D.C. Homeland Security Chief Predicts Chaos in Event of Nuke Attack

Darrell Darnell, director of the District of Columbia’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, says there would be “a lot of panic, a lot of chaos” if a small nuclear bomb detonated near the White House, which would most likely prevent an evacuation of the city as radiation spread.

In an hourlong interview, Darnell also said the major lesson from June 13, when a power substation failure shut off traffic lights, a fire broke out in a Metro station and massive gridlock stymied D.C. police and emergency crews, is that “we need to do a better job coordinating agencies.”

“We didn’t do a very good job of getting MPD (Metropolitan Police Department) and DDOT (District Department of Transportation) there,” he said.

“We’ve also got to communicate better.”

Darnell, however, could not name a single alternative his office has come up with to prevent a repeat of the chaos that enveloped downtown for several hours on June 13.

Darnell also said the official in charge of a similar emergency would not be him.

“It usually depends on who is first on the scene,” he said. “The first person on the scene is the incident commander, until someone else comes on the scene, who’s most qualified. And that’s how the incident command is determined.”

Read the interview