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I have done a little investigating into the Red Cross list in post 688. 4 of the cities on that list are in MA so it caught my attention. The jobs listed are sponsored by the American Red Cross and funded by AmeriCorps grants. Grant dollars were released for the 2004/2005 program year on 5/7/2004 and the program year runs 07/04-06/05. Some cities/towns have part-time postions and some are full-time. Main focus of these jobs is to provide disaster preparedness (related to homeland security) to their community as well as emergency assistance when needed. (90% of time is spent making public presentations)

I don't live too far from Leominster or Lowell and I haven't been able to find anything of great importance located in these areas (ie: military bases, nuclear power plants, etc.) and they are not located along the shore. I really think these communities are listed because someone took the time to write a grant proposal and they received the funding. I don't think it's a omminous sign that these cities were chosen just that someone in the community saw the need for community preparedness and acted on it.

One newspaper article stated that the newly hired Red Cross employees would educate citizens across many counties on the 5 actions steps to take to prepare and respond to disasters:

1.Make a family plan 2.Build an emergency kit 3.Get trained in lifesaving skills Volunteer to assist others in the community 5.Give blood

Every one of those cities listed is on a major highway about an hour or so north or west of Boston. Leominster is out Rte. 2 west , Lowell Rte 3 northwest. Beverly Rte. 1 north and Newburyport Rte. 95 North. If there were an emergency in Boston people would head north and northwest. Many would start to run out of gas in those locations. BTW both Beverly and Newburyport are on the north shore.