As we’ve heard time and time again, public education is a major part of Calhoun County’s emergency readiness. And for all intents and purposes, education has been glaringly absent from our community for more than a year.
In the past year, we’ve seen terrorists take down the World Trade Center and destroy a section of the Pentagon.
For the past year, chemical weapons have continued to sit in their concrete bunkers at the Anniston Army Depot, complete with the same risk that they have posed for the past 40 years.
While other counties undertook a media blitz with the help of the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, Calhoun County sat out because the county commission and Mike Burney, director of the Calhoun County EMA, said they didn’t know what to tell residents.
It comes as welcome news then that Calhoun County officials will begin educating their constituency early next year.
For several months, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Alabama EMA and the Army have told the county commissioners that in lieu of a complete plan, they could at least provide residents with basic facts about the chemical weapons stockpile, the warning system as well as the county’s different emergency zones.
It seems as though Burney and the Calhoun County Commission are finally heeding that call.
Of course, there is a glitch.
The Department of Defense and the Army have pledged $40.5 million toward more emergency preparedness measures for the county, including protective hoods with filters, shelter-in-place kits consisting of plastic sheeting and duct tape to seal doors and windows as well as more warning sirens. The Army is also providing revised data on the toxicity of the nerve agents at the depot.
These items compose the cornerstone of the county’s emergency planning effort and that $40.5 million has been a long time in coming and it isn’t here yet.
Until the county receives the money, it can’t buy the hoods or the shelter-in-place kits. If it doesn’t have those items, Burney and the county commission say they do not want to include them in any education campaign and the focus of the education stays on evacuation, a failed scheme that will not work for everyone.
The Department of Defense said in early November that the money was on its way. It directed the Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization, the head of the incineration program, to find the $40.5 million in its current budget, not an easy task. It means that the money has to pulled out of another project, somewhere else is this country, such as Umatilla, Ore. or Pine Bluff, Ark.
Here in Calhoun County, public education needs to start now. As Sept. 11 revealed, the threat is now, not later.
Every minute that the public remains unaware of what to do in the event of an accident at the chemical weapons stockpile is another minute that we live with risk.
Calhoun County’s education campaign has been a long time in coming, and we’re glad to see that finally there is some progress.
Now the Army must move forward, quicken the pace and give this community the money it needs.
If Calhoun County is to have a real, full-fledged education campaign, the Army must hurry up and hand over that check for $40.5 million. Then we can concentrate on ridding ourselves of the threat from the stockpile.
