Terrorism Events and Preparedness

There is no way of knowing how much warning time there will be before an attack by terrorists using a Radiological Dispersion Device (RDD), so being prepared in advance and knowing what to do and when is important. To prepare for an RDD event, you should do the following:

• Build an Emergency Supply Kit, which includes items like non-perishable food, water, a battery-powered or hand-crank radio, extra flashlights and batteries. Also include:
  • A roll of duct tape and scissors.
  • During periods of heightened threat increase your disaster supplies to be adequate for up to two weeks.
• Make a Family Emergency Plan. Your family may not be together when disaster strikes, so it is important to know how you will contact one another, how you will get back together and what you will do in case of an emergency.
  • Plan places where your family will meet, both within and outside of your immediate neighborhood.
  • It may be easier to make a long-distance phone call than to call across town, so an out-of-town contact may be in a better position to communicate among separated family members.
  • You may also want to inquire about emergency plans at places where your family spends time: work, daycare and school. If no plans exist, consider volunteering to help create one.
  • Knowing your community's warning systems and disaster plans.
  • Notify caregivers and babysitters about your plan.
  • Make plans for your pets.
  • Choose an internal room to shelter, preferably one without windows.
• Find out from officials if any public buildings in your community have been designated as fallout shelters. If none have been designated, make your own list of potential shelters near your home, workplace, and school. These places would include basements or the windowless center area of middle floors in high-rise buildings, as well as subways and tunnels.
• If you live in an apartment building or high-rise, talk to the manager about the safest place in the building for sheltering and about providing for building occupants until it is safe to go out.

Taking shelter during an RDD event is absolutely necessary. There are two kinds of shelters - blast and fallout. The following describes the two kinds of shelters:

• Blast shelters are specifically constructed to offer some protection against blast pressure, initial radiation, heat, and fire. But even a blast shelter cannot withstand a direct hit from a nuclear explosion.
• Fallout shelters do not need to be specially constructed for protecting against fallout. They can be any protected space, provided that the walls and roof are thick and dense enough to absorb the radiation given off by fallout particles.

While the explosive blast will be immediately obvious, the presence of radiation will not be known until trained personnel with specialized equipment are on the scene. Whether you are indoors or outdoors, home or at work, be extra cautious. It would be safer to assume radiological contamination has occurred - particularly in an urban setting or near other likely terrorist targets - and take the proper precautions. As with any radiation, you want to avoid or limit exposure. This is particularly true of inhaling radioactive dust that results from the explosion. As you seek shelter from any location (indoors or outdoors) and there is visual dust or other contaminants in the air, breathe though the cloth of your shirt or coat to limit your exposure. If you manage to avoid breathing radioactive dust, your proximity to the radioactive particles may still result in some radiation exposure.

If the explosion or radiological release occurs inside, get out immediately and seek safe shelter. Otherwise, if you are:

After finding safe shelter, those who may have been exposed to radioactive material should decontaminate themselves. To do this, remove and bag your clothing (and isolate the bag away from you and others), and shower thoroughly with soap and water. Seek medical attention after officials indicate it is safe to leave shelter.

Contamination from an RDD event could affect a wide area, depending on the amount of conventional explosives used, the quantity and type of radioactive material released, and meteorological conditions. Thus, radiation dissipation rates vary, but radiation from an RDD will likely take longer to dissipate due to a potentially larger localized concentration of radioactive material.

Follow these additional guidelines after an RDD event:

• Continue listening to your radio or watch the television for instructions from local officials, whether you have evacuated or sheltered-in-place.
• Do not return to or visit an RDD incident location for any reason.

If you require more information about any of these topics, the following resources may be helpful.

• Radiological Attack Fact Sheet: Dirty Bombs and Other Devices. Document providing preparation guidance for a chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threat.

Related Websites

Find additional information on how to plan and prepare for a RDD event and learn about available resources by visiting the following websites:

• Federal Emergency Management Agency
• American Red Cross
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention - Radiation Emergencies
• Environmental Protection Agency

Listen to Local Officials

Learn about the emergency plans that have been established in your area by your state and local government. In any emergency, always listen to the instructions given by local emergency management officials.

