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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Crisis and Emergency Management Newsletter Website |
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March
2007
Volume
12 - Number 3 |
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Perspective on Preparing for Terrorism By Keith Robertory Preparing for terrorism is an interesting concept
because it is common to hear people say “I’m preparing for a terrorist attack.”
How are they doing this? To mitigate a terrorist attack, it will take
a military force to actually go to where the terrorists are residing — assuming
it is a foreign force — and stop them which usually means killing them.
To prevent a terrorist attack, it would take a law-enforcement entity to provide
security or similar action to stop the attack from occurring by following
leads, identifying suspects, and catch them prior to the attempt. Along
the same line to prepare for a terrorist attack is to prepare for an intentionally
human-caused event and the focus is on the cause and less on the effect.
I believe that this misdirects the focus and attention of the general population.
Most people have very little, if any, control to directly stop a terrorist
attack from occurring. That is analogous to focusing why a dam would
break and how the public can stop a dam break instead of focusing on the torrents
of water that flow when the dam breaks. That being said, people can
keep vigilant and warn the appropriate authorities when something looks abnormal
— either seeing the dam cracking or seeing the terrorist taking action.
To prepare for a terrorist attack, the general public really needs to prepare for the effects of a terrorist attack: explosions, fire, and chemical, biological, radiological releases. These effects already occur and can also result from other disasters. Therefore, the preparing for these events already occur and are common yet most people may not realize it. Accidental transportation or industrial accidents can — and daily do — cause explosions, fires, and hazardous materials release. The general public should become better prepared for the common effects of disasters. When they focus too much on what causes the accident, they loose their focus on what they should do. While the cause may get their attention and catapult them into action; they also need to be educated that preparing for one event can help them be prepared for many. I believe that terrorism risk is somewhat misunderstood by the public. Hearing about government intelligence reports and “increased chatter” used to heighten the awareness of a possible terrorist attack. In reality, this is similar to a weather forecaster discussing how an air mass, tropical moisture and air fronts are coming together to generate a hurricane. Either of these events can cause significant damage however the threat of a terrorist attack was more likely to make the news earlier in the analysis and cause people to take action. However, there is a certain amount of warning fatigue occurring now that a series of terrorism warnings broadcast during the past few years without an event occurring. This post-Hurricane Katrina environment has flipped the attention from terrorism back to natural disasters. Having the public shifting their focus to get prepared for the last disaster that occurred is reactive. As stated by the King County, Washington, emergency manager “Amateurs react, professional change outcomes”. Everyone needs to move from preparing for the last disaster, and start to think broader and holistic about disaster preparedness. Simple things can be done to not only reduce the average person’s risk from the effects of terrorism, but the same actions can reduce their risk from most other disasters. My personal perception of terrorism risk follows this same pattern of thought. I do not try to stop and think about a specific disaster and get caught down in the weeds about it. I believe that it is best to focus across the entire field and feel broadly prepared for the disasters I’m aware of and those I’ve never heard of before. |