Sunday, September 18, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS: Region lacks evacuation plan

But officials say they are as prepared as possible for catastrophe

Members of the Army Reserves' 355th Chemical Company and officials with the Clark County coroner's office participate in July in crisis alert and decontamination training exercises. The simulation, which utilized mannequins that doubled as victims, was part of a three-day exercise. REVIEW-JOURNAL FILE PHOTO

If disaster should strike Southern Nevada, whether by massive earthquake or terrorist attack, no plan exists to evacuate every resident of the Las Vegas Valley.

And the area's emergency planners make no apologies, saying they are as prepared as possible for a natural or man-made catastrophe.

In their view, the valley faces a much different breed of threat than that faced by communities in Louisiana and Mississippi, where Hurricane Katrina caused widespread devastation and mandatory evacuations.

Officials expect that any potential disaster on Clark County soil, which encompasses more than 8,000 square miles and is larger than New Jersey, would instead be isolated to particular communities.

"We certainly could have local evacuations, but none of the hazards we exercised make the case for moving the entire population of the valley out of the valley," said Jim O'Brien, director of the Clark County Emergency Management Division.

"Why would you move the entire population? Because you want to get them out of harm's way. What hazard would we have that would require us to get them out of harm's way? If something (a disaster) has already happened, you can't do anything about it at that point."

Geography and history shape this way of thinking.

Historically, coastal communities subject to hurricanes have had evacuation plans, said Randolph Hall, founder of the University of Southern California's Center for Homeland Security, a research center funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. More recently, he said, cities with nuclear reactors have been required to develop evacuation plans in the case of a radiation leak.

"In the case of Las Vegas, you don't have a nuclear power plant that I am aware of and you don't have hurricanes, so that is the reason they have not developed an evacuation plan," Hall said. "Even a dirty bomb wouldn't require the evacuation of all of Las Vegas."

Ever since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, emergency planners nationwide have racked their brains with a simple but daunting question: What if? The possibilities for finishing that sentence are endless.

And the resources to battle those potential disasters are limited, notes Dr. Dale Carrison, chairman of Nevada's Homeland Security Commission. That means emergency planners try to focus on the worst-case scenarios most likely to develop.

"You have to do your best with what you have. When you plan, you have to plan for realism," said Carrison, Chief of Emergency Medicine at University Medical Center. "I want to keep it (planning) in the realm of reality and not science fiction."

One important reality is that more than 35 million visitors flock to Las Vegas each year, anchoring the state's robust economy. But Southern Nevada's emergency brain trust say sick tourists routinely pose a greater risk to the area's 1.7 million residents than flash floods, fires or earthquakes.

Similar to the 1992 flight from Argentina that carried to Las Vegas visitors infected with cholera, one visitor could introduce to the community SARS, avian flu, Ebola virus or some other deadly virus, said Jim O'Brien, director of the Clark County Emergency Management Division.

"The number one hazard we face is public health hazards, because we have people coming here from all over the world who bring their bugs with them," O'Brien said.

Experts also have said the city could be a target for terrorists, and the nation's proposed nuclear waste burial ground is under construction about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Southern Nevada emergency management officials are putting the finishing touches on a study that gauges Las Vegas' vulnerability to the six natural disasters most likely to hit the region. The study also includes analyses of the potential for man-made catastrophes such as a terrorist attack or radiation leak.

Behind a potential flu or viral epidemic, the vulnerability assessment ranks the following threats in order of risk: flash floods, wildfires, drought, earthquake and flood.

O'Brien said man-made disasters were considered in the vulnerability assessment, but they did not rank in the top six. The formula for compiling the list included the magnitude and frequency of such events.

Nevada ranks third in the nation for seismic activity, and earthquakes centered 125 miles away have shaken Las Vegas twice in the past 13 years.

There have been 1,800 fires on nearby federal lands in the past decade, and flooding has done $9 million damage and killed 26 people since 1960. Those figures seem minor, however, when compared to the wrath inflicted by Katrina.

O'Brien said federal government officials have been fixated on combating terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001, at the expense of funneling resources for possible natural disasters that happen more frequently.

Said O'Brien: "There has been, for four years, too great a focus on a single hazard -- terrorism -- and an ignorance that we have regular, seasonal disasters that nail us."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and President Bush have been battered by criticism for what is viewed as a slow rescue response to Katrina victims. But Southern Nevada's emergency planners have a different expectation. If a catastrophic episode should unfold, they anticipate state officials and residents will temporarily be on their own.

"Every emergency and disaster is a local emergency and disaster," said Clark County Sheriff Bill Young. "Metro operates under the assumption and belief that we will operate alone the first 48, 72 hours. Don't expect any help. ... It just takes that long for federal resources to get into place and help."

The county's nearly 300-page Emergency Operations Plan lays out duties in an emergency to the police and fire departments, the Red Cross, the school district, the Regional Transportation Commission and all the county agencies -- even departments that have nothing to do with emergency management, such as the recorder's office, the assessor's office, human resources and the planning department.

