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Terrorism Could Hurl D.C. Area Into Turmoil

Deputy Mayor Edward D. Reiskin, left, and Thomas J. Lockwood of the Office of National Capital Region Coordination observe the city's Fourth of July test.
Deputy Mayor Edward D. Reiskin, left, and Thomas J. Lockwood of the Office of National Capital Region Coordination observe the city's Fourth of July test. (By Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)
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But in its first test in August 2004, glitches plagued the system. The federal government raised the terror alert to orange for the financial sectors in Washington, New York and Newark. But no phone calls were made, and the system failed to send residents text messages for more than five hours after the decision was announced. Officials said no phone calls were made because the city was not actually under attack. The delay in getting out the text message occurred, in part, because the person responsible for writing it and getting it approved had other emergency-related duties, they said.

Jo'Ellen Countee, spokeswoman for the D.C. Emergency Management Agency, said the system has been fixed and text messages have been sent successfully since then.

D.C. officials said they now have more than 80 electronic signs where emergency messages could be posted. Law enforcement officials said they also will rely on the media to get out information.

"But how do you get the message to people if the phones lines are down and TV and radio stations are uninhabitable?" Tangherlini asked. "One of the big 9/11 lessons was that we didn't have a way to share information with people."

Dismayed by what they have seen so far of the federal government's response to the Gulf region, officials across the Washington area plan to spend the coming weeks reviewing their emergency response plans. At least with Katrina, officials knew ahead of time that the storm was coming.

"Osama will not give us two days' notice," Norton said.

Staff writer Spencer S. Hsu contributed to this report.

For links to Web sites with more information on emergency preparedness, go tohttp://washingtonpost.com/metro.


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