The Army unveiled an impressive new military vehicle in Anniston last Friday.Here’s an idea on how they should market it.
Sure, it is made of armor meant to stop bullets, and its mission is meant to be that of safely moving troops in and out of combat zones, but the Army is missing out on getting a partner involved to help share the production costs.
Since the vehicle can be equipped with its own emergency ventilation system, the Army should pass the vehicle off as an expensive gas mask and try selling it to the Calhoun County Commission and Calhoun Emergency Management Agency.
They, in turn, could issue a mandate regarding the armored vehicle for all households living near the chemical weapons storage site at the Anniston Army Depot.
“Every family driveway should have one,” it would say. “Machine gun mount on top is optional.”
Why not? The county hasn’t done anything else to prepare us for a chemical emergency.
Nothing more than one plan it has been sticking to, even though it knows the plan could be a cruel and merciless killer: Run.
□□□This column has one purpose.
A message: Know what to do in the event of an emergency involving chemical weapons or — often overlooked despite being a more realistic possibility — chemicals from a commercial accident, such as a train derailment.
This column is not about critiquing the general missions of either the county commission, the emergency management agency, The Anniston Star, the Army or even the plan itself to burn the chemical weapons starting this fall.
Having said that, it should be easy to detect the sincere frustration, anger and frightening concern noted here. It is because of the continued official county policy to wait until all the federally funded goodies are here to teach a course of action other than evacuation, including a public downplay of shelter-in-place education.
The county is acting like a stubborn, hungry mule sitting on a carrot instead of eating it.
□□□The complete background of this for you newcomers to the issue is too much to put in this stack of words.
In short, we have one of the nation’s largest stockpiles of super-dangerous chemical weapons, a busy train track that runs through downtown, and a county emergency plan that calls only for evacuation should a deadly chemical accident occur today.
This despite numerous reports that evacuation will not work because of the hours it would take to implement compared to the precious few minutes it would take for a chemical cloud to do its evil.
Gas masks or emergency hoods may or may not be an option; some think more would die from accidental suffocation than any chance of a real chemical leak.
Shelter-in-place options, however, are a MUST for those living or working near the danger zones. No one likes it, no one thinks it is foolproof and no one thinks the emergency planning stops there, but shelter-in-place education of how to use sheets of plastic and duct tape in the best ventilation-control room available is a mandate for survival.
A mandate the county should be sharing but isn’t until it gets all the federal goodies it demands, i.e. federally funded hoods of which no one can agree on who should buy them.
If something blows today, it’s going to be much more deadly than the gas of a political mule sitting on a monetary carrot.
We’ll be dead.
Shelter-in-place training may not be the only plan to pursue, but it is a plan.
Please, for God’s sake, share it!
