According to an article on the front page of The Star, Oct. 20 (Price of emergency preparedness is $60 million), there appears to be some progress resolving the issues concerning emergency preparedness in Calhoun County. I guess we are all supposed to breathe a sigh of relief. I do appreciate the efforts of the county agencies that are trying to protect us. Our country right now is nervous and jumpy over any traces of white powder, be it dust, Equal or soap. We anticipate daily acts of terrorism on own shores. I wonder what life will be like in Calhoun County when we begin to live with "the unlikely event of an accident at the chemical weapons incinerator" at Anniston Army Depot? What will the worry about this accident do to our collective and personal psyches? Will folks who have the means pack their bags and head to places where they can sleep easier? How do we react sending our children off to school with gas masks? Guess we hope that they use them right, as the Saturday article clearly states that if used improperly the masks themselves can be lethal. Who bears the responsibility, if in my panic I put mine on wrong? That may not be an issue for me as I am not going to get a mask because I do not live in the pink zone. If I happen to be in a pink zone on business, what happens to me? Perhaps I can locate some paper instruction to tell me!
If we are jumpy now, what will life be like for us when we all have tone radios and wait for a warning message? Right now I can count on two hands the number of folks who unplugged them because they saw the noisy radios as a nuisance, invading the sanctity of their homes and interrupting their quiet and peaceful lives. I also know someone who ended up with three radios and I know other places which should have received a radio which did not get one.
I have many, many older friends who have physical limitations. Some would not hear their tone radios, could not seal a window if they had to, and could not possibly evacuate. Will there be a person charged to make certain they are all taken care of? What will happen if we get the notification to evacuate and everybody wants to leave (at once)? Will our road become I-20 on race day? Instead of drivers who are just in a hurry we will have drivers and passenger who are also afraid.
I am almost as fearful of that scene as I am the plume of deadly toxins that might blow my way. If my husband and I are in different parts of the county will we be separated as we try to flee the county? I am told parents will be instructed not to retrieve their children from schools — I personally do not know a single parent who would evacuate to another part of the state leaving a child in day care or school. If we do have to evacuate, are we expected to ride off leaving our beloved pets to be exposed to that cloud of toxins? What would we find when we returned?
I, a person who frequently forgets what I did with my keys, will now be expected to know what zone I am in as I travel around the county? Could someone tell me in what zone Lowe's is? Perhaps we will all have to carry maps to let us know where we are and what action to take? I can bet if we have an instruction manual at our house, my husband will not know where it is.
If hoods, tone radios, evacuation procedures, etc. become the shadow under which we live, will life ever be the same in this area of Alabama? Will fear cloud our beautiful view of our neighboring mountains? I still need to understand and wish someone would explain it to me.
If this thing is so safe why all these precautions? We surely have not had all this intense scrutiny during the past decades while the rockets have been present at the Depot. I have lived here 30 years and had not even heard of these rockets until recently. Is all this danger from them a new thing?
Sherry Blanton is a resident of Jacksonville.
