IN SOMERVELL COUNTY SOUTHWEST OF FORT WORTH, local leaders go about the daily business of running the county, but underneath the normal routine are signs of a county on a heightened state of alert. Given the word, county and emergency officials are ready to activate the local Emergency Management Center within fifteen minutes. Evacuation plans have been put in place, the local hospital is working on a bioterrorism response and law enforcement officers are on stepped-up patrols around the county.
For a county that’s only 188-square miles and home to only 6,000- plus residents, all the security might seem a little overboard to some county officials, but that’s probably because they don’t have a nuclear power plant sitting in the middle of their county.
“We’re the second smallest county in the state. I think people sometimes forget that we have the situations here that we do,” Somervell County Judge Walter Maynard said.
Prior to Sept. 11, the worst case scenario, and an unlikely one, that Somervell County officials and residents had to fear was an accidental leak from the Comanche Peak nuclear power plant, which is located in the small town of Glen Rose. Now the threat of a terrorist attack on a nuclear facility – either by flying an airplane into it or by taking it over by force – is considered a serious and realistic risk, at least by the federal government.
Because of the plant’s location in the county, local authorities fall under the jurisdiction of nuclear regulatory requirements, which mandate extra security precautions and emergency plans in the wake of the events Sept. 11. Somervell County deputies have helped beef up security by guarding the plant’s gates. Sheriff’s deputies are also keeping careful watch all over the county, especially around nearby lakes, which have become restricted areas because of their access to the plant. All members of the local EOC are on a ready state of alert, prepared to make critical emergency decisions without having to activate the EOC. Maynard says he not only feels his county is more informed than the average community about what’s going on, he also feels they are more prepared to handle an emergency situation, whether it’s an attack on the nuclear facility or some other type of disaster.
“I don’t think if someone wants to dive a plane into the plant that we can stop them, but we feel like we can respond to that emergency if it happens,” he said.
For local officials in Somervell County, the weeks and months after Sept .11 have meant a lot of cooperation and communication with federal authorities, including the FBI and CIA. In late October, when Attorney General John Ashcroft announced a credible threat of another terrorist attack in the U.S., Maynard says officials with the federal government and TXU, the company that owns the plant, briefed him on plans to restrict air traffic within a 10-mile radius of the plant. County officials also faced the possibility of National Guard troops being deployed to their area to help guard the facility, which probably would have caused a state of panic among local residents. Even now, the local sheriff’s office still keeps in regular contact with the FBI and CIA and Maynard says he has weekly briefings with plant representatives.
For Maynard and other county officials, it’s all part of their contribution to the national homeland defense effort, and it isn’t likely to end any time soon. The events of September 11 awakened county officials to a new reality where decontamination suits, breathing masks and hazmat teams could become just as much a part of county operations as road maintenance and jails. Victoria County Judge Helen Walker says the terrorist attacks have forced most county officials to reevaluate their policies and procedures when it comes to responding to disasters.
“I think you’ll see entities all over looking a little more closely and maybe dusting off that plan book and looking again,” she said.
With the creation of the White House’s Office of Homeland Security, headed by former governor Tom Ridge, federal, state and local authorities are being called upon to coordinate and communicate in a common goal of securing the country against future attacks. No matter how big or small their counties are, county officials should be prepared to play a large role in this effort because they will be the first responders at the scene of any disaster, says Jack Colley, assistant state coordinator for the Texas Division of Emergency Management. Whether a terrorist attack happens in Harris County or Loving County, sheriff ’s departments, EMS, fire and local public health facilities are responsible for on-the-ground response and recovery. Elected officials, including mayors and county judges, are held accountable for planning and coordinating a response to an emergency situation, and now terrorist attacks have been added to that list, Colley said.
For many counties low on funding, this could be a large order to fill. The state’s Division of Emergency Management reported local governments need $195 million to better equip first responders such as police, public health, fire departments and hazardous materials teams with protective suits, decontamination equipment and monitoring and detecting equipment. The DEM also reported there is a training shortfall among emergency responders with more than 290,000 personnel across the state in need of terrorism response training. It’s safe to say that this shortfall lies largely within rural counties. Large, urban counties likely have a terrorism task force or a hazmat response team, while in a rural county the closest hazmat team might be 100 miles away and the county depends on neighboring counties for assistance and equipment.
There are also discrepancies across the state in terms of what kind of approach counties are taking to the terrorism preparedness issue. In Victoria County, Walker says officials are upgrading their emergency management plans to include bioterrorism or chemical attacks and emergency officials plan to participate in a training exercise early this year.
“It’s pretty far fetched to believe Victoria County would be a target for some reason but apparently these thing are pretty far spread and we can’t afford not to be as ready as we can be,” she said.
