Among all the surveyed cities, 52 percent said they will conduct overall reassessments of their terrorism plans. The intent to reassess plans was reported by more of the larger cities (66 percent of cities of 100,000-plus population) and by fewer medium and small cities (52 percent of cities 10,000 to 100,000, and 48 percent of cities under 10,000 in population).
"All American cities and towns should assess potential terrorist treats to their communities and then plan accordingly, making the best use of available state and federal resources for planning, response and coordination," said Don Borut, executive director of the National League of Cities.
Most of the surveyed cities (55 percent) said they have terrorism response or prevention plans in place, 12 percent said they are developing plans, and 32 percent said they have no plans. Terrorism response and prevention plans are more common among larger cities: 83 percent of larger cities compared to 59 percent of medium and 40 percent of small cities.
About half (48 percent) of all the cities reported having had anti-terrorist training. Training had occurred in 85 percent of the larger cities, 50 percent of medium, and 32 percent of small cities.
On the day of the attacks on New York and Virginia, cities responded in a number of ways: 34 percent convened meetings, 26 percent declared emergencies or alerts, 8 percent evacuated buildings, 6 percent closed schools, and 2 percent closed streets. These responses were more common in cities with more than 100,000 residents, where 53 percent convened meetings, 36 percent declared emergencies, 26 percent evacuated buildings, 17 percent closed schools, and 11 percent closed streets. Some officials made a point of not closing buildings or altering activities in an effort to convey a sense or order in their cities.
Some of the responding cities listed specific changes they are planning as a result of the attacks:
• Seek more state and federal grants for terrorism training.
• Update emergency equipment.
• Hire additional police and fire personnel.
• Obtain better media and communications equipment to monitor situations.
• Improve security coordination with military bases, • Make permanent street closures around certain city and federal buildings.
• Expand airport security.
• Obtain training in how to respond to biological and chemical poisoning.
• Learn better ways to monitor safety of water supplies and keep them safe.
• Provide training on new FAA rules regarding airport safety.
• Secure supplies of blood, fuel reserves, and other necessities.
• Build in mental health planning to provide counseling for first-responders and citizens
The National League of Cities offers local officials a guidebook to terrorism preparedness called "Domestic Terrorism: Resources for Local Government," that can be viewed at www.nlc.org.
The National League of Cities is the oldest and largest national organization representing municipal governments throughout the United States. With a membership of 1,800 cities and towns, as well as 49 state associations, NLC serves as a resource and advocate for 18,000 U.S. cities that serve 225 million people across the United States.
Source: U.S. Newswire
