Alphabet Soup

Under the National Incident Management System (NIMS), use of acronyms is supposed to be avoided, because they vary between agencies and can be unclear. Instead, people are told to just speak plainly.

FEMA still has a ways to go on that. These are from FEMA documents:

"... After-Action Report (AAR) for the Top Officials (TOPOFF) 4 Full-Scale Exercise (FSE) ... composed at the After-Action Conference (AAC) ...

"TOPOFF 4 (T4) - The T4 FSE used a radiological dispersal device (RDD) scenario based on National Planning Scenario (NPS) ... As observed in T3 ... departments and agencies (D/As) ...

Live-blogging Gatekeeper

8:00 a.m.
Got up at about 5:30 to go in for this emergency exercise. Had to to get here by 7 am.

Police command post RV, flashing signs say exercise... looks like the right place, but I don't see our contact yet. He's no doubt part of an elite, highly-trained, can-kill-you-27-ways-with-their-bare-hands, emergency, anti-terrorism strike force at the ... let's see... DC Dept of Transportation. Hmm... Maybe no M16s this time, but I might get to use one of those stop/go traffic direction signs. Watch out bin Laden; no going 30 in a 20 mph zone while I'm here!

9:30 a.m.
Two of us volunteers showed up, but the other one bailed, because we weren't going to get to do traffic control; we're being assigned to the Police Dept. instead. Yeah, that really sux; traffic control sounds so much more exciting.

Celebrating The Big Rumble

TheBigRumble.org: "This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake. The Big Rumble commemorates the anniversary with a week-long series of special events designed to connect our communities with preparedness resources."

Wikipedia: "The Loma Prieta earthquake killed 63 people ... injured 3,757, and left some 3,000, 8,000, 10,000, or 12,000 people homeless. ... During the earthquake, the [Cyprus Viaduct] freeway buckled and twisted ... and sent the upper deck crashing to the lower deck. In an instant, 41 people were crushed to death in their cars."

TheBigRumble.org: "... folks all over the City of San Francisco will be rolling out their barbeques and world famous potato salads and throwing their own 'Where Were You in '89' Neighborhood Block Party -- and so should you! ...we have a Block Party Host Toolkit with tons of great tips on how to throw the perfect bash..."

Woo hoo! How about a Jello "cake" with a house of cards and little figurines on top? And games like, "Stomp on the Hot Wheels track!"

BTW, what's the deal with those homeless numbers? "7,500, margin of error: 60%"?

Tornado Warning

It was raining cats and dogs this afternoon. (Now we have dead pets everywhere.) It occurred to me, as I looked out the window, that I am, after all, a SKYWARN storm spotter for the National Weather Service. Maybe I ought to call in, so the people in Building 2 know what it's like over at Building 4.

But I didn't. And maybe I should have, so they'd get the news earlier. See this warning below? It says it was sent at 7:07, and I received it at 7:18.

------ Original Message ------
Received: 07:07 PM EDT, 08/21/2009
From: "Alert Montgomery"
Subject: SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING

The National Weather Service has issued a SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING for Montgomery County until 7:15. Doppler radar indicated a thunderstorm approaching the County which has intensified well past severe limits.

Ebola Follies, Part 2

[Click here to read Ebola Follies, Part 1.]

I finally took the time to finish "The Hot Zone," the book about the Ebola outbreak in Reston, VA in 1989-'90. I'll relate it with some snippets:

"...USAMRIID [U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases] concluded Ebola can spread through the air."

"When he talked to the Washington Post reporters... he was careful not to use scary military terms like 'amplification,' 'lethal chain of transmission,' 'crash and bleed,' or 'major pucker factor.'"

Ebola Follies, Part 1

I'm reading "The Hot Zone," a book about an actual Ebola outbreak in the DC area. (I hate it when that happens.) It was about 20 years ago, and started at a monkey house in Reston. ("Which one?" you ask? Reston has so many.)

Monkeys imported to the U.S. were quarantined for a month, to make sure they weren't carrying a disease. After an unusual number started dying, the company vet sent samples to U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Maryland. "Samples," meaning a test tube and chunks of monkey flesh in aluminum foil.

Carrot Bombs

From the BBC:

Carrots cause Swedish bomb scare

The carrot bombs had been placed around the city at the request of a local art gallery, as part of an open-air arts festival. They had only been in place for an hour before police received their first call. ...

Mr Blom described it as a harmless stunt. "After all, it is just carrots with an alarm clock and nothing else... this is just a caricature of a bomb," he said.

Moats, Ducks, and Nappies

First, some background:

BBC: MP expenses row explained

Most MPs have to live in two places -- in their constituencies and in London where they attend Parliament. They are allowed to claim expenses to cover the cost of running a second home. Details of what has been claimed on second home expenses have never been revealed before the Daily Telegraph got hold of a leaked copy of all the claims. Many MPs have been accused of extravagance, of over-claiming and avoiding tax on home sale.

Now, for the Front Lines/Homeland Security angle:

Douglas Hogg -- who repaid £2,200 [$3,433] apparently claimed for clearing a moat at his country estate -- says he will not fight the next election. [What, nothing for boiling oil?]

The tourism minister claimed £25,411.64 [$40,000] for security patrols at her London home after she was mugged.

Because so many terrorists target the tourism minister. It's not about ordinary crime, of course, because London is a safe place for tourists to visit. Really.

Not security-related, but thrown in for entertainment value:

A Tory MP is to retire after admitting he claimed a £1,645 [$2,567] 'duck island' on expenses - as two Labour ministers face questions over capital gains tax.

The Telegraph suggested the immigration minister had claimed for nappies and women's clothing when submitting requests for expenses. It said it was unclear how these items had been justified because parliamentary rules only allowed payouts for items which were 'exclusively' for MPs' own use.