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The Bomb, or What Oregon Will Be Talking About At The Water Cooler »

Posted by: Alexia 10 months, 2 weeks ago

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As nuclear attacks go, this one wasn't all that bad. For starters, it was live-blogged. But there were other reasons to be impressed. A real bomb was detonated at Portland International Raceway, producing a big, dramatic fireball; actors walked around playing radiation victims; and the Secretary of Homeland Security was in town! What's not to love? There was even fake media on hand, but that's such an oxymoron that I'm going to leave it alone.

Read Full Story at newsquake.netscape.com

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Comments So Far: 13

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tehranchik10 months, 2 weeks ago

I work down the street form Good Samaritan Hospital---I watched the goings on all day. The tents were set up in the emergency room parking lot and real emergencies were sent elsewhere.
What good this all did---I really don't know. What I do know is that it took lots of money---money we don't have.
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  GregD10 months, 2 weeks ago
  
  EMS thrives on training. There are certain things that you want to be second nature...the least of which is that your logistics plan works. That is, getting people from point A to point B, proper triage on site and elsewhere, and that your staging areas are in the correct locations.
  These scenarios all serve to help strengthen ones training and confidence and it's incredibly complex to have multi-agency incidences. Knowing that the communications systems works across agencies and knowing that the Incident Command System works and that there is an even and natural progression of the chain of command, is money well spent IMHO...
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    Alexia10 months, 2 weeks ago
    
    I agree that those things are important to confirm are in good working order, but if you check out the OregonLive.com live blog of the continuing events (there's still today & tomorrow of the exercise) you'll read that "victims" were "rushed" to hospitals not in ambulances or helicopters, as would be the case in a real emergency, but in a big tour bus. Also, my biggest concern is communications and one huge obstacle of a real-world scenario that won't be predictable is how well agencies will connect if any phone lines are blasted. Lastly, if Chertoff has anything to say on-site about the first day's results, that's also anomalous as he'll likely be in D.C. if anything happens. And on that note, why not test such systems where they're more likely to occur, like D.C. or NYC? I understand that NYers would probably say: "Hell no!" but it would have made more sense than Portland.
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      Dicax_Maximus10 months, 2 weeks ago
      
      Alexia - Your comment is both valid and understated ! Forget phone lines (comms hubs will be toast from the EMP alone - assuming a small nuke detonation, as none of the big companies "waste" the money of anywhere near the required shielding), radios will suffer performance degradation, and let's not forget the human element..... Right hand doesn't talk to left hand.....
      I'd have thought that by now, the US (hell, the western world !!) would have learnt that these sort of exercises are not only needed, but need to be more realistic (9/11 comms issues between the various depts responding ?)...
      My only query, is 25 mil for something this small ??? How, or shouldn't I ask ?
      
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        SpazMat10 months, 2 weeks ago
        
        DM:: Oops. Wrong bomb type.
        Dirty bombs don't produce EMP, they are not nukes (writer was wronger). They are conventional explosives with poison (radialogical materials, generally) wrapped around them that get dispersed in the explosion. No comms issues.
        No mass blast and burn casualties. Most victims of a dirty bomb are not actually hurt, "just" poisoned. They are ambulatory, and can either be washed down to decontaminate them, or chelation to try and get out the heavy metals if they are already poisoned.
        Driving them in a bus leaves more ambulances for the actually injured, sounds like good conservation of resources.
        25 mil is on the order or 150 to 300 man years at normal pay and costs. That does not include the cost of facilities rental, explosives, general consumables.
        I'm not saying it's cheap, but for the scale of the thing, not unreasonable.
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        Dicax_Maximus10 months, 2 weeks ago
        
        SM - Nope, I intentionally meant a nuclear detonation NOT a "dirty bomb". Given the state of the world & the way that owners of Uranium & Plutonium stockpiles have with record keeping/security, I thought my post VERY valid.......
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        SpazMat10 months, 2 weeks ago
        
        LOL! I hope you thought your post valid, or I'd would hold you in disdain for making it.
        But you are faulting them on realism:
        "these sort of exercises are not only needed, but need to be more realistic"
        The problem is, you are faulting them for not being realistic on nuclear explosions, a subject they were not addressing. They also did not address the bird flue or impact of an asteroid, why did you not choose to beat them up about those?
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  Goppy10 months, 2 weeks ago
  
  Now you know that aint true bout not havin no money tehran!
  WE got more money than we know whut to do with.
  Well, acktually, we DONT have enough money since GW gave up all that income back to the rich folk.
  And acktually, we DO know whut to do with whut we dont have - we send it to IRAQ!!
  I believe we are spendin 10 BILLION a month now!
  But of course, we dont have any money fer the SCHIP program.
  And of course, Health Care is too big a problem to solve.
  Basically, we Conseratives liek simple problems to solve. Liek how to enthread our future into foreign civil wars.
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silvera10 months, 2 weeks ago

A $25 million dollar PR stunt so the dimwits running the US can pat themselves on the back and act like they are really doing something. Heck of a job Mikey!
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  afoaf10 months, 2 weeks ago
  
  Agreed.
  FEMA is a farce.
  They can hold all the unrealistic drills they want but when the ****** hits the fan again, it'll be New Orleans II.
  They should stick to their financial recovery programs and stay out of large scale logistical programs that they have historically failed miserably at.
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  afoaf10 months, 2 weeks ago
  
  http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb105-15.html
  Any time there is a natural disaster FEMA is trotted out as an example of how well government programs work. In reality, by using taxpayer dollars to provide disaster relief and subsidized insurance, FEMA itself encourages Americans to build in disaster-prone areas and makes the rest of us pick up the tab for those risk decisions. In a well-functioning private marketplace, individuals who chose to build houses in flood plains or hurricane zones would bear the cost of the increased risk through higher insurance premiums. FEMA's activities undermine that process. Americans should not be forced to pay the cost of rebuilding oceanfront summer homes. This $4 billion-a-year agency should be abolished.
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silvera10 months, 2 weeks ago

I didn't used to think BushCo was bright enough for a "Master Plan" but by now I'm pretty much convinced; they want to keep us continually afraid. I'm pretty sure with last century event planning skills I could've done the whole charade for maybe...$15 Million and had enough left over for a keg party.
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truthiness10 months, 2 weeks ago

I dont really know how you run a realistic dirty bomb drill. essentially it is a combo hazmat/burn event for the first responders.
they probably learned a few things about radiation burns, and that doesnt require the whole city involvment. and "duck and cover" was completly useless except to make people feel involved.
cities like LA and NYC will receive data from this learning experience, so that when they run drills (which will be far more complicated due to the greater likelihood of being a target) they will have something to work with.

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