The Next Disaster: Are We Ready？Are We Really Prepared？After the attacks on September 11 a

The Next Disaster: Are We Ready？

Are We Really Prepared？

After the attacks on September 11 and the hurricanes that slammed the Gulf Coast last year, you'd expect our major cities to be ready with disaster plans that will save lives and property. There's no doubt we'll be hit again—maybe even harder—because the list of possible calamities (灾难) is long: from a bird flu pandemic to a massive California earthquake, to more monster storms, to another terrorist attack.

But are we really prepared to protect people, as well as their homes and businesses？ Every major urban area has received federal funding, much of it from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in order to make their cities more secure. But there are no set criteria for measuring preparedness (the feds are working on that), and the quality of disaster plans varies widely throughout the country.

So we decided to do an independent assessment of 10 high-risk urban areas, focusing on key security indicators. We analyzed public data, consulted with federal and local emergency workers, and contacted the mayors' offices to gauge (测量) the readiness of these cities to meet both natural and man-made disasters.

Our criteria fell under three main categories: Emergency Readiness, Crisis Communications, and Medical Response.

Emergency Readiness

Are there at least 1,000 first responders (such as police, fire and EMTs) per 100,000 residents？ They're our first line of protection in almost any disaster situation—professionals who are trained to handle everything from rescuing victims to providing first aid, to enforcing quarantines (封锁), to directing traffic for evacuations (疏散).

Are there federal search-and-rescue teams based within 50 miles？ Large cities often have specialized teams to deal with such things as high-rise-building rescues or hazardous chemical spills. But these squads are sometimes small, ill-equipped, or run on a shoestring. This is not true of federal urban search-and-rescue task forces that the DHS supports across the country. Each task force is made of 62 members and 4 canines, as well as a "comprehensive cache" of equipment. DHS task forces are not automatically assigned; a city needs to apply and present its case.

Has the city or state earned "green status" from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention？ Suppose that in the midst of a flu pandemic or bio terror attack, your city ran low on critical medicines. The CDC stands ready to help by distributing drugs and medical equipment from its Strategic National Stockpile. But the agency wants to know that a city or state is able to quickly mobilize hundreds of health workers and volunteers trained to handle the logistics, and has space set aside for storage and refrigeration. You're best off if your city has earned the CDC's "green status"—even if the state itself has not—because it means local health teams can handle the supplies on their own.

Does the city website explain clearly what to do in case of evacuation？ Who can forget the images of stranded New Orleans residents, or the 5-mph crawl out of Houston？ It turned out that New Orleans's evacuation plans were both inadequate and poorly communicated. One way cities can avoid a similar nightmare is to put clear and easy-to-find evacuation information on their websites. Some cities, such as Boston and Washington, post the preferred street routes. Others, like Las Vegas, won't disclose details due to security fears, but their websites may provide ways to quickly get evacuation details when you need them (such as numbers to call or alert services you can sign up for). Among the more important things to address are people without vehicles of their own (a huge failing in New Orleans) and instructions for pet owners.

Does the website include details for residents with special needs？ In July 1995, a vicious heat wave killed

A．Y

B．N

C．NG