NEW YORK CITY EMERGENCY AND PREPAREDNESS INFORMATION

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Yahoo Group of NYC Anti-Terror News:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nyc-terror/

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NYC Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Evacuation Links:

Also at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/unitedstatesaction/message/7625

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/usa-shield/message/151

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NYC Office of Emergency Management (OEM) Emergency Management Online Locator System (EMOLS).
"EMOLS offers pertinent information about ongoing or potential emergencies in the City. From hurricanes to nor 'easters to terrorist attacks, OEM aims to provide New Yorkers with the most reliable and up-to-date information about an event. Since there is no substitute for preparedness, some EMOLS applications run year-round. Please take the time to familiarize yourself with the information provided in EMOLS."

Hurricane Evacuation Zone Finder
http://www.nyc.gov/html/oem/html/hazards/storms_finder.shtml

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New York City’s
GUIDE TO EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS
for Seniors and People with Disabilities

http://www.accem.org/pdf/emergencyguide.pdf



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NYC: Staying One Step Ahead of Disaster
April 27, 2004

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/unitedstatesaction/message/6182

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NYC: Giuliani Promotes Indian Pt. Nuclear Power Plant Terror Drill
July 17, 2003

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/unitedstatesaction/message/1420

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Long Island, NY - Disaster Plan Curbs Drivers

March 26, 2003
Newsday - John Valenti

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/unitedstatesaction/message/65

Got a car? Sell it. Trade it in. Buy a boat. Buy a plane. Buy a hot air balloon. Train to become a long-distance swimmer. Make friends with someone who has a bomb shelter. Move to the backwoods of Arkansas. Or the bayous of Louisiana.

Because with the national terror alert system level now at "burnt orange"- somewhere between red, the highest level of threat, and orange, the second-highest - it might interest you to know that in the event of an attack on the metro area, the contingency plan, in most scenarios, is to ban all of us from the major roads and highways on Long Island.

Right. No cars, no trucks. Or, as David Fischler, Suffolk County Commissioner of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services, said, "We're stuck. " No mass evacuation. So, leave your keys on the table - and your vehicles in the garage - and wait for instructions.

Why?

Because, as officials responsible for the new emergency management plan said, there are more than 2 million vehicles on Long Island. And if all of us took to those roads at once, trying to get off the Island in the wake of a terrorist attack, we would find ourselves in the middle of the Mother of All Traffic Jams.

Impossible, impassable gridlock.

"I think it is realistic to say we can't evacuate Long Island," Fischler said. "It would be difficult, at best, since we have a limited distribution of traffic and everything goes into a bottleneck as we head west."

Or, as Nassau County Commissioner of Emergency Management Richard Rotanz
said: "Plans are always fluid, dynamic. But the last thing we want to do out here is overwhelm the road network."

To be fair, what choice do officials have?

We're 6 million people, including residents of Brooklyn and Queens, on what New York State Department of Transportation Emergency Management liaison officer Dave Williams called "a big sandbar." We cannot go north, south or east because we are an island and because no one ever built a bridge - or a tunnel - to Connecticut. And we have enough trouble driving west during a normal rush hour on the World's Longest Parking Lots: The Long Island Expressway and the Southern State Parkway. So, how could we ever expect to get anywhere in the event of a real disaster? Honestly? We couldn't.

Which was the argument against the Shoreham nuclear power plant in the 1970s. Which is the biggest problem for emergency planners today.

Which is why the two counties, with guidance and direction from state and local agencies ranging from police, fire and medical personnel to the State Emergency Management Office, have centered their plans around nonevacuation
scenarios: Closed roads. Home shelter. Sit and wait. Wait and see.

"It's just a reality because of the geographic nature of Long Island," said State Emergency Management spokesman Dennis Michalski, whose office works hand-in-hand with the 62 counties statewide on emergency support and planning. "You definitely want to be able to get emergency equipment in and out of an area in the event of an emergency. To do that you have to ensure roads remain open."

In some cases, officials said, plans provide for localized evacuations. As they do for storms, flooding, hazardous material spills or fires. As was the case years ago with the pine barrens firestorm. In the event of a localized terrorist attack, the idea would be to move residents from one area of the Island to another with the guidance of emergency personnel.

Of course, in the Post-Sept. 11 Era - in the era of War With Iraq and the War on Terrorism - there is increased need to protect our transportation systems, especially our roads. When we think of that and of heightened security of our infrastructure, we think of the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queensboro, Triboro, Whitestone, Throgs Neck, Verrazano and George Washington bridges, as well as the Lincoln, Holland and Queens-Midtown tunnels. But remember: We have hundreds of bridges on Long Island. Every highway and parkway overpass. Every underpass under a rail line. All are bridges.

To that end, the state Department of Transportation - in coordination with state and local police - has stepped up an awareness and security campaign, ranging from maintenance crews to those law enforcement agents. These field people are on the lookout for any "suspicious" activities, Williams said.

Of course, another option in the wake of a terrorist threat or attack would be for officials to create unidirectional traffic routes. To turn our roads into a one-way flow of cars, trucks and buses to move residents from an area as fast as possible.

Under these scenarios, television and radio alerts would be used, as well as the INFORM system signage on our roads and a reverse 911 emergency phone system - where a pre-programmed, automated emergency information call can be placed to homeowners on a specific block, town or area giving them instructions on what to do.

Chances are, though, in most cases the message would be a simple one: Don't drive.

"The fact is," Fischler said, "if there were some sort of nuclear, chemical or biological attack on New York City we wouldn't want to be moving west, towards it. And there is no reason to be moving east, since we don't have a bridge to England yet. So, since we have no way off, we might as well stay out of our cars. Stay put. A traffic jam would just make things worse."