It’s been nearly 10 years since America’s most infamous domestic terrorist killed 168 people by blowing up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in April 1995. But to Danny Turner, seed and fertilizer inspector supervisor for North Carolina’s Agriculture Department, Timothy McVeigh’s legacy looms large over the jobs of the 10 field specialists who work with retailers that sell ammonium nitrate to farmers and gardeners.
Relatively cheap and available, the fertilizer commonly used in gardens and on specialty crops was McVeigh’s weapon of choice. Mixed with racing fuel, it had catastrophic results. The devastation McVeigh inflicted and al Qaeda has threatened puts Turner and his colleagues on the list of state and local government employees engaged in a massive, expensive effort to prevent and respond to terrorist attacks.
Turner supervises the program that enlists fertilizer dealers to voluntarily track the sale of more than 100 pounds of ammonium nitrate, as well as another potentially dangerous item called anhydrous ammonia. “Most dealers are pretty receptive to it,” Turner said of about 600 retailers the state invited to help with monitoring.
That doesn’t mean the state is keeping a dossier on buyers. It’s up to retailers to determine whether and when to keep notes on who is buying large quantities of either item. If an attack occurs and either fertilizer is suspected, law enforcement could obtain the dealer list and ask sellers about their customers. The program requires no additional money, since employees discuss the program during regular visits to retailers.
Other programs do have a price tag, and as the third anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks nears, anti-terrorism funding for North Carolina has topped $200 million. Since 1999, more than $186 million in federal grants has been received or allocated to the state. The majority is used at the local level by first responders, according to Renee Hoffman of the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, which acts as the state’s Homeland Security office. Another $18 million in state funds was appropriated by the General Assembly in fiscal 2001-2002.
Local emergency management officials are using the money to train rescue personnel and outfit them with protective gear such as gas masks and coveralls, and to buy new, integrated radio equipment to ensure police, firefighters, sheriffs and others can communicate during their response to an attack. The goal is to avoid radio problems like those that plagued emergency workers at the World Trade Center.
Establishing teams to recognize and respond to biological and chemical attacks has been a state priority. In 2002, a bio-terrorism expert was hired to head the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response. Dr. James Kirkpatrick oversees a staff of 12, as well as seven public health regional surveillance teams. Each is based in a metropolitan area — Asheville, Greensboro, Charlotte, Durham, Fayetteville, Wilmington, and Greenville — and serves the counties surrounding it. Every team has at least four members: a physician epidemiologist, a nurse or Ph.D. epidemiologist, an industrial hygienist, and an administrative assistant. Three teams have a pharmacist, and all have a veterinary liaison.
Kirkpatrick describes his office’s mission with the acronym “CBRNE.” It’s an “all hazards, all threats” approach to preventing and responding to chemical, biological, radiologic, and nuclear events, as well as explosions. That’s a huge landscape that includes such menaces as anthrax, plague, small pox, viral hemorrhagic fever, blister agents, and toxic chemicals.
“A great deal of progress has been made,” Kirkpatrick said. “We have assets in place.” His department’s resources are also applicable in dealing with traditional emergencies. In 2003, Kirkpatrick’s public health command center was deployed in response to SARS, Hurricane Isabel, the flu season, and training activities.
Of all the ugly possibilities, Kirkpatrick puts nerve agents at the top of his list. The effects occur within minutes, he said, noting Saddam Hussein’s 1988 gassing of the Kurds in Halabja and the 1995 release of sarin into Tokyo’s subway as examples of the result. An antidote is needed immediately, he said.
That’s why the Centers for Disease Control has begun shipping “chem-packs” to states. Kirkpatrick expects to take delivery of North Carolina’s stockpile late this year. Each pack contains enough drugs to treat 1,000 people. The packs will be spread among 40 or 50 locations, mostly hospitals and health departments. The plan is to have a “chem-pack” within 50 miles of every person in the state, and Kirkpatrick hopes to also meet a 50-minute guideline. That would protect locations that are hard to reach by car. A mobile reserve will be kept in case of an attack on a large concentration of people.
A mass-casualty scenario is what keeps Greensboro Fire Department Chief Johnny Teeters planning and training his 30-member Urban Search and Rescue Team — one of 11 specialty teams created in 2002. Five, including Teeters’ team, are ready for “heavy” disasters such as collapsed concrete buildings. The other “medium” teams deal with rescues from masonry and stick-built structures.
Like Kirkpatrick’s bio teams, Teeters’ personnel serve the counties surrounding their base. Each person must undergo intensive annual training to maintain certification to respond to a variety of calamities using knowledge, wits, and equipment. They’re expert at breaching concrete walls, using sounding equipment to hear tapping or movement in collapsed areas, lifting items off victims, working in confined spaces, rappelling down buildings, recognizing chemical and biological agents, and decontaminating victims.
If an attack takes the team to water, members can dive and perform swift-water rescue.
“The whole world has changed… we’re in a totally different arena in terms of safeguarding our citizens,” Teeters said. “You and I know you can plan for all types of events, but are they going to do it with nuclear? With biological? We’ve got to be prepared to take care of these mass casualties.”
Despite the commitment of time, people, and cash, vulnerabilities still exist. Improvements to security at North Carolina’s two seaports in Wilmington and Morehead City are still in the design stage even though $6.7 million has been allocated. The state’s director of elections is waiting for the federal Elections Advisory Commission to provide guidelines in case a terrorist attack disrupts the November election. He hopes to have the plan in time for training of election officials on Sept. 2.
The Agriculture Department is so concerned about food security that it has requested $6 million from the Department of Homeland Security to hire a 38-person team of veterinarians and public health and agricultural specialists to conduct a risk assessment, from farms to stores.
To one official, however, the biggest hole in preparedness has nothing to do with money or equipment. Craig Marks, director of the Community Preparedness and Disaster Management Program at UNC-Chapel Hill and a police officer in Lillington, thinks too many people abdicate personal responsibility for their safety, and simply expect government to protect them from threats and take care of them when something occurs.
The state hopes to address Marks’ concern Sept. 12, when newspapers across North Carolina will carry an eight-page insert detailing the state’s preparations for a bio-terrorism attack, and the emergency plan every household should develop. Of 1.5 million copies, 150,000 will be distributed in Spanish to Spanish-language papers. The $140,000 cost is funded by a CDC grant.
Donna Martinez is associate editor of Carolina Journal.