, who works in Arlington, to start walking westbound in case of a terrible event like this. I'm convinced that Shank's mare will be the quickest way out. There is no way that so many cars are going to be able to move at all.
LOL!
Let me guess...it will be the Robert C. Byrd Communications Network...
This has been on my mind since 9/11. A nuclear blast in NYC would bring this nation to its knees. Sad to say... the loss of life would be the less critical aspect.
About a dozen years ago KKK was trying to get the CIA (at least the majority of it) moved to WV.
My kids live IN DC. Same here. If they can get to PG County and then make their way West, they can get to Hagerstown.
I supplied them with military water packs and MRE's, emergency kits with solar blankets, flashlight etc. Light and mobile. What they don't have is guns. But, this would be a martial law situation and everything that goes bang would be deadly to the owner.
Did you get your daughter a kit?
Bingo. Here's an artist rendition of his commerative statue to be placed out front.
Based on the prevailing winds I think I'd head directly to Beckley.
Interesting. No, I have not supplied her with anything, but the wheels are turning now in my head.
They'd never get out. I don't know what they've done with I-66 westbound outside the Beltway, but the last time I was up there (1993) it was still two lanes each way and they were forced to use the shoulder as a traffic lane during rush hour, so you can imagine what one breakdown could do. And even with that, they wouldn't expand I-66 past Manassas, so in order to even get to West Virginia, that's 45 miles of four-lane Interstate feeding onto I-81, which is four lanes, and then your nearest Interstate options into WV are 100 miles north (I-40) or south (I-64).
Going north on I-95 or I-270 wouldn't be much better. And forget south; the Sausage Grinder in Springfield is currently under massive reconstruction. I dropped my wife off at Dulles a couple of months ago and went 66 to 395 to 95 to get back down here to Richmond, and got stuck in a seventeen-mile traffic jam, from King Street clear down through the Grinder to the Occoquan. On a sunny Saturday. At 2 in the afternoon. For no damn reason whatsoever except maybe one fender-bender.
An attempt to do a serious mass evacuation of the DC area would paralyze the transportation system of the entire Eastern seaboard, because it'd cut I-95 and dump hundreds of thousands of cars onto all the alternate routes that can't handle them. Hell, when they tried to do a hurricane evacuation of Charleston, SC several years ago--not a big city by any means--they snarled traffic for over a hundred miles. I was living in Columbia (115 miles up I-26) at the time and *our* rush-hour traffic was twice as bad as usual because of all the cars feeding in from Charleston. I can't even imagine what a DC evacuation would do to places as far away as us here in Richmond or even further south, or Philly, or, say, Martinsburg, WV.
}:-)4
And succeeded pretty well. Drive down I-79 sometime.
They'd walk. My kids knew every short cut from Martinsburg to Germantown. They used to drive me nuts by hiking under the culverts to get from side to side, through fields, in the woods. eesh...
I forgot to get them Cutter's.
I drive I-395/I-95 (Woodbridge-Arlington-Woodbride) most every day. It's a great parking lot. I think I-66 and I-270 can be even better parking lots.
But of course. None would go northwest, or north, or northeast, or east, or south, or southwest, nope, all would only go west.
You had to know that was coming.
I'd bet he's had land picked out for YEARS. And somebody in HIS family probably owns it.
Walking is probably the worst thing they could do. If they survive the blast, then the main danger is exposure to fallout. A car will shield some of it directly, a building far more, and the biggest danger is ingestion(so you don't want to get it on your lips.) While length of exposure to certain types of radiation is also a factor, in most instances sheltering in place inside a home, showering off as much as possible, and eating only food from sealed containers after washing the containers is going to be far safer.
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