In other counties, officials have focused mainly on beefing up security at the courthouse by adding cameras, bulletproof glass and X-ray machines. This might help county officials feel more secure, but it won’t help if there is a chemical attack at the local community college. Some counties in rural areas may continue to hold on to the “It will never happen to us” mentality, but Maynard in Somervell County says county officials need to change their perspective.
“You need to take it seriously and do some preparation,” he said. ’If you have hospitals, you need to see if they are brought up-to-date on biological and chemical terrorism and you need to make sure your volunteer fire departments are ready to respond to a disaster.”
John Sneed, emergency management coordinator for Williamson County, took it seriously two years ago when he started a program called the advanced preparedness team. It was soon nicknamed the advanced paranoia team by critics in the county who believed it was a waste of money to train for terrorist attacks. But, then Sept. 11 hit, and everyone’s attitude changed.
During a practice scenario this summer, the Williamson County team partnered with local hospitals in a mock drill for a sarin gas attack. Sneed said he was very pleased with how first responders and hospital staff responded and feels the county is prepared to handle a real life situation. But, there is still more work to be done. The department plans to buy equipment, including masks, suits and kits to handle chemical attacks. But, even within his own county, Sneed said there is a different mentality on terrorism preparedness issues.
“In the southwestern edge of the county where the majority of the growth is, the fire, EMS and police are really more responsive to this but you get into the more rural areas and they are little bit less receptive to training and purchasing. I think their attitude is that it would never happen in a little town of 600 to 800 people and I understand that statement,” he said.
Before a huge tornado hit the town of Jarrell in 1997, Sneed said he thought the same thing.
For county officials, the first step is to create an emergency management plan and establish a location for an emergency management center, if counties do not already have one in place. Texas law mandates that local entities prepare and keep current an emergency management plan that includes security measures in the event of a disaster. Although most counties might have plans to prepare for tornadoes or floods, now officials need to update those plans to include responses to biological or chemical attacks or explosions.
The DEM also encourages counties to participate in as many emergency training exercises as possible, especially those that cover biological or chemical attacks. Only through training will counties know how well or chemical attacks. Only through training their emergency plans work and which areas are in need of improvement. Sneed said the DEM offers a wide range of courses and training exercises that are free for emergency management personnel so smaller counties don’t have to worry about the budgetary impact.
Besides equipping EMS and fire personnel with the necessary equipment, county officials also need to make sure local public health facilities have plans in place to handle a biological outbreak and have the capabilities to detect, treat and contain a biological incident. Local hospitals and health departments in the county need to be able to recognize signs of illness, report the suspect diseases, treat mass casualties and provide necessary antibiotics or vaccines. Since Sept. 11, the Texas Department of Health has been gearing up preparation and response activities, but the state system relies on local public health entities to identify attacks, and little is known about levels of readiness at the local level, especially in rural areas.
Surveys have shown that reporting of infectious diseases at the local level is poor and many health care professionals lack the capability to handle bioterrorism. In a report to Gov. Perry, local governments and health departments were stated to have “limited capacity to detect, track, analyze or respond to outbreaks and epidemics of communicable diseases.”
Paul McGaha, public health regional director for TDH regions 4 and 5, said the state has been working to educate local public health officials about biological agents and to improve communication between health agencies.
“We also have been helping local jurisdictions develop public health response plans, with primary emphasis on terrorism and bioterrorism plans,” he said.
In the event of an emergency, the state could get medication to a particular particular area within a matter of hours, but McGaha advises local health entities to increase their on-hand stockpile of antibiotics and medications to provide the first few hours’ worth of treatment before the TDH can get to the scene.
But, of course, all this additional training, equipment and medical supplies will cost money in addition to the already stepped-up patrols and security that has required an increase in overtime pay. Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas, who serves on the Governor’s homeland security task force, said many agencies, both governmental and private, voiced concerns about the cost of security during a hearing about terrorism preparedness issues in Houston.
“Not only now, but in the future, it’s going to be costly adding additional security and it’s impacting everyone as far as overtime,” he said. “This is going to live with us for a long time to come.”
In Harris County alone, county officials spent $270,000 just to increase security at the courthouse including more manpower, equipment and bomb-sniffing dogs. It will cost about $650,000 to maintain the new positions and equipment. Other county officials say they have not yet figured out how much beefed up security will end up costing the county.
Most counties are looking to the state and the federal government to help offset the costs of additional security since Sept. 11 as well as future homeland security efforts. At the state level, the Governor’s Task Force made several recommendations for improving the state’s ability to respond to terrorist attacks, including spending $6 million a year to help TDH add staff, upgrade laboratory equipment and improve training. The money would pay for 59 more full-time epidemiologists and other medical staff, as well as an Epidemiology Response Team for each of the state’s eight public health regions. About $3 million of that funding funding would go to improving communication among local health departments by improving the state’s Health Alert Network. The funding also would help train local health departments that don’t have bioterrorism specialists.
