"Red alert would be disruptive"

Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Red alert would be disruptive
By Jeanne Houck
The Cincinnati (OH) Post


Precautions taken during a Code Red alert would be so unprecedented and
disruptive that they could not long remain in place. But they might be
something that Americans will have to get used to, officials say.

"I think we're going to have to learn to live like the Israelis have," said
Kenton County Sheriff Chuck Korzenborn. "They know life cannot stop and you
have to keep doing what you have to do.''

With the onset of war with Iraq and the Department of Homeland Security
having set the terror threat at the second highest level, orange for a
"high'' risk of attack, security is being beefed up everywhere in the
tri-state.

Police officers at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport are
searching vehicles headed for terminals and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
is restricting access to federal locks and dams on the Ohio River.

But in many cases locally, precautions taken so far have been more a matter
of following security procedures put in place after the terror attacks of
Sept. 11, 2001.

Vehicles pulling up to the Federal Reserve Bank on East Fourth Street
downtown are being stopped by security guards using mirrors to check for
explosives wired to undercarriages.

People who routinely pick up their company mail at the Post Office on Dalton
Avenue are being asked to produce identification.

"We do get lax about some things sometimes,'' said Bonni Manies, spokeswoman
for the postal service. "It's one of those times when everyone is reminded
of the basics, and everyone is very reminded right now.''

Changes on the terror scale are announced at national press conferences and
posted like weather advisories during some television shows. Last week, the
Hebron Fire Protection District announced it would fly flags on poles at its
fire stations indicating the terror level alert designated by Homeland
Security.

But the security measures associated with each level of the terror scale are
general and recommendations only -- in large part because local officials
whose communities are caught up in an emergency must react using a plan
unique to their location and the circumstances of the attack.

Even other federal agencies can ignore the steps recommended by the
Department of Homeland Security because their formalized security protocols
trump the new terror alert recommendations.

So far, however, federal agencies have embraced the recommendations from
Washington, D.C., and some states -- including Ohio -- automatically fall
into line with the federal directives.

Boone County Judge-Executive Gary Moore emphasized that although many things
can be done to prepare for an attack, no one can predict how best to handle
an emergency until it arises.

"If it's an isolated situation, for example at the airport only, it may
involve a quadrant around the airport where travel would be limited,'' Moore
said. "I think it really would be unique to each situation.''

June Gates, a spokeswoman for Federal Reserve Bank branches in Cincinnati
and Cleveland, said the banks operate under such strict security measures
that it would be difficult to increase them even if the threat risk rose to
red.

"I don't know that we would be doing a lot of things in terms of security
that are different than what we are already doing,'' she said.

Manies, the spokeswoman for the postal service, said security at post
offices is set by orders from postal service headquarters, so any changes
made would be at the directive of postal leaders.

Meanwhile, postal employees are being reminded of rules in place that
include locking postal vehicles not in use, wearing identification badges
while working and reporting suspicious packages to supervisors and police.

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