Originally Posted By: Lono

Honestly though Martin, I had thought that in the event of a dirty bomb, our best option was to move away from ground zero (away, and up wind) as quickly as possible, and hopefully await decontamination? Although if we have casualties from flying glass, I can understand hunkering down and waiting for rescue / wounded evac, and minimizing the infiltration of radioactive fallout by putting stories and material above you and restricting air flow. I miss the days when my office was located below the technical library, my first task was to tip over the stacks and put as much of that paper between me and the fallout.


Here's the deal.

We're located in Chelsea. Not a prime "Target Zone" at all. There's the Wall St. area to the south of us and Midtown (where all the banks and Times Square is) to the north.

What working in NYC teaches you is that the emergency response (to a real emergency) here is fast. I mean FAST. I mean, when the big steam explosion happened up the block and they thought it was a car bomb, we're talking about 45 to 90 SECOND response time. There's radiation monitors all over the place, both fixed and mobile via trucks and aircraft, and the one thing they learned from the World Trade Center attacks is that Dust is Deadly. More so if it's radioactive dust. While I'm not privy to any specific plans, I do know that a "shelter in place" strategy is key to maximizing survivability and to minimizing the spread of radioactive debris. I also know that they can - and will - shut down whole areas of the city as needed to prevent contamination.

They practice mass movement of police frequently - they call them "Critical Response Surges" - see http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/29/nyregion/29surge.html as well as
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcKk_kBrdk4

So, if they drop something at Penn Station (near me), before I can get downstairs, the cops are going to be blocking access to the area, watching for the second hit, EMS will be doing Triage, and the best thing we can do is stay the hell out of the way.