Prince William County is prepared to respond to threats -- natural and terrorist -- with advanced equipment, tested procedures and rapid communication with federal and state agencies.
That preparedness, however, is not most effective if the public does not take steps to educate and train itself to respond to threats, say local, state and federal officials.
Several of those officials discussed homeland security at a Gainesville District Town Hall meeting, which was held at Battlefield High School on Thursday night.
Gainesville District Supervisor John Stirrup moderated the event, which was attended by about 30 people.
“If there’'s anything you take away from this today... it’'s you have to be prepared personally,” said Thomas Lockwood, director of the Office of National Capital Region Coordination, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Following the terrorist events of Sept. 11, 2001, local, state and federal agencies stepped up their emergency response procedures and their ability to communicate with each other and the public. Lockwood and other officials said that Prince William County’'s proximity to Washington, D.C., raises the likelihood that residents will be affected by a terrorist event in their lifetimes. But it is more likely that they will face a natural disaster, such as a flood or hurricane, they said.
The likelihood of seeing a mass evacuation of Washington, D.C., also has a very low probability, according to Foresman.
“We are optimistic as we look at the reauthorization of federal transportation funding, that there may be funds available to build in emergency capacity and evacuation capacity,” said Foresman, who said individuals need to develop their own alternative emergency commute plans.
The county has had a comprehensive emergency response plan since 1988, and Virginia had the first state counterterrorism training program in the early 1990s. The county’'s plan addresses a variety of issues, including debris management and mass smallpox inoculations, according to Patrick Collins, emergency management for Prince William County Department of Fire and Rescue.
Responding to a question regarding the county’'s access to robotic and canine detection units for bombs or chemical weapons, Police Chief Charlie T. Deane and Department of Fire and Rescue Chief Mary Beth Michos said that the county either owned or had access to those tools, sometimes through local military outlets.
Regardless of government preparedness capabilities, several officials echoed the importance of personal planning, with Collins comparing complacency to the purchase of bread and milk when it snows.
Instead, one should always be prepared for at least 72 hours of sustainability, according to Collins. Weather radios, spare documents, memorized emergency phone numbers, canned food and bottled water should be part of personal plans, said Collins. He and Foresman also emphasized the importance of Community Emergency Response Team training, in which individuals in a community are trained to provide and organize first responder services before professionals arrive.
Dick Powell, chair of the Heritage Hunt community’'s Emergency Preparedness Task Force, asked about the possibility of neighborhood sirens being installed to give notice of evacuations when electrical power and first responders are unavailable.
Such sirens, common in the 1950s and 1960s civil defense era of Cold War tensions, have fallen by the wayside because they do not effectively convey information, according to Collins, unless they are for a single purpose like a broken dam. Training, maintenance and set-up costs are also prohibitive, said Collins.