The task force also recommends making more training resources available to law enforcement and fire agencies to help them prepare for a disaster. A new task force committee also will focus on public safety issues, including communication between law enforcement agencies. Sheriff Thomas, who will serve on the committee, said a key issue to most law enforcement agencies is improving radio communications. Agencies need to develop a system where different agencies, whether local, state or federal, can communicate by coordinating their radio systems.
To help facilitate coordination among levels of government, the National Association of Counties has requested Ridge to create an official State and Local Advisory Committee to the White House Office of Homeland Security. NaCo’s Homeland Security Task Force also recommended a number of policy actions to help counties, including more funding to local law enforcement agencies, reimbursement for security costs and training first responders and elected county officials on emergency response. Gov. Ridge pledged to provide financial support and resources to state and local officials to help bolster terrorism preparedness.
The Justice Department also has about $7.5 million for Texas cities and counties as part of a large scale national domestic preparedness program. Wichita Falls and Wichita County emergency management teams received a $188,000 grant to buy protective gear, chemical monitoring devices and computer equipment as defense against terrorism. Wichita Falls and Wichita County recently received training through the Texas Engineering Extension Service as part of the first phase of the funding program.
MORE THAN 350 PEOPLE H A V E REPORTED to local hospitals with fever, nausea and chest pains. At least one person has died and most patients are seriously ill with what physicians fear may be a biological attack using ricin, a deadly protein toxin.
Law enforcement officials believe a local right-wing extremist group is using the annual Hotter-NHell Hundred, a race that draws 10,000 to 15,000 people to Wichita Falls, to stage a high profile attack. Law enforcement officials suspect many of the sick patients were poisoned by eating food contaminated with ricin during a mass spaghetti dinner the night before or inhaled it through contaminated misters sprayed during the race. While local emergency responders are scrambling to respond to more calls for assistance and trying to quarantine the affected areas, reports come over the dispatch of a serious car accident out in the county. There are also reports that shots have been fired and an officer is down at the accident site.
An hour later, there is a massive explosion of a railroad car containing 5,000 gallons of diazinon, a chemical agent that can be hazardous if inhaled or contacted through the skin. While covering the railroad car explosion from the air, a Dallas news helicopter crashes near the site, stirring up the chemical fumes. Four people in the helicopter are reported dead. By the end of the day there have been 10,000 mass casualties reported in Wichita County.
Meanwhile, the local sheriff ’s department, police, fire and EMS personnel are taxed with trying to respond to a large-scale terrorist attack against the local community, but there is some confusion about who’s in charge and who controls which resources. When 9- 1-1 calls were first coming in, incident command posts were set up at each incident site to coordinate a routine emergency response, but once the disaster became a large scale event the local Emergency Operations Center was activated. This meant dozens of agencies, ranging from fire and EMS to public health and public works, were responding to the situation and soon communication problems developed between the responders in the field and different officials in the EOC.
“There was no information going back and forth from the (incident command post) and the EOC,” said Lt. Scot Houghton from the Wichita Falls DPS Disaster District. “It was not clear who was in control and that was an issue.”
Similar problems occurred in Tyler when a fogger truck carrying tularemia, a biological agent, crashed and released some of the agent. The city and county immediately activated their EOCs, but with two EOCs in two different locations there were massive communications problems trying to coordinate resources between the agencies. Jim Seaton, the Smith County Emergency Management Coordinator, said the county EOC also had only four phone lines to communicate with responders in the field and had to rely heavily on cell phones.
“Information gathering was a challenge,” Seaton said. “We don’t keep biological information in our EOC.”
Texarkana officials had it tough when a major terrorist attack crossed the state lines between Texas and Arkansas so city and county emergency responders from both states responded. A rail tank car behind the county correctional facility was damaged by an explosion and a chemical, anhydrous ammonia, was released. Inmates at the correctional facility had to be evacuated and a suspected militia member escaped. Two incident command posts were set up – one at the explosion site and another to coordinate the manhunt for the escaped prisoners. But agencies in both states were operating under two different emergency plans and had to follow different sets of laws, so things became tricky.
An Emergency Management Center was activated in the bi-state Justice Center to coordinate the response but problems arose. Dave Hall, emergency manager for Texarkana, Texas, said there were not enough phone lines in the EOC to handle a full-scale emergency activation. A secondary EOC had to be activated because the main EOC was too small, but the secondary center was not equipped with two-way radio channels to communicate with police, fire and EMS. Officials also found out there were difficulties transmitting messages between the command posts in the field and within the EOC. With information coming in constantly over the phones and radios, e-mail messages were a necessity for delivering messages but the laptop computers available were not networked. The escaped prisoners were eventually apprehended and the chemical contained but one person was killed and seven injured during the incident.
