Monday, April 18, 2005

Thinking Out Loud

As Franklin County prepares for terrorism training, I was thinking about possible outcomes to a terrorist attack in Columbus that the city might not be ready for. I have never seen one thing addressed in any anti-terrorist training, but that doesn't mean there isn't a plan to a address it, I'm just saying I haven't seen it.

I n the event of a biological attack, the city would almost certainly institute a 24 hour curfew. I'm not sure how long that would last, maybe a week or so? I wonder what plans the city has to take control of the food supply and safely distribute it? Would this even be feasible? I have a feeling that quite a few people don't keep a week's worth of food in their house.

Going to the grocery wouldn't be possible as no employees would be present. This would almost surely lead to widespread looting. Nobody is going to stay in their house and starve. Food rations (and other needed medications) would probably be best parceled out at emergency immunization stations. That brings up another issue, what would be in the food rations? How do you deal with food allergies, etc. It would be a wise thing for every city to build a database storing this kind of information, although it would be very expensive.

Leave your own ideas in the comments.

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