By RICHARD POWELSON
Scripps Howard News Service
February 20, 2003
WASHINGTON - The nation's warnings of perhaps another terrorist attack is tied to a lot of classified intelligence data, but Senate Republican leader Bill Frist will say this much: his Washington house has emergency supplies while his Nashville home does not.
U.S. officials have said they do not have specific information about when, where or how terrorists might next strike a U.S. target, but Frist said after a recent security briefing that the target is likely to be "a symbolic site" in the nation's capital or in another city.
Frist said that Vice President Dick Cheney's official residence in Washington could be a terrorist target, and Frist, his wife and two sons live just three blocks from there.
"If an airplane flies over my house at a low level, letting out a powder, the first thing I will do is go inside and put an N95 mask over my nose and mouth, take my family inside, and we'll tape the windows closed," turn off the heating/ventilation system, and go to a chosen "safe room," he said. The safe room has emergency food and water supplies, blankets, radio, etc.
After the deadly anthrax mailings to Washington and three eastern states in October 2001, Frist decided to write a book to better prepare Americans for other potential attacks and try to avoid panic. He is the Senate's only physician and its only former health researcher. The book released last March is titled: "When Every Moment Counts: What You Need to Know About Bioterrorism From the Senate's Only Doctor."
The book received high-profile attention for a short time. Now it's getting renewed attention from fellow senators, the news media and others because the Bush administration this month put the nation under an elevated warning of a risk of terrorism and because Frist last month was promoted to majority leader.
"I do not want people to panic or overreact," Frist said. "I don't think that everybody needs duct tape" to seal windows and doors. "At our Nashville home, I don't have any duct tape or supplies of water or extra food."
Even if terrorists set off a small bomb with radioactive materials inside or outside the Capitol building, Frist said, Washington residents should not quickly flee the city.
"There's no reason to run," he said. "Yes, you'd have to close the Capitol for a year" of decontamination. "But the radiation - unless you're in the same room - will not hurt you."
Some people, regardless of where they live, want to be prepared to live in a safe room for several days.
"If you want it, you should get it if it makes you feel better," Frist said.
The next biological attack could be silent and secret, providing no warning until people began showing up at hospitals with symptoms of anthrax or smallpox exposure or from a toxic gas. But if the attack were detected immediately near one's house or office, it's important to shut off the heating and ventilation system to prevent contaminated outside air from being circulated among more people, emergency planners say.
U.S. officials warned several weeks ago that people in high-risk areas should have pre-cut plastic sheets and duct tape to seal windows and doors near one's safe room from passage of biological weapons such as anthrax. Frist said he thinks the tape and N95 masks (at major hardware stores) would suffice, so he does not stock plastic sheeting at his house.
He also has respirator hoods that cover his entire head. He keeps one in his Washington office of the Capitol building and another in his car. All members of Congress and their employees have the same hood model.
According to Frist's book, supplies for the safe room of a home or office should include a gallon of water per day per person for at least three days, canned meats, fruits, vegetables, juices, peanut butter, jelly, crackers, "power bars," trail mix, candy and cookies. Avoid salty foods because they prompt higher consumption of water.
If you have a TV in the safe room, don't watch too much news on tragedies or potential terrorism, which can unduly raise one's anxiety, Frist's book says.
For the religious, remember prayer.
"In these difficult times," Frist wrote, "prayer can help ease anxiety and bring us together."