Unlike an explosion, a biological attack may or may not be immediately obvious. While it is possible that you will see signs of a biological attack, as was sometimes the case with the anthrax mailings, it is perhaps more likely that local health care workers will report a pattern of unusual illness or there will be a wave of sick people seeking emergency medical attention. You will probably learn of the danger through an emergency radio or TV broadcast, or some other signal used in your community. You might get a telephone call or emergency response workers may come to your door.

The following are things you can do to protect yourself, your family and your property from the effects of a biological threat:

• Build an Emergency Supply Kit, which includes items like non-perishable food, water, a battery-powered or hand-crank radio, extra flashlights and batteries.
• Make a Family Emergency Plan. Your family may not be together when disaster strikes, so it is important to know how you will contact one another, how you will get back together and what you will do in case of an emergency.
  • Plan places where your family will meet, both within and outside of your immediate neighborhood.
  • It may be easier to make a long-distance phone call than to call across town, so an out-of-town contact may be in a better position to communicate among separated family members.
  • You may also want to inquire about emergency plans at places where your family spends time: work, daycare and school. If no plans exist, consider volunteering to help create one.
  • Knowing your community's warning systems and disaster plans.
  • Notify caregivers and babysitters about your plan.
  • Make plans for your pets
• Check with your doctor to ensure all required or suggested immunizations are up to date. Children and older adults are particularly vulnerable to biological agents.
• Consider installing a High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter in your furnace return duct. These filters remove particles in the 0.3 to 10 micron range and will filter out most biological agents that may enter your house. If you do not have a central heating or cooling system, a stand-alone portable HEPA filter can be used.

Filtration in Buildings

Building owners and managers should determine the type and level of filtration in their structures and the level of protection it provides against biological agents. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) provides technical guidance on this topic in their publication Guidance for Filtration and Air-Cleaning Systems to Protect Building Environments from Airborne Chemical, Biological, or Radiological Attacks. To obtain a copy, call 1 (800) 35NIOSH or visit the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Web site and request or download NIOSH Publication 2003-136.

Using High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) Filters

High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters are useful in biological attacks. If you have a central heating and cooling system in your home with a HEPA filter, leave it on if it is running or turn the fan on if it is not running. Moving the air in the house through the filter will help remove the agents from the air. If you have a portable HEPA filter, take it with you to the internal room where you are seeking shelter and turn it on.

If you are in an apartment or office building that has a modern, central heating and cooling system, the system’s filtration should provide a relatively safe level of protection from outside biological contaminants.

HEPA filters will not filter chemical agents.

The first evidence of an attack may be when you notice symptoms of the disease caused by exposure to an agent. Follow these guidelines during a biological threat:

• In the event of a biological attack, public health officials may not immediately be able to provide information on what you should do. It will take time to determine exactly what the illness is, how it should be treated, and who is in danger. However, you should watch TV, listen to the radio, or check the Internet for official news and information including signs and symptoms of the disease, areas in danger, if medications or vaccinations are being distributed and where you should seek medical attention if you become ill.
• If you become aware of an unusual and suspicious substance, quickly get away.
• Protect yourself. Cover your mouth and nose with layers of fabric that can filter the air but still allow breathing. Examples include two to three layers of cotton such as a t-shirt, handkerchief or towel. Otherwise, several layers of tissue or paper towels may help.
• There may be times when you would want to consider wearing a face mask to reduce spreading germs if you yourself are sick, or to avoid coming in contact with contagious germs if others around you are sick.
• If you have been exposed to a biological agent, remove and bag your clothes and personal items. Follow official instructions for disposal of contaminated items.
• Wash yourself with soap and water and put on clean clothes.
• Contact authorities and seek medical assistance. You may be advised to stay away from others or even quarantined.
• If a family member becomes sick, it is important to be suspicious.
• Do not assume, however, that you should go to a hospital emergency room or that any illness is the result of the biological attack. Symptoms of many common illnesses may overlap.
• Use common sense, practice good hygiene and cleanliness to avoid spreading germs, and seek medical advice.
• Consider if you are in the group or area authorities believe to be in danger.
• If your symptoms match those described and you are in the group considered at risk, immediately seek emergency medical attention.
• Follow instructions of doctors and other public health officials.
• If the disease is contagious expect to receive medical evaluation and treatment. You may be advised to stay away from others or even deliberately quarantined.
• For non-contagious diseases, expect to receive medical evaluation and treatment.
• In a declared biological emergency or developing epidemic, there may be reason to stay away from crowds where others may be infected.