Fortunately, these were not real events, but emergency training exercises to help city and county officials learn how to respond to a major disaster. The scenarios were presented to local and state officials as part of a terrorism preparedness symposium sponsored by the state’s Division of Emergency Management. Jack Colley, assistant state coordinator for the DEM, said the threat of terrorist attacks was both very serious and very real. In the event of an incident, local officials are called upon to be the first responders and it is the role of local elected officials to not only coordinate a response to such incidences, but to prepare for them as well.
In most cases, there were a lot of things that went right. Information was disseminated well within the local EOCs. All the agencies that responded had plans in place and officials maintained a continuity of government. In the case of Texarkana, officials had a mutual aid agreement in place that allowed any agency to take charge of an accident no matter where it was located until the agency with jurisdiction came and took over. This helped local officials respond quickly to the incident without squabbling over territorial issues, Hall said.
But, unfortunately, the scenarios also illustrate the many things that can go wrong during a disaster response. And when it comes to coordinating an emergency response to a major incident, communications is often the biggest stumbling block, said Lt. Houghton from Wichita Falls.
During a major disaster there are usually two different kinds of communication going on – one internal between local agencies and one external between local officials and the state. After a local EOC has been activated, if the event goes beyond local officials’ capability, then the District Disaster Command is called, and from there, it moves up to the state EOC. Communication between local EOCs, the DDCs and the state EOCs has been laid out in the state’s emergency management plan. But, in most cases, local officials found a breakdown occurred internally between responders in the field and the officials in the local EOC. As in the case of Wichita County, Houghton said local officials needed to establish an internal framework for information to pass along the different commands at the local level.
In some cases, the flow of information is hampered because city and county responders use different radio frequencies and can’t talk to each other. This happened during a sarin gas attack exercise involving Midland and Ector county officials and the city of Midland. Information within the EOC was disseminated efficiently, but communication between the EOC and officials in the field was disorganized. In order to prevent this from happening in a real disaster, local officials need to develop a plan to coordinate radio communication between different levels of government.
Another key to improving communications is adding more phone lines, fax machines and e-mail capabilities in the local EOCs so information can flow in and out more efficiently. In the case of Texarkana, Hall said officials are now looking into an in-house communications system linking the primary EOC and communications centers with the secondary EOC to prevent some of the problems that occurred. He also said they have added a hub for the computers so messages can be sent to different computer stations. Seaton with Smith County said officials there plan to consolidate their EOCs and communications center to improve coordination as a result of the problems they encountered during their exercise.
Houghton also recommended local officials identify the roles and responsibilities of everyone at the EOC level. This will help define who controls what resources. Both Houghton and Seaton said emergency managers should also develop a system of tracking and assigning requested resources during a disaster so there is no duplication of efforts or confusion.
Hall from Texarkana said his city’s exercise pointed out the lack of involvement of medical personnel in the emergency plan. It was the first time public health officials were involved in a major EOC activation.
“Hospitals tend to plan in a vacuum and they have not been as involved in emergency management planning as we would have liked,” he said. Since the exercise, emergency managers in Texarkana have met with hospital representatives and organized a medical response team for biological and chemical issues and Hall recommends other communities do the same. Hall said local officials have started scheduling meetings between the different agencies and departments to be better prepared when a real life incident occurs.
IT’S 2 A.M. AND THE TORRENTIAL RAIN that started earlier that afternoon hasn’t let up. The National Weather Service has put the area under a flash flood watch and dispatchers at the sheriff ’s office are getting reports of flooded roadways as the 9-1- 1 calls start coming in for high-water rescues of stranded motorists. The local river has already reached flood stage and houses located near rivers and creeks are starting to flood. Worst yet, the weather radar shows that the storm is only getting worse. Local officials are preparing to battle what could be the worst flooding the county has seen in years.
Shelters need to be set up for displaced residents. Flooded roads need to be blocked off and residents living in floodprone areas need to be notified to make plans to evacuate. Emergency responders must attempt to rescue people stranded in cars or in their homes and local hospitals are being overloaded with patients. Dispatchers are watching the National Weather Service radar to know which areas might be hit next. Meanwhile, local media are ringing off the hook trying to get the latest information. All of this is going on simultaneously and unless the county has an emergency plan in place and an emergency operations center to coordinate activities, things could get out of control very quickly.
When the Guadalupe River swelled its banks and put large parts of Victoria County under water back in 1998, County Judge Helen Walker said the key to survival was having a good emergency plan in place and emergency officials who knew their duties and responsibilities.
Because it was a countywide emergency, Walker was responsible for declaring a state of disaster and activating the local emergency operations center. Local officials, including the sheriff, police chief, fire marshal, mayor and EMS personnel immediately came together under one roof to work with the emergency management coordinator on a countywide response plan.