Authority to activate the county's Emergency Alert System rests with the County Commission, the county manager and other top county officials such as O'Brien.

According to the plan, for instance, the Red Cross, school district and the county's Parks and Community Services would be responsible for setting up shelters. Meanwhile, the police department would be responsible for "law and order, evacuations, and rural search and rescue" operations.

Local emergency planners seem content with the 72-hour window mentioned by Young, and believe they can adequately address a catastrophe until the federal cavalry arrives.

The Silver State's emergency planners, like those across the country, hope to eventually learn lessons about what rescue and administrative efforts worked in New Orleans, and which ones failed.

Local officials note, however, that New Orleans long has had a reputation for inefficient government and lacked a centralized command center for overseeing response and recovery efforts. That is not the case in Southern Nevada, they contend.

Las Vegas police Deputy Chief Mike McClary, who oversees the department's Homeland Security Division, said that emergency workers from Nevada were ready to respond to the Katrina-ravaged regions within 26 hours after Louisiana state officials issued an alert for help.

But those workers were delayed for two days because officials in Mississippi and Louisiana didn't know where to send them because a centralized, coordinated plan had not been put together.

Once the plan was drawn up, Nevada's workers were sent where they were needed, McClary said.

One lesson learned after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was that a centralized plan must be in place before rescue workers start to arrive from all over the country.

Without a plan, those rescue workers can "become part of the problem" because they don't know what to do, but still must be fed, housed and taken care of, he said.

There is no way to know for sure how quickly and efficiently Nevada emergency workers would respond to a local disaster, but their quick, coordinated response to the call-for-help after Katrina suggests they're prepared to act in their own backyard, McClary said.

Another problem in New Orleans: Masses of residents, predominantly poor, refused to flee as the Category 5 storm raged toward their city.

New Orleans officials knew, even before the hurricane struck, that at least 30,000 residents would ignore the evacuation orders, Carrison said. Many New Orleans residents may have stayed behind because of a lack of transportation rather than stubbornness or underestimating the threat.

Such a situation could transpire in part of the Las Vegas Valley and would prove equally challenging for local emergency planners.

"Some residents will say, `No, I'm not leaving,' " Carrison said. "Now, at what point can I remove you from your house? That depends on if you're under martial law or not. Most people will evacuate, but what do you do with that subset of people who won't?"

Local government leaders can strongly urge people to evacuate, but only the governor has authority to order mandatory evacuations. Possible evacuation plans include using Regional Transportation Commission buses to remove citizens from areas, O'Brien said.

McClary said any emergency evacuation plan must be flexible to adjust to the variables presented by the disaster. It wouldn't be prudent for emergency planners to lock in the community to any set plan.

For instance, an earthquake or flood could close one or two of the four major routes out of Las Vegas, or in the event of a large-scale disaster, state officials likely would activate the Emergency Management Assistance Compact to get resources from other states sent to Nevada quickly, Siracusa said.

The Compact is an agreement between all 50 states that enables a state to request and quickly receive resources, such as police and firefighters, medical personnel, food, water and other supplies, said Frank Siracusa, chief of emergency management for the state of Nevada.

"It's very organized and very structured and allows us (Nevada) to access resources from other states quickly. It wipes out a lot of the bureaucratic red tape," Siracusa said. "Through that process we would be able to receive resources very quickly just like Louisiana and Mississippi received resources from us.

"The minute we, here in Nevada, got the request we immediately reached out to meet the request," Siracusa said. "There was no delay."

Some planners note that response efforts in the Las Vegas Valley also would benefit from experiences staging mega-events such as New Year's Eve celebrations and NASCAR races, even if New Orleans didn't seem to benefit from hosting the massive Mardi Gras festivities each year.

There are still areas of Nevada's emergency planning that are lacking. Perhaps the most glaring weakness involves statewide agencies that operate on different radio frequencies. In the event of a disaster, some agencies would not be able to have radio communications with others.

"We do have a statewide radio system that can be used. If something were to happen tomorrow, I'm convinced we could get by," Young said. "But it is not as good as it needs to be."

Officials are working to remedy the problem but are years away from doing so.

Officials here also wonder whether there will be less Homeland Security money to go around next year as the federal government funnels billions of dollars to rebuild New Orleans.

The federal government awarded Nevada $29 million for Homeland Security funding last year.

Carrison said he is satisfied with Southern Nevada's disaster preparedness but indicated there are plenty of areas that can be strengthened.

"If you gave me $200 million, I could spend it and spend it wisely," Carrison said, without elaborating.

Officials are encouraging residents to take an empty trash can and fill it up with nonperishable food, water and other necessities. It is one of the simplest steps people can take to aid their survival, but many are probably ill-prepared.

"How many people actually have a working flashlight in their home with extra batteries?" Carrison asked. "How many people have a working radio with extra batteries? I don't care if you're rich, poor or whatever, you should have some extra water and food in your house."