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Recovery from Dirty Bomb Would Fall on Feds But They Aren't Ready |
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by Mickey McCarter
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Tuesday, 15 September 2009 |
GAO survey finds cities would be quickly overwhelmed
US cities would be so overwhelmed by a dirty bomb or nuclear bomb attack that they would invariably rely upon the federal government for recovery, but agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have not yet completed their planning for delivering such assistance, congressional investigators warned Monday.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) surveyed 13 major US cities and their states and related FEMA regional offices, discovering that each quickly would require assistance from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for analysis and cleanup activities, which would significantly mitigate the impact of a radiological dispersal device (RDD) or an improvised nuclear device (IND), Gene Aloise, GAO director of Natural Resources and Environment, testified before the House Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology.
"However, we found that the federal government has not sufficiently planned to undertake these activities," Aloise stated. "For example, FEMA has not issued a national disaster recovery strategy or plans for RDD and IND incidents as required by law. Existing federal guidance provides only limited direction for federal agencies to develop their own recovery plans and conduct exercises to test preparedness. Out of over 70 RDD and IND exercises conducted in the last five years, only three have included interagency recovery discussions following a response exercise."
Under law, FEMA must produce a comprehensive emergency management system for response and recovery to disasters-including attacks from dirty bomb and nuclear devices. FEMA and other federal agencies to date have completed significant work on the response to such attacks with scant attention given to recovery, however, Aloise reported in testimony titled "Combating Nuclear Terrorism: Preliminary Observations on Preparedness to Recover from Possible Attacks Using Radiological or Nuclear Materials."
Responses to such attacks would call for evacuations and medical treatment to victims while recovery would entail cleanup of radioactive contamination and restoration of services and infrastructure, Aloise added.
About two-thirds of the city, state, and federal agencies surveyed by GAO doubted the capacity of the federal government to provide recovery assistance after a radiological attack.
Most of the cities and states surveyed confirmed that a national disaster recovery strategy would provide significant assistance if it filled gaps and resolved conflicts in federal guidance, Aloise said. Ten of the cities specifically cited a need for guidance on monitoring radiation levels, cleanup standards, and management of radioactive waste.
The US federal government could take some lessons learned from the government of the United Kingdom, Aloise noted, which has issued national recovery guidance and a national handbook for radiation incidents and has conducted a full recovery exercise.
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Mickey McCarter |
| About the author: |
| eNewsletter Editor/Senior Washington Correspondent,
is a journalist with more than a decade of experience in reporting
on
military affairs and information technology.
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