Fortunately, no lives were lost in Victoria County during the flooding but more than 1,000 homes were damaged. During those first few days of flooding and clean-up, Walker said it was imperative to have different officials at the table to help direct resources. At the Victoria County EOC, someone from the county fire marshal’s office was in charge of deploying equipment, such as loaders or helicopters, when they were needed. Sheriff ’s and police personnel were in charge of keeping people out of dangerous areas and watching both the river level and forecasts to help evacuate residents. The local health department was in charge of making sure flu and tetanus shots were available for those going into flood waters or who came into contact with flood debris.
Financial people, such as the county treasurer and city finance officer, were also brought in as part of the EOC to make sure local officials had access to funding in case they had to make an expenditure immediately.
“It was truly a team effort of hundreds of people,” Walker said. “You just take things minute by minute and whatever happens next you put the pieces together. Things that we planned for we found out in our (emergency) plan didn’t work, but by and large the plan worked a whole lot better than we expected it would.”
With any luck, most county officials won’t ever have to deal with a 100-year flood, a massive tornado or a terrorist attack, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be prepared in case the worst happens. The Texas Disaster Act directs each county to have its own emergency management program or to participate in a local or interjurisdictional program that serves the entire county. Counties must also keep an emergency management plan that provides for disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. The emergency responsibilities of each agency and official must be clearly laid out in the plan.
John Sneed, emergency management coordinator for Williamson County, said the point of having an emergency management coordinator and an emergency operations center is to facilitate the needs of the responders in the field in the most effective way during a disaster.
It’s up to officials in the EOC to make sure emergency responders have the resources and manpower they need in order to save lives and property.
“(The officials in the EOC) go out and take care of the problems so the field staff can take care of the people; that’s the ultimate plan,” he said.
When an F5 tornado struck the small town of Jarrell in May 1997, Williamson County officials had some advance warning to get the local EOC up and running before the damage began. Sneed said the first thing officials in the EOC did was call in off-duty sheriff’s deputies and fire and EMS personnel. After the tornado hit, emergency officials were able to respond to calls much more quickly because they were already in the field. The tornado caused 27 deaths and 11 injuries.
Officials with the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army also were part of the EOC to help coordinate shelters and meals for disaster victims, Sneed said. As part of the emergency management plan, the county contracts with those agencies to provide support services to residents during a disaster. Sneed said using those agencies worked out well because county officials could focus their resources on rescue and recovery efforts.
Because there were mass fatalities, Sneed said the county set up incident stress debriefings for emergency workers. During the clean up after the tornado in Jarrell, Sneed said the number of fatalities had an emotional impact on rescue workers.
During the first few hours and days, Walker said, it was imperative to have briefings within the EOC every few hours to keep all the officials up to date on what was going on. It’s also important to keep the media informed of events so they, in turn, can inform the public. In Victoria County, Walker said they assigned the commissioners’ court administrative assistant as the public information officer to meet with the media every hour or so to keep them informed of the county’s operations.
However, even with a carefully thought-out emergency management plan, county officials who have survived major disasters say things can and do go wrong. For instance, Sneed said Williamson County emergency responders did not do a good job initially of setting up a unified command center in the field immediately following the tornado.
“It took us several hours to get that working the way it should have. I don’t think it was a problem that hindered us from serving the public, but it just made it harder on ourselves,” he said. The purpose of an incident command system is to bring different department heads together to coordinate a response to a particular incident. Instead of one person from each department dealing with their own issues, officials out in the field make a decision as a group and disseminate that decision out to the departments so there is a coordinated response.
The problem, Sneed said, was that in Williamson County at the time of the tornado, fire and EMS used incident command frequently, but local law enforcement were not as familiar with the system. Even officials in Harris County, who have access to a full range of resources and a full-time emergency operations office, found themselves facing unexpected problems when Tropical Storm Allison hit this past summer. County Judge Robert Eckels said one of the biggest challenges faced by the county emergency operations center was alerting residents to the situation when most of the flooding occurred overnight. The county put information on the website and communicated with the media, but most of the damage happened while residents were asleep.
“People would wake up with six inches of water in their houses. It was hard to get through with radio and television to tens of thousands of people when there is no power,” Eckels said.
Once the flooding was over, county officials also had difficulty notifying people on how to get federal assistance because most people affected by the flood had lost power. County officials resorted to leaving information at the nearest grocery stores to inform residents.
“Even with all the problems, I think we responded much more quickly than has historically occurred with storms this size,” Eckels said.
Walker said looking back on the flood response in 1998 she knows there was room for improvement. For instance, the county had a difficult time tracking down people to make sure they were safe because some people left town or stayed with relatives. Walker said officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency had information on those people, but couldn’t share it with the county, so the county was left in the dark about the whereabouts of those particular residents.
