Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Giuliani gives emergency workers advice

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 04 Mar 2004 04:04:41 -0500

Giuliani gives emergency workers advice
3-4-04

By Russ Rizzo, Staff Writer
News & Record

GREENSBORO — Sharing lessons from the Sept. 11 attacks, former New York
Mayor Rudy Giuliani told local police officers, firefighters and
emergency officials Wednesday that preparation and teamwork are the keys
to managing any terrorist attack.

“Figure out the things that can happen to you, the big targets,”
Giuliani told a group of about 150 first-reponders at the Greensboro
Public Safety Training Facility. “And plan out how you would respond to
that.”
The message came on the day the Greensboro Fire Department received
critical pieces to a pump that will allow the city to fight a fire at
the city’s gasoline tank farm, one of the city’s top potential terrorist
targets, Chief Johnny Teeters said.
“We recognized a weakness and addressed it,” Teeters said.

The pump will allow firefighters to spray 6,000 gallons of foam a minute
—four times the capacity of the department’s best pumps. The city used
$475,000 in federal funds and money from fuel companies to buy the pump,
which will remain at the 600-acre site housing 200 fuel tanks that
supply more than a dozen states with gasoline, kerosene and jet fuel.
Giuliani said he was able to manage the response to the worst attack on
American soil by relying on a core team with an experienced firefighter,
police officer and crisis manager.

“When you’re in the middle of the worst crisis of your life, you get
confidence when you know you have a strong team,” he said. “I got
through it by leaning on the people — police, fire and emergency
personnel — who had been through it and knew that they were doing.”

Calling himself a believer in “momentous preparation,” Giuliani said New
York’s existing emergency plans helped guide his response.

While the city had planned for “just about everything else” other than a
plane crashing into the World Trade Center, the city was ready for the
individual elements of the attack — a plane crash, a building collapse
and a terrorist attack, Giuliani said.
“All the things that we had to do were in those plans,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani urged local departments to address their weaknesses before an
emergency exposes them. He said the inability of police, fire and
emergency officials in New York to communicate on a common radio
frequency hampered efforts to respond to the World Trade Center attacks.

Greensboro Fire Department Chief Johnny Teeters said the city had
already acted on that advice in the wake of Sept. 11. After the attacks,
the city created a radio channel that all first-responders can use
during a disaster.  The city also bought a mobile decontamination unit
and stockpiles of medication to respond to a biological or chemical
attack.
“We’re doing what he’s saying,” Teeters said. “We’re following the right
path.”

The city has spent $225,000 in federal money it received since September
2001 for homeland security, said Marilyn Braun, Guilford County’s
emergency management coordinator.

Despite the progress, police Chief David Wray said police and fire
officials need more practice coordinating with other agencies, such as
public health and public transportation officials, in case of a
widespread emergency. The city also needs to do a better job telling the
public about risks that exist, Wray said.

“We need to promote an awareness of where we are and create an
understanding that we’re not going to eliminate all risk, that we are
about managing risk,” Wray said.

Asked if he would consider running as vice president, Giuliani said, “On
the democratic ticket? I would definitely decline that,” to cheers from
the audience.

http://www.news-record.com/news/local/gso/rudy030404.htm

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