WMD Evac Plan for Feds - No Plan for Civilians
Federal Workers Would Get Orders Within 15 Minutes

August 17, 2002; Page A01
By Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post Staff Writer

A plan designed to initiate the evacuation of all federal workers within 15 minutes has been approved by the Bush administration, setting in place what officials hope will be an orderly exodus if there is an attack or an imminent threat from a weapon of mass destruction.

Known as the Federal Emergency Decision and Notification Protocol, the plan is designed to address the confusion that resulted Sept. 11, when federal and local officials were initially overwhelmed by an unfolding attack that rendered communication difficult and forced them to improvise.

The protocol empowers the directors of three federal agencies -- the Office of Personnel Management, Federal Emergency Management Agency and General Services Administration -- to release up to 350,000 federal workers in the Washington area and 1.8 million nationwide once a threat is confirmed. Their decision would trigger a series of bulletins to federal agencies, elected officials in the District, Maryland and Virginia, local public safety agencies and the news media.

New 24-hour operation centers have been set up by the three agencies, which are in continuous contact with the FBI, anti-terrorism task forces, the U.S. Capitol Police and state and local police. Key federal and other government personnel in executive positions have been assigned cellular or satellite phones, wireless e-mail devices, radios, classified communications gear and laminated wallet cards with emergency call lists, federal officials familiar with the protocol said.

The process would be set in motion if there were a widespread attack or a threat of an impending biological, chemical or radiological assault. The directors of the three agencies would confer with the Department of Justice, the Office of Homeland Security and local emergency management officials. The directors -- Kay Coles James of OPM, Joseph M. Allbaugh of FEMA and Stephen A. Perry of GSA -- could alert the White House, local elected leaders, the Metro system and regional emergency managers within minutes. Notification to the agencies and the public would follow.

The system has been drilled down to less than 15 minutes, OPM spokesman Scott Hatch said. "We have this [initial] official notice to the emergency agencies simply to allow them -- even if it's two, three, four, five minutes -- to give them as much advance time as we can," he said.

The operational details of evacuating tens or hundreds of thousands of motorists and transit riders are being developed independently.

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