“If we had known we could have had our representatives sitting with FEMA and taking some information from those people,” she said. “There was generally a lack of knowledge and coordination. We missed doing some things because we simply didn’t know to do them.” In the event of a disaster, state and federal officials can become involved once its clear that local resources are not adequate to handle the situation. At first, the county requests state assistance from the local disaster district. The disaster district will use state resources within the district until these resources prove inadequate, then a request is made to the State Emergency Operations Center to bring statewide resources in to handle the disaster. The governor can then request that the president declare a major disaster in the state and FEMA will provide on-site disaster management support.
When the state is called in, agencies from the Forestry Service, the Texas Department of Health, the Attorney General’s office, and the Division of Emergency Management might respond to help bring resources. In addition, military bases might also provide equipment and manpower. Walker said state and federal agencies bring money, manpower and authority to the table, but local officials always remain in charge of running the response operation. Sneed, Walker and Eckels said coordination between local, state and federal officials worked well during their particular disasters.
“I can’t say enough good things (about the state),” Sneed said. “They didn’t come and tell us what to do. They just asked how they could help and you’re so overwhelmed at that point that you want all the help and guidance that you can get.”
Eckels said one of the positive things to come out of responding to a major disaster is that it shows county officials the strengths and weaknesses of their emergency response plans. Sneed said since the tornado in 1997, emergency responders in Williamson County have taken incident command classes to improve in that area. When an Amtrak train derailed a few years ago, Sneed said coordination between fire, EMS and law enforcement officials at the scene was much more effective.
In the meantime, before a disaster strikes, counties are responsible for making sure their plans are workable and that everyone involved knows their duties, Walker said. And, the only way county officials can be assured that their emergency plans will work is to practice by running disaster drills and training emergency responders.
EVEN BEFORE PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH CREATED a national task force to help coordinate federal, state and local response to terrorist threats, sheriff ’s departments and constables throughout Texas answered the call to protect public safety.
In Harris County, constables helped patrol bridges over the Houston Ship channel as well as streets and roads around petrochemical companies and airports. Officers in coastal areas also stepped up patrols around gasoline and chemical plants. In Victoria County, sheriff ’s deputes were used to reinforce airport security. In more rural counties such as Val Verde County, more constables were seen working security at the courthouse or at county-owned utilities. Law enforcement has also been used for security at large sporting events or public gatherings. In the months since the terrorist attacks, sheriff ’s departments also have responded to numerous calls for anthrax or bomb scares. This is all a part of the new reality for county law enforcement officials after September 11.
But, now, three months after the attacks, it is unclear how local law enforcement will fit into the larger picture of national homeland defense over the long term. Steve Westbrook, executive director of the Sheriff ’s Association of Texas, said there will continue to be a cooperative effort between local, state and federal authorities whenever an issue of public safety arises but he doesn’t foresee any big changes on the horizon.
“I think it’s going to be a continuation or possibly an expansion of what’s already happening in terms of our cooperative with federal officials,” he said. “We’re trying to provide information that we have to help them in any way.”
Sheriffs in many counties say they have been in contact with the Federal Bureau of Investigation frequently since the terrorist attacks regarding any specific threats or security needs. Most sheriffs in larger cities said they have kept an open dialogue with federal officials, pledging assistance with manpower, intelligence or equipment if it is needed. Most larger departments also have officers assigned to FBI terrorism task forces to enhance communication and coordination between agencies.
Gary Freeman, president of the Justice of the Peace and Constables Association, said what role county constables would play in the homeland defense effort and their involvement with federal officials would likely vary from region to region, depending on the constables and their capabilities. In Freeman’s precinct, constables have played a rather extensive role in security and patrolling high risk areas because his jurisdiction includes the Houston Ship Channel and a lot of industrial facilities But, as Freeman points out, his department includes 65 officers, which is more than most rural sheriff ’s departments.
Most constables at this point are in an observation mode, Freeman said, because they are not trained or funded to handle things like anthrax or large scale terrorism response. When dealing with a suspicious package or anthrax threats, Freeman said his constables are instructed to secure the scene until the sheriff ’s department, fire or other agency arrives to handle the situation.
“Certainly, every law enforcement officer is thinking in different terms of what is a possible threat,” he said. “Our folks need to be vigilant and mindful of the times and the capabilities out there.”
Tela Mange, spokesperson for the Texas Department of Safety, said local agencies would likely be very involved in terrorism investigations in less obvious ways, whether they intend to or not. Chances are, the next terrorists will be picked up by local law enforcement officers who think they are making a “routine” traffic stop – and the local agencies will find themselves at the center of an effort they hadn’t necessarily intended to be involved in, she said.
“We urge all local law enforcement agencies to remain alert and not become complacent as time passes and there is more space between the present and Sept. 11,” Mange said. In the most recent effort to use local resources in the homeland defense effort, U. S. Attorney General John Ashcroft requested assistance from local law enforcement departments with interviewing a list of individuals, mostly Middle Eastern men, as part of the Sept. 11 investigation.
Some police chiefs around the nation have publicly expressed reservations about participating because they felt the request conflicted with state laws barring racial profiling. In Texas, the Legislature passed a law this past session outlawing the practice of racial profiling and mandating all law enforcement agencies keep statistics on traffic stops including the age, race and gender of the person stopped. Some law enforcement officers argued bringing people in and interviewing them when they have not committed any crimes would violate their civil liberties. But, other police chiefs have said the interviews are no different than other forms of police work during criminal investigations. When a crime is committed, investigators will usually do a neighborhood canvas and question people in the area to find out what they might have seen or known about the crime.
Most sheriffs in Texas say they have not been contacted by the FBI specifically to participate in the interviews. Smith County Sheriff J.B. Smith said even if the Justice Department or FBI asked for assistance, smaller counties would probably not be affected because they have such small populations of Middle Eastern residents. In most cases, larger counties, such as Bexar, Harris, Dallas, Tarrant and El Paso, would be contacted. Westbrook said sheriff departments, if asked to participate in the interviews, shouldn’t be concerned about a conflict between following the law and cooperating with federal authorities.
“I don’t think it’s much of a conflict, especially if it’s requested by a federal agency,” he said. “As the old saying goes, the liability would shift back on the agency requesting the information.”
Many sheriffs said they would not have a problem if they were asked to assist because it is just a part of the multi-jurisdiction cooperation called for as part of homeland security. “I think we’re talking about a different day and time. Now we have to take every measure we can to ensure our well being and if that calls for interviewing people then that’s what it takes,” Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas said. “If the (people on the list) haven’t committed any crimes and don’t have anything to hide, then they should be okay.” Bexar County Sheriff Ralph Lopez said, “Right now I think there are some extreme demands made upon every jurisdiction and I think we are legally and morally obligated to be cooperative.”
ASWINE PRODUCER IN HIDALGO COUNTY accidentally feeds his livestock with food scraps contaminated with Hoof and Mouth Disease, known to veterinarians as Foot and Mouth Disease. The producer bought the food from a foreign ship docked in Brownsville, not knowing the food had originated from an FMDaffected country. Within a few days, some of the producer’s pigs show signs of illness but by the time he contacts the Texas Animal Health Commission, he has already sold some of the pigs. By this point, the disease has become airborne and more than 1,200 susceptible livestock have moved through a nearby market.
Within two days, the TAHC has received reports of sick animals in counties throughout the state. To make matters worse, a truck contaminated with the disease traveled from South Texas to Canada and back. In 24 hours animals exposed to the disease were sent to more than 30 ranches and feedlots in four states. In 48 hours the disease has spread to 17 states and three countries, including Mexico and Canada. Just in Hidalgo County alone, the cost of eradicating the disease is estimated at $50 million.
This scenario is make-believe, but the threat of a foreign animal disease outbreak in Texas is not, says Dr. Linda Logan, Texas state veterinarian and executive director of the TAHC, the state’s livestock health regulatory agency. And, the $50 million needed to clean up Hidalgo County is only the beginning. the beginning.
“That’s only for infrastructure costs in terms of getting people and vehicles,” said Logan. “That’s only the direct costs, not including the long-term costs.”
Money would be needed for diagnosis and surveillance, depopulation of livestock as well as cleaning and disinfecting. Although the scenario TAHC used in November 2000 to train for a foreign animal disease outbreak was written as an accident, Logan say it’s not hard to see why terrorists would target the livestock industry.
A foreign animal disease outbreak would have a significant longterm economic impact on both the state and the nation. Nationally, Texas has the largest number of exotic and domestic livestock – valued at $8 billion. In 1998, Texas cash receipts for cattle and calves was nearly $5.4 billion and the state has more than 36 million head of livestock.
Agriculture is the nation’s largest industry, generating $1 trillion in economic activity and food and fiber systems account for 13 percent of the country’s gross national product. Annually the United States exports $11 billion in live animals and livestock products and Texas alone exports $7.36 billion. Millions of dollars could be lost overnight from restricted trade in both domestic and international markets, the cost of fighting and eradicating the disease, paying indemnity to producers and loss of livestock. One only has to look at the problems faced by Great Britain during its outbreak of FMD last year to know the devastation it can cause.
Livestock market or feedlot operators, producers and veterinarians are the state’s front-line defenders against foreign animal disease, Logan said. The state is dependent on them to watch for and report suspected cases of disease. But, time is critical during an animal disease outbreak and local officials would play a key role in helping to contain an outbreak before it spread. In the event of an outbreak, local officials, including county judges and law enforcement departments, will be called upon to organize a disaster response plan similar to any natural or manmade disaster.
“County officials would be very involved in a foreign animal disease outbreak because this would be a bottom up approach,” Logan said. “Once they suspect a foreign animal disease, they would have to activate their (emergency) operations center at the county and city level through either the mayor or county judge.”
