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Thursday, February 20, 2003

By Ann McFeatters, Post-Gazette National Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Thirteen days after setting off an unprecedented run on plastic sheeting and duct tape, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge is still trying to ratchet down national anxiety over potential terrorist attacks while urging Americans to prepare for the worst.

	Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge launches the agency's new public awareness campaign. (David Kohl, AP Photo) Graphic Homeland Security: How to be ready for a terrorist attack

Ridge kicked off an ad campaign yesterday at a carefully crafted event in Cincinnati and recommended that families do three things: assemble a home emergency kit, draw up a plan for staying in touch with each other, and know where to get official advice.

Yes, the homeland secretary said with a rueful smile, the emergency kit should include duct tape. But by all means, he emphasized, "Stash away the duct tape. Don't use it, but stash it away."

A lack of such emphasis on Feb. 7, when federal officials put the country on high alert and mentioned the use of duct tape and plastic sheeting to protect against chemical or biological attack, prompted thousands of homeowners to seal off rooms, even entire houses.

White House aides scrambled to arrange a "Don't panic, be sensible" theme for the president's weekly radio address. Comedians recalled Cold War school drills with jokes about the need to "duct and cover."

Homeland security officials now concede the message was botched. They are still trying to get it right and hope that the long-planned advertising campaign announced yesterday will help.

How did something so serious go so awry?

After Ridge was elevated from White House adviser to secretary of the new Department of Homeland Security last month, he and his top aides pushed forward a public relations strategy they had been cooking up for months. The aim was to make the concept of homeland security real to skeptical Americans and give them practical ways to personally respond to the threat of terrorist attack.

Ridge got together with officials of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Ad Council, which conducts public service campaigns, and began to sketch the three-pronged effort announced yesterday.

Ridge would be the poster boy, a calming presence who would serve "not just as secretary for homeland security but as a father and a husband."

The three central recommendations were basically plucked from precautions developed years ago by FEMA and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for all sorts of natural or manmade disasters -- including the recommendation to have duct tape and plastic sheeting on hand.

As Ridge and his colleagues tried to synthesize this advice into sound bites, two things stuck in his mind as he thought about what his own family needed to do. One was to develop a communications plan -- the Ridge family had recently moved from Pennsylvania. The other was to buy plastic sheeting and duct tape. Most everything else, he and his wife, Michelle, had on hand.

Around this time, intelligence agencies began to pick up a lot of "chatter" among suspected al-Qaida operatives and came to believe an attack might be imminent. It was decided to raise the national alert level from yellow (elevated) to orange (high) for only the second time since Sept. 11, 2001.

In making this announcement on Feb. 7 -- a couple of weeks before the homeland advertising campaign was to be launched -- Ridge wanted to offer practical suggestions and emphasized what was uppermost in his mind: set up a family contact plan and go get some duct tape and plastic.

Within days, it seemed, half the world had ganged up on him, including fellow Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a surgeon with a special interest in bioterrorism, declared on the Senate floor that Americans should relax.

His advice? "Exercise regularly, eat well and get a good night's rest."

The problem with Ridge's initial advice, according to Dr. Tom Stein, an emergency medicine specialist at Allegheny General Hospital and a counterterrorism consultant to the FBI, is that he said, "Get [duct tape and plastic sheeting], but he didn't say when to use it."

In the context of a high alert and news leaks that a "dirty bomb" radiation attack might be in the offing, this set people scrambling to seal their homes.

Allegheny County Health Department Director Dr. Bruce Dixon called the episode "one of the stupidest things I ever saw."

On the other hand, plastic-sealed windows can provide some protection. Israelis, threatened with chemical- or germ-laden missiles ever since the Gulf War, are required to have sealed safe rooms to which they can retreat when officials sound the alarm.

Dr. Michael P. Allswede, a bioterrorism expert and emergency physician at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said the Israelis have a well-honed emergency education and alert system. Everyone knows exactly what to do when alerts are issued, a product of long experience with clear and present threats.

Ridge, riding the learning curve, plans to talk less about duct tape and more about staying ready.

"We can be afraid, or we can be ready," he said yesterday. "We will not be afraid, and we will be ready... Make a kit! Have a plan! Get informed!"

The homeland security publicity blitz will include TV public-service announcements, a Times Square billboard and fliers distributed with phone directories. Information can be found at post offices, by calling 1-800-Be-Ready, or by clicking on to a new Web site, www.ready.gov.

Ann McFeatters can be reached at amcfeatters@nationalpress. com or 1-202-662-7071.