These words form part of every announced test of the Emergency Broadcast System. The phrase concludes with a reminder that the tone will be followed by actual information.
Monday, Earth gave us its version of the Emergency Broadcast System test. Washington D. C. failed. Trains ran at a snail's pace, commuters waited for hours on subway platforms and in traffic jams. The city's transport system groaned under the weight of hundreds of thousands of folks trying to exit at the same time.
Watching the jam packed expressways and train stations worries me. Do we have a better evacuation plan for the nation's capital in case of something like a dirty bomb, chemical, or biological weapon? It seems that terrorists could orchestrate a multi-part plan that causes the panicked evacuation, then preys upon people waiting helplessly to leave. I am sure that something does exist that they would not haul out for a moderate earthquake. Then again, New Orleans had nothing in place to adequately prepare for a disaster that would inevitably occur and the heavy loss of life after Katrina was the result.
I don't need to know every detail of the plan. But I hope there is one.
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