Dear
friends,
Good morning. “At least a quarter if
the nation’s state governments are not confident that their basic plan to
respond to a catastrophic event is adequate,” The New York Times reported (Feb.
13). That figure rose to 52 percent when the question focused on confidence in
handling mass casualties.
Emergency preparedness in the
Delaware Valley is the topic for the Phillips Mill Annual Forum on Sunday
(March 19). “Ready or Not,” is the title, Mary Lou Huchet told me when she
asked me to be the moderator. “If we have learned nothing else from recent
events, it’s the critical importance of local preparation- regardless of what
is or is not happening at the state and federal levels,” she advised. “We must
be ready here!”
The images from the September 11th attack and the Katrina hurricane remain
etched in our memories. The federal, state and local responses to the Katrina
disaster were inexcusable.
It comes as no surprise to hear residents worry
about this region’s preparedness. How ready are we? We live on America’s most
important highways of history. Interstate 95 is the route over which the
American Revolution was fought…from Boston to Richmond. Our major East Coast cities
and communication systems lie along this corridor.
Think of our strategic location. By
air, we’re 50 miles from New York City; only 25 miles from Philadelphia. How
vulnerable are we to a terrorist attack?
Or, could a natural disaster overwhelm us? It did in
1955 when a hurricane swept down the Delaware River, flooding the region.
Mighty Betsy was raised in New Hope. She remembers Solebury National employees
taking money out of the bank vault by boat. That 1955 flood took lives and cost
millions in property damage.
The Bucks County Planning Commission claims that
$7.2 billion in property damage is at risk because of the history of flooding.
That computes to 7,800 buildings, which sit in Bucks floodplains. The
municipalities at the greatest risk of flooding, in order are: Bristol
Township, Falls, Tinicum, Yardley, Upper and Lower Makefield, Middletown,
Bensalem, Bridgeton, Lower Southampton, Quakertown, Riegelsville, and Milford.
The other day, I drove from our home
to Pottstown. Just east of Quakertown, I could see the smoke from the nuclear
towers at Limerick. If terrorists struck Limerick with a nuclear device,
prevailing winds would send radioactive material into Bucks County,
Philadelphia and New York City within minutes.
Or, how would local, state and the federal
governments respond to an outbreak of pandemic influenza?
Forty years ago, I remember
participating in a Bucks County emergency preparedness drill. The department of
civil defense led the county government through a mock crisis lasting an entire
day. In 1966, the world was experiencing the height of the Cold War. Scenes of
death in Vietnam were filling our TV screens at dinnertime each night. The
county commissioners wanted the government to be able to respond to any
emergency if called upon.
Today, I have not heard of similar
drills. But the Phillips Mill panel will discuss these questions, I have no
doubt. I look forward to hearing what Dr. Eleanor Travers, Harry Crohe, Richard
Mangan, and David Burd have to say.
Travers is the Director of the Bucks
County Department of Health and is responsible for public health emergency
preparedness. Crohe is the Operations and Training Officer for the Bucks County
Emergency Management Agency. A former Bristol Councilman, he is a long-standing
volunteer fireman and emergency technician. Mangan is Solebury Township’s Chief
of Police and the Assistant Director of Emergency Management. Burd is the
Coordinator of Emergency Management for Lambertville and has extensive training
and experience in local emergency management.
I’ll see many of you this Sunday at 2:30 at Phillips
Mill, just north of New Hope on River Road. Admission is free.
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith