Weapons depot threat keeps county on guard
RICHMOND
EVACUATION PLAN
By Peter Mathews
CENTRAL KENTUCKY BUREAU
RICHMOND - An earthquake erupts beneath the
Clays Ferry Bridge, sending Interstate 75 crashing down onto the smaller
bridge below. At Blue Grass Army Depot, miles to the south, the quake causes
an explosion, fire and release of lethal chemical agent into the air. Just days before Hurricane Katrina, Madison County emergency management
officials contemplated that worst-case scenario in one of their "tabletop
exercises." Other communities may be caught off-guard by disasters, but it's not likely
to happen here. Because of the threat posed by the 523 tons of chemical weapons at the
depot, Madison County spends more than $2 million a year on emergency preparedness.
That doesn't include similar efforts made at the depot. The money goes for things like tone-alert radios, which emit ear-piercing
shrieks to warn of approaching chemical plumes (and dangerous storms). Every
home within a 6.2-mile radius of the depot's chemical storage area gets one. Every household in the county gets a calendar each year that tells residents
which emergency zone they live in, where they would most likely be sent in
an evacuation, and the best way to get there. It also offers suggestions on what emergency supplies to keep, and tips
for dealing with tornadoes and earthquakes. In their planning exercises, officials consider such things as where and
how to evacuate 10,000 people, what to do with their pets, and how to make
use of the law-enforcement students at the Department of Criminal Justice
Training, said Carlis Richards, Madison's emergency management director. Just to make things interesting, Richards said, the pre-Katrina earthquake
also destroyed Madison's other bridge over the Kentucky River, on Ky. 627,
and severed emergency communications. "Carl is pretty sadistic," joked Michael Bryant, director of Madison's
Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program. It's difficult to even simulate an accident that releases enough nerve
agent for a plume to leave the depot, said Richard Sloan, a spokesman for
Blue Grass Chemical Activity. And while he and others won't use the word "impossible,"
officials say the chance of such a cloud reaching Lexington is extremely
remote. But Richards' imaginary earthquake is grounded in fact. One of the bridge's
pylons on the Madison side of the river is built directly into a fault. There's
a larger fault on the Fayette County side. Anna Watson, a geologist for the Kentucky Geological Survey, said there's
no evidence any movement has occurred within the last 10 million years. The
possibility for Richards' killer 6.8 quake? "Almost nil."