Venturing in undetected, through porous security in eastern seaports, a terrorist transports 50 kilograms of anthrax to an indiscrete apartment block in Baltimore, Maryland. Using explosives, the terrorist detonates the bomb. One day after the bombing, a routine investigation takes place, but nothing is out of the ordinary. The following day would be different.
On the second day, 20,000 cases of a “flu-like” illness would be reported, and, in any outbreak that large, the media, state health department and the Center for Disease Control would be notified.
Three days after the drop, 3,600 people would be dead. Emergency Medical Services would be overwhelmed by 40,000 infected victims. Even with treatment, the final death toll for exposure to one million people in the Baltimore area is estimated at 320,000. The media frenzy ensuing would cause widespread panic and a mass exodus. The regional health-care system would be overwhelmed and paralyzed.
The U.S. government provided this detailed account of what could happen if a massive anthrax attack occurred in a major metropolitan area.
A recent report by the National Association of School Resource Officers reported that a vast number of respondents representing universities nationwide said their universities were vulnerable to terror.
“Would universities be likely targets of terrorism? Probably not,” said Todd Sandler, a professor of economics and international relations at the University of Southern California. “Terrorists tend to hit people they don’t know. They are more likely to hit a Federal building.”
In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a majority of higher-education institutions have experienced budget crunches, which spells out less training in terrorism preparedness.
The report also revealed 55 percent of respondents believed their school crisis plans were inadequate, another 52 percent said they had plans, but they were never tested, and 74 percent said schools did not educate parents or communicate effectively on school safety, security or crisis planning. In the case of anthrax, 55 percent of respondents said their schools are without special mail-handling procedures.
“Are universities vulnerable targets? There are vulnerable targets all over society,” Sandler said. “Terrorists tend to go for the most vulnerable target. Vulnerable targets might be laboratories or places where there could be a big explosion.”
The University of Wisconsin is no stranger to domestic terrorism. Early in the morning on Aug. 24, 1970, the New Years Gang loaded nearly 2,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate soaked in jet fuel into a stolen Ford and parked it beneath the Army Mathematics Research Center, in the driveway of Sterling Hall.
At 3:42 in the morning, the bomb detonated and was powerful enough to knock out windows six blocks away. Pieces of the Ford van were found on top of an eight-story building nearby, and people 30 miles away heard the explosion’s echoes. Although the blast resulted in millions of dollars in damages, the greatest blow came in the form of the death of one researcher.
Bruce Lindsay, an assistant professor and Medical Director of the Med Flight Aeromedical Service at UW, said UW has been preparing for biological and domestic acts of terrorism for a few years now.
“We’ve been actively preparing for acts of domestic terrorism, in particular with mass-casualty types of planning for the past three or four years,” Lindsay said. “We received [funding] as one of the nation’s largest 100 cities that was targeted or identified as in need of mass casualty in bioterrorism nuclear and chemical terror training. We’ve completed our training through that, and it consisted of a series of seminars for fire-rescue personnel, for pre-hospital providers, for emergency departments as well as community drills.”
Lindsay noted a city-wide “multi-system disaster drill” was conducted last May and included fire and police forces, the five area community hospitals, and the medflight system to combat a staged chemical release at Truax Field.
Lindsay said the university has recently taken steps to adapt its policies to the changing face of terror, in this case bioterrorism.
“In the last year, UW has revised our disaster plan,” Lindsay said. “We have put together a biological release plan to deal with Anthrax and other issues, such as small pox. We are probably better prepared than most of the similar hospitals out there.”
Camp Randall has been identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a high-risk area for acts of terrorism. Yet, Sandler said universities are unlikely spots for terrorist activities.
“Universities usually contain some of the most liberal people and most tolerant people of other lifestyles and are aware and question administration’s policies,” Sandler said. “I would think terrorists would be more interested in people that represent intolerance in the federal government.”