Cover Your Nose and Mouth

Be prepared to improvise with what you have on hand to protect your nose, mouth, eyes and cuts in your skin. Anything that fits snugly over your nose and mouth, including any dense-weave cotton material, can help filter contaminants in an emergency. It is very important that most of the air you breathe comes through the mask or cloth, not around it. Do whatever you can to make the best fit possible for children. There are also a variety of face masks readily available in hardware stores that are rated based on how small a particle they can filter in an industrial setting. Simple cloth face masks can filter some of the airborne "junk" or germs you might breathe into your body, but will probably not protect you from chemical gases.

Symptoms and Hygiene

If a family member develops any of the symptoms below, keep them separated from others if possible, practice good hygiene and cleanliness to avoid spreading germs and seek medical advice.

• A temperature of more than 100 degrees
• Nausea and vomiting
• Stomachache
• Diarrhea
• Pale or flushed face
• Headache
• Cough
• Earache
• Thick discharge from nose
• Sore throat
• Rash or infection of the skin
• Red or pink eyes
• Loss of appetite
• Loss of energy or decreases in activity

Hygiene

If someone is sick, you should practice good hygiene and cleanliness to avoid spreading germs.

• Wash your hands with soap and water frequently.
• Do not share food or utensils.
• Cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing.
• Consider having the sick person wear a face mask to avoid spreading germs.
• Plan to share health-related information with others, especially those who may need help understanding the situation and what specific actions to take.

In some situations, such as the case of the anthrax letters sent in 2001, people may be alerted to potential exposure. If this is the case, pay close attention to all official warnings and instructions on how to proceed. The delivery of medical services for a biological event may be handled differently to respond to increased demand. The basic public health procedures and medical protocols for handling exposure to biological agents are the same as for any infectious disease. It is important for you to pay attention to official instructions via radio, television, and emergency alert systems.

Antibiotics

While antibiotics are often an appropriate treatment for the diseases associated with biological weapons, the specific drug must match the illness to be effective. One antibiotic, for example, may be appropriate for treating anthrax exposure, but is inappropriate for treating smallpox. All antibiotics can cause side effects including serious reactions. Plan to speak with your health care provider in advance about what makes sense for your family.

Visit the Center for Disease Control and Prevention for a complete list of potential agents/diseases and appropriate treatments.

If you require more information about any of these topics, the following resources may be helpful.

• Biological Attack Fact Sheet: Human Pathogens, Biotoxins, and Agricultural Threat. Document providing preparation guidance for a chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threat.

Related Websites

Find additional information on how to plan and prepare for a biological threat and learn about available resources by visiting the following websites:

• Federal Emergency Management Agency
• American Red Cross
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention

What you should do to prepare for a chemical threat:

• Build an Emergency Supply Kit, which includes items like non-perishable food, water, a battery-powered or hand-crank radio, extra flashlights and batteries. Also include:
  • A roll of duct tape and scissors.
  • Plastic for doors, windows, and vents for the room in which you will shelter in place. To save critical time during an emergency, pre-measure and cut the plastic sheeting for each opening.
• Make a Family Emergency Plan. Your family may not be together when disaster strikes, so it is important to know how you will contact one another, how you will get back together and what you will do in case of an emergency.
  • Plan places where your family will meet, both within and outside of your immediate neighborhood.
  • It may be easier to make a long-distance phone call than to call across town, so an out-of-town contact may be in a better position to communicate among separated family members.
  • You may also want to inquire about emergency plans at places where your family spends time: work, daycare and school. If no plans exist, consider volunteering to help create one.
  • Knowing your community's warning systems and disaster plans.
  • Notify caregivers and babysitters about your plan.
  • Make plans for your pets.
  • Choose an internal room to shelter, preferably one without windows and on the highest level.

What you should do in a chemical attack:

• Quickly try to define the impacted area or where the chemical is coming from, if possible.
• Take immediate action to get away.
• If the chemical is inside a building where you are, get out of the building without passing through the contaminated area, if possible.
• If you can't get out of the building or find clean air without passing through the area where you see signs of a chemical attack, it may be better to move as far away as possible and shelter-in-place.

If you are instructed to remain in your home or office building, you should:

• Close doors and windows and turn off all ventilation, including furnaces, air conditioners, vents, and fans.
• Seek shelter in an internal room and take your disaster supplies kit.
• Seal the room with duct tape and plastic sheeting.
• Listen to your radio for instructions from authorities.

