Sorry, legislators, there’s no plan to save you from a nuclear attack

Washington state lawmakers discovered they are just like everybody else when they found out there are no specific plans to save them in the event of a nuclear attack.

When can we talk about preparing for a nuclear attack?

“I do not, at this point…” said Robert Ezelle, the Director of the Washington Military Department’s Emergency Management Division, as a public hearing on planning for nuclear attacks wrapped up in Olympia Friday morning.

The comment sparked some laughter from the audience.

But the topic is no laughing matter. Under Washington state law, the department of emergency management cannot specifically plan for a nuclear attack, primarily, it can’t plan for evacuation and relocation. The state currently plans for other potential catastrophes, such as flooding and earthquakes. Ezelle says the department’s focus is on hazards “most likely to hit Washington.”

Senate Bill 5936, which had a hearing on Friday, would remove restrictions on planning evacuations in the event of a nuclear attack.

“If it is the intent of the Legislature for emergency management to conduct planning in anticipation of a nuclear attack, we’re certainly not resourced for that, nor are we proposing the state divert valuable resources … But as Sen. [Mark] Miloscia was saying earlier, the changing international situation or changing threatscape could mean that, perhaps, sometime in the future we want to perhaps refocus our planning efforts if a threat becomes imminent…” Ezelle said.

Ultimate earthquake’ prep more concerning

For now, however, the department feels it is “entirely prudent” to focus on the threats most likely to impact Washington state, he added.

Though there are some pushing for a change in the law that prevents nuclear prep, a “concerned citizen” told lawmakers during the hearing that if the state forces people to relocate, it better be ready to compensate them for lost wages.

“The thing with the planning is it tries to make it look like we can get out and survive,” he said. What would really happen, he says, is radiation would just “flow across the Cascades” anyway.

“If someone wants to leave, that’s their choice. To have the state involved in planning to do evacuations is really diverting staff time and resources and it would be fomenting panic and shutting down the Puget Sound economy for a few weeks. It would crash the economy.”

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