Local law enforcement would play a significant role by helping state authorities with disaster response, including setting up and maintaining quarantines as well as roadblocks to restrict animal movement. During a response to an outbreak, officials have to make sure animals do not move in or out of the infected areas and spread the disease to other ranches or farms. Local authorities might also help with depopulation activities, including moving dead animals and digging trenches to bury them.
TAHC and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Veterinary Sciences teamed up to form the Texas Emergency Response Team, a first-strike force created to respond to animal disease and pest emergencies. In the event of a foreign animal disease outbreak, the first step would be to dispatch one of TAHC’s regulatory veterinarians to the scene. These vets are foreign animal disease diagnosticians who are trained to recognize diseases and collect and ship samples for laboratory diagnosis. After diagnosis, the first step would be to evaluate how big and how bad the outbreak was and local officials would likely be called in to assist in several different ways.
As a way to step up cooperation and coordination with local officials, Logan said TAHC staff have been traveling the state visiting with local leaders to provide disease information and instructions on how to report suspected cases. Local leaders also are encouraged to include animal health emergency preparedness in their emergency plans.
“County officials need to establish at the local level an animal health officer, usually a practicing veterinarian, that would work with the emergency operations center in each county if an outbreak occurred,”
Logan said. Logan said it’s important the local EOC has someone with experience in animal health to help direct resources and coordinate an appropriate response to the situation. There are not enough animal health officers at the TAHC to respond if there is a massive outbreak, so local officials need to have someone at the local level to help direct them.
With 20 land ports, nine seaports, four international airports and a 1,237-mile border with Mexico, there are many ways a foreign animal disease could be introduced, either by accident or intentionally, into the state. Texas has the greatest number of live animal imports – over 1 million cattle per year alone, with more than 100,000 head of cattle imported from Mexico each month. Meat and dairy products are also imported into the state. And, Logan said only about 5 percent of luggage or parcels coming across the border are checked for illegal meat products. Besides infected meat products or livestock, a disease products or livestock, a disease like FMD could also be carried on the bottom on someone’s shoe or on the tires of vehicles that enter feedlots, markets or ranches.
Although an accidental animal disease outbreak is more likely, animal health experts say officials can’t ignore the prospect of a terrorist incident involving a foreign animal disease, especially since Sept. 11. Logan said animal disease agents could be ideal for terrorist groups because they can affect a wide range of wildlife species, are easy to transport and relatively easily to use to initiate an outbreak.
“Animal disease agents are readily available on a global basis and would not need to be mass produced or delivered with sophisticated aerosol equipment,” she said. Besides the economic impact of an outbreak, some agents can pose a health risk to humans. Several countries, specifically Iraq and Russia, have developed biological weapons aimed at destroying livestock, Logan said, and federal officials believe other countries are also working on developing agents.
To make it easier for an attack, many feed lots in Texas have relatively low security. In most cases there are no security guards at the gates and people and vehicles move in and out easily. Logan said some feed lots and livestock markets have made efforts to tighten security by limiting animal and human movements as well as vehicle traffic and checking visitors.
Local law enforcement officials can help in the effort to prevent an intentional introduction of a foreign animal disease by terrorist groups by investigating any reports of suspicious activity or intruders around feed lots, ranches, farms or markets. The TAHC has advised ranchers to watch out for any suspicious people or activities and report it to local sheriff ’s departments immediately.
Animal health experts say they are concerned that even with the heightened state of alert since Sept. 11 and the state’s economic dependence on agriculture, there is no representative from the agriculture industry on the state’s homeland security task force. But, there have been other gains made at the state level to protect Texas against foreign animal disease outbreaks. In March of last year the TAHC gained a seat on the Texas Emergency Management Council which means that in the event of a major outbreak the TAHC could call on more than 31 state agencies for assistance.
Dr. Dee Ellis with TAHC said last June many of the participating agencies gathered in College Station for a FMD training exercise using the state’s emergency management system. The exercise was intended to enhance the state’s ability to manage animal health emergencies and to improve interaction with local, state and federal responders. The exercise also tested whether the state could sustain a long-term eradication effort similar to the FMD outbreak in Great Britain.
TAHC also sent veterinarians from Texas to Great Britain during the outbreak to gain first-hand training in eradication efforts. Ellis said a key lesson learned in Great Britain was that any eradication effort would not have been possible without support from farmers, ranchers and other key industry members, and the same would go for an outbreak in the United States. TAHC has since organized a Stakeholder Advisory Group that includes all the major livestock industry organizations in Texas. The Texas Association of Counties, the County Judges and Commissioners’ Association and the Sheriff ’s Association of Texas are all a part of this group, which is working to complete a state plan to manage animal health emergencies.
During the past legislative session, lawmakers also passed a law banning the waste food feeding of meat and meat products to swine, which is one of the ways FMD can be spread.