If you are caught in or near a contaminated area, you should:

• Move away immediately in a direction upwind of the source.
• Find shelter as quickly as possible
• If you are outside, quickly decide what is the fastest way to find clean air. Consider if you can get out of the area or if you should go inside the closest building and shelter-in-place.

Decontamination is needed within minutes of exposure to minimize health consequences. Do not leave the safety of a shelter to go outdoors to help others until authorities announce it is safe to do so.

A person affected by a chemical agent requires immediate medical attention from a professional. If medical help is not immediately available, decontaminate yourself and assist in decontaminating others.

Decontamination guidelines are as follows:

• Use extreme caution when helping others who have been exposed to chemical agents.
• Remove all clothing and other items in contact with the body. Contaminated clothing normally removed over the head should be cut off to avoid contact with the eyes, nose and mouth. Put contaminated clothing and items into a plastic bag and seal it. Decontaminate hands using soap and water. Remove eyeglasses or contact lenses. Put glasses in a pan of household bleach to decontaminate them and then rinse and dry.
• Flush eyes with water.
• Gently wash face and hair with soap and water before thoroughly rinsing with water.
• Decontaminate other body areas likely to have been contaminated. Blot (do not swab or scrape) with a cloth soaked in soapy water and rinse with clear water.
• Change into uncontaminated clothes. Clothing stored in drawers or closets is likely to be uncontaminated.
• Proceed to a medical facility for screening and professional treatment.

If you require more information about any of these topics, the following resources may be helpful.

• Chemical Attack Fact Sheet: Warfare Agents, Industrial Chemicals, and Toxins. Document providing preparation guidance for a chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threat.

Related Websites

Find additional information on how to plan and prepare for a chemical threat and learn about available resources by visiting the following websites:

• Federal Emergency Management Agency
• American Red Cross
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Prepare yourself, your family and your property for the hazards of nuclear devices.

The danger of a massive strategic nuclear attack on the United States is predicted by experts to be less likely today. However, terrorism, by nature, is unpredictable.

If there were threat of an attack, people living near potential targets could be advised to evacuate or they could decide on their own to evacuate to an area not considered a likely target. Protection from radioactive fallout would require taking shelter in an underground area or in the middle of a large building. In general, potential targets include

• Strategic missile sites and military bases.
• Centers of government such as Washington, DC, and state capitals.
• Important transportation and communication centers.
• Manufacturing, industrial, technology, and financial centers.
• Petroleum refineries, electrical power plants, and chemical plants.
• Major ports and airfields.

The three factors for protecting oneself from radiation and fallout are distance, shielding and time.

• Distance - the more distance between you and the fallout particles, the better. An underground area such as a home or office building basement offers more protection than the first floor of a building. A floor near the middle of a high-rise may be better, depending on what is nearby at that level on which significant fallout particles would collect. Flat roofs collect fallout particles so the top floor is not a good choice, nor is a floor adjacent to a neighboring flat roof.
• Shielding - the heavier and denser the materials - thick walls, concrete, bricks, books and earth - between you and the fallout particles, the better.
• Time - fallout radiation loses its intensity fairly rapidly. In time, you will be able to leave the fallout shelter. Radioactive fallout poses the greatest threat to people during the first two weeks, by which time it has declined to about 1 percent of its initial radiation level.

Remember that any protection, however temporary, is better than none at all, and the more shielding, distance and time you can take advantage of, the better.

The following are things you can do to protect yourself, your family and your property in the event of a nuclear blast.

• Build an Emergency Supply Kit, which includes items like non-perishable food, water, a battery-powered or hand-crank radio, extra flashlights and batteries. You may want to prepare a kit for your workplace and a portable kit to keep in your car in case you are told to evacuate.
• Make a Family Emergency Plan. Your family may not be together when disaster strikes, so it is important to know how you will contact one another, how you will get back together and what you will do in case of an emergency.
  • Plan places where your family will meet, both within and outside of your immediate neighborhood.
  • Knowing your community's warning systems and disaster plans, including evacuation routes.
• Find out from officials if any public buildings in your community have been designated as fallout shelters. If none have been designated, make your own list of potential shelters near your home, workplace and school. These places would include basements or the windowless center area of middle floors in high-rise buildings, as well as subways and tunnels.
• If you live in an apartment building or high-rise, talk to the manager about the safest place in the building for sheltering and about providing for building occupants until it is safe to go out.
• During periods of heightened threat increase your disaster supplies to be adequate for up to two weeks.

