READY OR NOT.(preparedness plans in case of emergency)

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 19-MAY-03

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COPYRIGHT 2003 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

HERE IN THE HOMELAND

The Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, was at the Fire Museum in SoHo last week, at a breakfast meeting to promote his department's new antiterrorism public-information campaign, which is called Ready. The program consists of television spots, brochures to be distributed to libraries and post offices, placements in the Yellow Pages, and an elaborate Web site that explains the difference between a chemical attack and a biological one, and includes a handy glossary of terrorism-related terminology. The site, Ready.gov, urges Americans to stock up on three days' worth of food and water, invest in flashlights, keep the car's tank at least half full of gas at all times, decide on the best routes out of town, and develop a "family communications plan,"so that, if disaster...

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