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Evacuation in times of emergency in St. Mary's is nothing but a dead end road

To the Editor,

Your July 13 article about "Lying Signs of the Times" unfortunately was pretty accurate in my opinion. It is obvious that our roads and bridges were designed to accommodate the traffic requirements of an era that has long ago since passed us by.

St. Mary's County is very limited on how we can evacuate our County. I understand that FEMA, MEMA and other government agencies have models indicating what they "believe will occur" if an evacuation order is given.

To be honest, I really don't care what their models say. I have seen what has happened to our Southern Maryland region over decades of development without adequately addressing the burden on our roads and bridges.

A model is what officials believe will occur based upon data entered in to a computer system. If the data is incomplete, the model will not be accurate.

To my knowledge, NAS Patuxent River, MD never had to evacuate the base until September 11th, 2001 for any given emergency. Although some people, once hearing of the attack on the United States had left the base early prior to the official evacuation order; those that waited for the official order did get tied up in a quagmire of traffic congestion.

Therefore, the only actual known evacuation order in recent memory that was not part of a "so-called model" failed.

When St. Mary's County ordered an evacuation for the area where I live, according to FEMA, the order was given too late. Since then we have had other storms that in my opinion folks should have been evacuated for, but were not. Perhaps because a model didn't indicate it was needed. If you feel your life could be in danger, don't wait for the County or State to tell you that you are in danger. Being prepared and acting ahead of time can prevent you from being involved in traffic congestion on the State roads enabling you to get to your destination safely. If the perceived danger has passed, you can always return. However, if you wait too long and can't evacuate in time, you face the risk associated with a bad decision.

Roy Fedders

Dameron, MD

By Kenneth C. Rossignol

ST. MARY’S TODAY

LEONARDTOWN --- Just look at the signs all over St. Mary’s County which point in various directions, all leading out of the county and in the direction of Rt. 301 and the Gov. Harry Nice Bridge which spans the Potomac River.

For the newer residents of St. Mary’s County, this route, on a good day, leads to Virginia.

During an emergency, this evacuation route is the road to nowhere, but that is exactly where the sadists in local emergency management and the St. Mary’s County Commissioners, who authorized the purchase and placement will send you. And they plastered these signs all over the county at a cost nearly $12,000 out of Homeland Security funds, which means money dipped from your pocketbook, sent through the federal treasury and then trickled down to Leonardtown.

$5,919 was spent on signs which simply say "Evacuation", according to an information request provided by the St. Mary’s County government in response to a Maryland Public Information Request filed by ST. MARY’S TODAY. $1,479.75 was spent on signs which point to the left while the same amount was spent on signs pointing to the right, showing no political bias, and $2,959.50 was spent on signs pointing "north", even though the route to safety would be to the west and south, but that would be quibbling.

Basically, the emergency evacuation route over the Rt. 301 bridge is rather worthless as traffic clogs up on a daily basis at rush hour as the bridge was built in 1940 and only has one lane in each direction and Maryland politicians have found that forking over $7 million to the Blue Crabs for their stadium in Waldorf is a better use of public money than providing for an intelligent transportation infrastructure such as commuter rail over existing CSX tracks into Southern Maryland or extra spans over the Patuxent and Potomac Rivers.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are flushed down the drain in the Baltimore City school system and millions more are wasted on various state agencies while essentials are not funded.

But the real deal on the evacuation signs is that the signs lead to a highway which was shut down when traffic was directed there by officials who said that it was the best way to flee Washington, D.C. when the attack took place on New York City and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. In 2002 when the tornado rampaged through Southern Maryland, the Rt. 301 bridge was closed.

When a nuclear disaster strikes at Calvert Cliffs, traffic from Calvert County will be sent south over the Gov. Thomas Johnson Bridge and until the first wreck, traffic will flow in a single lane and then when that first wreck happens, which it will, the traffic will come to a stop and folks will then be streaming down to Solomon’s Island and trying to figure out how to hijack boats to get across the river. Since most of those in a panic to escape a nuclear meltdown will be unable to start the boats, they will simply succeed in setting them adrift or trying to paddle out in the river. Meanwhile, all of those who live in St. Mary’s will be packing the single lane of Rt. 234 heading through Chaptico and about Budds Creek the roadway will start to back up and tempers will flare.

The worst will be unthinkable and if everyone keeps their cool and simply stays home, they will likely be told a few hours later that its safe to come out of hiding. Maybe.

But the officials all have to act as if they are somehow on top of things, and since they are paid with your money, they are going to hold a drill on July 15th. And they will likely bill the taxpayers for lunch. The following is the information provided by the St. Mary’s Commissioners:

St. Mary’s County officials will be participating in a drill on July 15 involving the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant.

Federal, state and local drill officials will conduct this exercise, scheduled from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., to test the ability of plant personnel and off-site emergency organizations to respond to a plant emergency. Citizens may observe numerous law enforcement vehicles, fire trucks and other apparatus entering or leaving the facility in Calvert County that day. These vehicles will be traveling routinely without emergency response equipment activated.

Maryland counties within a 10 mile radius of the plant and the following government agencies are planning to participate in the exercise: The Maryland Emergency Management Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Maryland Department of the Environment.

St. Mary’s County routinely participates in emergency preparedness drills with the Calvert Cliffs Plant, including a biennial federally evaluated exercise recently completed on October 30, 2007. These exercises provide an opportunity for the state and county emergency responders to enhance skills in mobilization, communication and response in the unlikely event of an accident at Calvert Cliffs.