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D.C. Area Officials Discuss Anthrax Scare
Washington, D.C., area leaders yesterday discussed communication troubles and other problems that arose as the region responded to last month’s anthrax scare, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, April 5). The Defense Department was slow to notify the Homeland Security Department on March 14 after test samples indicated a Pentagon mailroom had been contaminated by anthrax, said George Foresman, assistant to Virginia Governor Mark Warner for commonwealth preparedness. “The Department of Homeland Security is the national incident manager, but they weren’t managing the incident because they didn’t know they had one,” Foresman said. An after-incident report prepared for the D.C., Virginia and Maryland governments noted a conference call in which outdated information was relayed between 80 officials. Not all relevant federal, state and local officials were involved in the discussion, AP reported. “That should not be acceptable,” Arlington County, Va., Board Chairman Jay Fisette said at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments meeting. A Fairfax County, Va., building that was locked down for several hours March 14 following a false biological agent alarm had no plan for an extended stay by workers, said county Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerry Connolly. Fairfax County is preparing a public education campaign on emergency preparedness, said spokeswoman Merni Fitzgerald. “The anthrax incident proved unfortunately to us that the public is not as prepared as it should be. Despite warnings to stay in place about half of one of the buildings self-evacuated,” she said. “People didn’t have plans for children when they had to stay late after work. We didn’t have water where we needed to be” (Heather Greenfield, Associated Press/WJLA.com, April 13).
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