New Yorkers are frighteningly unprepared for a terrorist attack

[lostinblue 1,989]

New Yorkers are frighteningly unprepared for a terrorist attack

The Cold War marked the high point of America’s civil defense system. Starting under President Harry Truman, the fear of a nuclear attack from the Soviet Union sparked emergency communication systems, air raid sirens, plans for cities to evacuate and hospitals to mobilize.

Bomb shelters were stocked with food and medicine, and mandatory drills showed people how to get to them. Millions of students practiced cowering under their desks.

Duck-and-cover is now mocked, but there remains much to admire in the civil defense approach. It grew out of a realization that the civilian population would be on its own during an attack and that individuals needed plans to follow and rehearsals would save lives.

Today, Islamic terrorism is the global menace, and with attacks proliferating, New York should consider a modified civil defense approach. While 9/11 led to many changes in the heroic police and fire departments, there still exists a looming gap between government preparedness and that of the general public.

For example, do workers on the 20th floor of a Midtown high-rise know what to do if terrorists take over the lobby? Is there a single communications system in the building to alert people in various companies? Is there a person in a secure location responsible for delivering potentially lifesaving instructions?

The answer to these and other critical questions is “Sometimes.” Some buildings have emergency plans and practice using them.

But the vast majority of people in New York offices don’t know what to do in a terrorist emergency. While most buildings conduct fire drills, active-shooter or hostage situations would require different judgments and responses, yet few buildings are prepared.

New York must do more to protect its civilian population. With more than 2 million people working in Manhattan alone, often flimsy security makes high-rise buildings inviting targets.

Hitting New York is the goal of every jihadist, a fact not lost on City Hall and the NYPD. Among many initiatives, former Commissioner Ray Kelly built an anti-terror unit and stationed detectives around the world to gather operational details from attacks so the city could better prepare.

Top cop Bill Bratton expanded most Kelly initiatives and created new ones in response to the expansion of terrorism and the variety of attacks. Some happen at single sites and are over in minutes, others involve simultaneous hits on multiple sites, and still others last for days with many hostages. The attackers’ weaponry varies from assault rifles to grenades to bombs to suicide vests.

The necessity of different kinds of responses explains why the NYPD spent Monday on a simulated scenario of four attacks happening at once around the city.

“It was designed to test the discipline of command and control,” said John Miller, the deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism. “You don’t want everyone to respond to one place and get police gridlock. It might not be a one-and-done attack, so you have to anticipate your responses to the second, third and fourth sites.”

That’s a lesson from Paris, where there were six attack sites in November. In Mumbai in 2008, 10 attackers carried out shootings and bombings at 12 sites over four days. In Brussels last week, large bombs were set off at two transportation sites.

The November attacks in Paris and the December attack in San Bernardino also revealed another troubling feature: speed.

“Most are over quickly, lasting only between four and nine minutes,” Miller told me. “They come in with a plan to kill as many people as they can as fast as they can.”

The attack on the Bataclan theater in Paris was especially fast and lethal, with most of the 89 victims killed in a horrific barrage that investigators believe lasted just seven minutes and 50 seconds, Miller said. While there are questions about whether Paris police should have arrived sooner and stormed the killers faster, it is hard to imagine any police force organizing and executing a large, heavily armed response in less than eight minutes.

In fact, Miller says, the Bataclan terrorists had time to slaughter even more concertgoers but ran out of ammunition, save for the ammo clip each saved for a martyrdom finale with police.

The NYPD has building plans for almost all major structures, works with building owners, and has given 20,000 people voluntary training about active-shooter situations where three main scenarios are discussed: run, hide and fight.

“If you have a clear path to get out, get out,” Miller says. “If you have to hide, we give training on what things to use to barricade the door. And if you have to fight, we identify things around you that can be used.”

That’s a good start, but a comprehensive approach to civilian protection is essential. Individual workers should know their options in advance, and building owners have a duty to prepare for the worst.

Those are the awful facts of life in the age of terrorism.

Truth is a casualty

A New York Times headline is all mixed up about cause and effect.

It reads: “Violence Surges in Chicago Even as Policing Debate Rages On.”

The implication is that the “policing debate” is either irrelevant to the violence or should have stopped it. Instead, Chicagoans are killing in staggering numbers, with murder up 84 percent over last year.

A more honest news story would connect the dots between the “debate” and the homicide surge. It would cite the “Ferguson effect,” which holds that the anti-police agenda sweeping the nation is causing police to pull back on enforcement.

That story could have this headline: “Attacks on Police Lead to Murder Surge in Chicago.”

It’s a shorter headline, and has the added virtue of being true.

http://nypost.com/2016/03/29/new-yorkers-are-frighteningly-unprepared-for-a-terrorist-attack/

“If you have a clear path to get out, get out,” Miller says. “If you have to hide, we give training on what things to use to barricade the door. And if you have to fight, we identify things around you that can be used.”

[Jacque67 7,328]

The cab drivers will sort'em out. Don't fret.

Edited April 9, 2016 by Jacque67

[ExPatty 502]

It need not be a terrorist attack. Just a natural disaster. We've seen in recent years (Katrina, sandy) that many people have no preparedness sense whatsoever. They keep no meaningful food, power, no way to prepare the food, etc.

In 1859 there was a massive solar flare. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859

In June 2013, a joint venture from researchers at Lloyd's of London and Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER) in the United States used data from the Carrington Event to estimate the current cost of a similar event to the U.S. alone at $0.6–2.6 trillion.

That's if it happens today. Would result in massive, long term outages. My household has the supplies on hand to go for at least a month without having to set foot outside and stand in a FEMA line. I know for certain most people cannot do that.

Read today the FBI is reminding power companies about their weaknesses: http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/275723-fbi-warning-power-companies-of-cyber-threats-to-electric-grid-report