More Security Theater on the MBTA

[alexxkay]

Last night, on my ride home, I saw a bunch of postings up at the T sites, saying that there will be busing along part of the Red Line this Sunday morning, due to something I think they called an "Emergency Preparedness Exercise". I gather they're going to simulate some sort of emergency, and see how well various agencies respond. [irony]Because emergencies so often happen with 4 days warning, on a predictable schedule, and at a time when the system is relatively empty. Whether it's terrorists, medical emergencies, or mechanical failures, you can always expect them to happen when the system is at its least loaded, yep.[/irony]

It seems to me that this exercise is going to cost a lot of money and attention, and there is only one outcome which would actually be helpful. If this exercise shows that the agencies in question *can't* respond to a softball exercise like this, then we will have learned something important. But if they do a good job under these contrived circumstances, that gives us absolutely no assurance about their ability to deal with an *actual* emergency, unplanned, under a rush hour load. Whose bright idea was this, anyways?

Comments

[bkdelong.livejournal.com]

Another good point but unfortunately, not enough FAMILIES do drills at home. Every night, the Red Cross has Disaster Service volunteers reporting to house fires for families who are displaced, have no immediate place to go, (ie nearby friends or family to stay with) nor ability to get food or clothing.

Sometimes I dispatch what we call "Disaster Action Teams" to fires between 4:30pm and 8:30am the next morning - the colder the night the more the risk of fires it seems. Every Sat I standby to activate the Debit Cards we give families to purchase food and clothing, (certain, standard & specified amounts for each). Activators are offsite for "separation of powers".

Anyway, families need to have a disaster action plan not just for fires but for if they're in separate places when a disaster occurs - various places to meet up, various ways to communicate etc. And drills need to happen. The Red Cross has classes for families but sometimes I really wonder how many people actually pay attention.

[umbran.livejournal.com]

Another good point but unfortunately, not enough FAMILIES do drills at home.

I have to agree - I don't know the last time when I saw or heard of a family doing so much as a personal fire drill.

But we should note that dealing with anything larger than a personal emergency cogently requires some knowledge of what the community around you will do. As far as i can tell, Boston's emergency plans are not what we'd call solid enough to try to communicate to the public.