Taking shelter during a nuclear blast is absolutely necessary. There are two kinds of shelters - blast and fallout. The following describes the two kinds of shelters:

• Blast shelters are specifically constructed to offer some protection against blast pressure, initial radiation, heat and fire. But even a blast shelter cannot withstand a direct hit from a nuclear explosion.
• Fallout shelters do not need to be specially constructed for protecting against fallout. They can be any protected space, provided that the walls and roof are thick and dense enough to absorb the radiation given off by fallout particles.

The following are guidelines for what to do in the event of a nuclear explosion.

• Listen for official information and follow the instructions provided by emergency response personnel. Based on what is known about the threat, you may be asked to take shelter, go to a specific location or evacuate the area.
• If an attack warning is issued, take cover as quickly as you can, below ground if possible, and stay there until instructed to do otherwise.
• Find the nearest building, preferably built of brick or concrete, and go inside to avoid any radioactive material outside.
• If better shelter, such as a multi-story building or basement can be reached within a few minutes, go there immediately.
• Go as far below ground as possible or in the center of a tall building. The goal is to put as many walls and as much concrete, brick and soil between you and the radioactive material outside.
• Stay where you are, even if you are separated from your family. Inside is the safest place for all people in the impacted area. It can save your life.
• During the time with the highest radiation levels it is safest to stay inside, sheltered away from the radioactive material outside.
• Radiation levels are extremely dangerous after a nuclear detonation but the levels reduce rapidly.
• Expect to stay inside for at least 24 hours unless told otherwise by authorities.
• When evacuating is in your best interest, you will be instructed to do so. All available methods of communication will be used to provide news and / or instructions.
• People in the path of the radioactive material - downwind from the detonation - may also be asked to take protective measures.

If you are caught outside and unable to get inside immediately:

• Do not look at the flash or fireball - it can blind you.
• Take cover behind anything that might offer protection.
• Lie flat on the ground and cover your head. If the explosion is some distance away, it could take 30 seconds or more for the blast wave to hit.
• Take shelter as soon as you can, even if you are many miles from ground zero where the attack occurred - radioactive fallout can be carried by the winds for hundreds of miles. Remember the three protective factors: Distance, shielding and time.
• If you were outside during or after the blast, get clean as soon as possible, to remove radioactive material that may have settled on your body.
• Remove your clothing to keep radioactive material from spreading. Removing the outer layer of clothing can remove up to 90% of radioactive material.
• If practical, place your contaminated clothing in a plastic bag and seal or tie the bag. Place the bag as far away as possible from humans and animals so that the radiation it gives off does not affect others.
• When possible, take a shower with lots of soap and water to help remove radioactive contamination. Do not scrub or scratch the skin.
• Wash your hair with shampoo or soap and water. Do not use conditioner in your hair because it will bind radioactive material to your hair, keeping it from rinsing out easily.
• Gently blow your nose and wipe your eyelids and eyelashes with a clean wet cloth. Gently wipe your ears.
• If you cannot shower, use a wipe or clean wet cloth to wipe your skin that was not covered by clothing.

Decay rates of the radioactive fallout are the same for any size nuclear device. However, the amount of fallout will vary based on the size of the device and its proximity to the ground. Therefore, it might be necessary for those in the areas with highest radiation levels to shelter for up to a month.

The heaviest fallout would be limited to the area at or downwind from the explosion and 80 percent of the fallout would occur during the first 24 hours. People in most of the areas that would be affected could be allowed to come out of shelter within a few days and, if necessary, evacuate to unaffected areas.

Publications

If you require more information about any of these topics, the following resources may be helpful.

• Nuclear Attack. Document providing preparation guidance for a nuclear threat.

Related Websites

Find additional information on how to plan and prepare for a nuclear blast and learn about available resources by visiting the following websites:

• Federal Emergency Management Agency
• American Red Cross
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention - Radiation Emergencies
• Environmental Protection Agency

Listen to Local Officials

Learn about the emergency plans that have been established in your area by your state and local government. In any emergency, always listen to the instructions given by local emergency management officials.