Las Vegas Urges Officials To Cancel Mock Nuclear Blast
November 20, 2009 by Homeland Security NTARC News
Filed under Homeland Security News
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is asking the Department of Homeland Security to cancel it’s plans for a simulated nuclear explosion scheduled to take place in Las Vegas next May.
In a letter Wednesday to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Authority President and Chief Executive Officer Rossi Ralenkotter said the premise of an upcoming emergency preparedness drill “will generate undue anxiety about visiting or conducting business in Las Vegas.”
FEMA has been planning its 2010 “national level exercise” since last year. The simulation, which is designed to test the capabilities of first responders to catastrophic events, involves the response to a mock nuclear blast in Clark County.
Nearly 10,000 local, state, and federal agents are expected to participate in the exercise.
In the letter to FEMA’s regional office in Oakland, Calif., Ralenkotter asked FEMA to consider “a non-nuclear scenario” for the exercise. He also requested that the simulation not be associated with the resort corridor.
“Our destination already receives a disproportionate amount of attention when the Department of Homeland Security releases even the most routine bulletin,” Ralenkotter wrote. “This exercise has the potential to escalate that attention and potentially harm our economy.”
Ralenkotter also sent his letter to Nevada’s congressional delegation and other local politicians.
Sen. Harry Reid, in a letter to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano today, weighed in with objections to the exercise.
“I am deeply sympathetic to the need of our first responders to conduct preparedness training, and I look forward to revisiting this issue when Nevada’s economy has improved,” Reid wrote. “However, at this time, economic recovery efforts would be stymied, or reversed entirely, by artificially creating anxiety surrounding tourism and investment in Las Vegas.”
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Here is more proof that our politicians are more concerned about money than they are about the welfare & safety of people! The economy is bad everywhere, its a perfect time for the terrorists to strike in the heart of the country. A busy tourist and financial symbol like Las Vegas is the perfect site to have the mock attack.
Would Las Vegas officials like it known that their town is the last place you want to be if there is an emergency because their responders are the least trained. Disaster Preparedness is a selling point I consider if I want to invest somewhere. These folks are foolishly trying to point to other factors for the economic problems they are having. Such a large drill would cause a lot of folks to spend money. Others would possibly spend time in the area apart from the drill. They are very foolish. I hope there will not be a loss of too much funding that has been spent getting ready to protect those who do not want to be protected. They will be the first to yell when an event happens and the response is slow or ineffective.
What about the people that didn’t hear about the mock blast, they would be terrified!! Stupid idea if you ask me.
http://www.vancouvertravelwatch.com/las-vegas