By Editorial Staff
East Carolinian

(U-WIRE) GREENVILLE, N.C.—There’s something almost surreal about the security precautions that top federal officials are suggesting Americans take against a potential terrorist attack.

Some are familiar: stockpiling of a three-day supply of water and food, a radio with extra batteries, a manual can opener, a first aid kit. But there’s also this added precaution: Government officials now recommend that families consider designating a room where they will gather in event of emergency. That “safe” room should hold a supply of duct tape and plastic sheeting, which people could use to seal off the room from a chemical or biological attack.

“They’re not trying to scare people, but to educate people,” said one security expert.

It’s hard to say how scared—or prepared—many Americans are. Some stores in Chicago and Washington, D.C., report that plastic sheeting, duct tape and bottled water are selling briskly. It’s safe to say that the elevation of the nation’s terrorism threat level to code orange—or “high” risk for an attack—has some Americans pondering their canned food supply, something they probably hadn’t considered since the Y2K scare.

It’s also safe to say that the government is responding to criticism from the last time it raised the terror alert to orange, around the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Federal officials had trouble answering the obvious question: What should we do?

This time, officials are promoting an updated Federal Emergency Management Agency manual entitled— “Are You Ready? A Guide to Citizen Preparedness”—and offering plenty of instructions.

Certainly there’s no harm in this. But there’s also no need to panic. Families should talk about what they will do in event of a terror attack, the same way they plan escape routes in case of fire. The difference, of course, is that a terror attack could bring wide-scale disruption of many of the comforts we have come to depend on—power, transportation and communications, as well as police and fire protection.

The vast spectrum of possible attacks—biological, chemical, radiological—renders all but the most rudimentary planning of questionable value. Still, some basic precautions make sense. For instance, schools have plans in case of emergency, often keeping children inside until it is safe for them to be picked up.

Such plans evoke memories of the 1950s and ’60s, when some Americans built bomb shelters in case of a Soviet nuclear attack. The Cold War shaped Americans’ thinking then; now it’s the threat of terror. That threat demands Americans think far differently about homeland security, often in ways that may seem alien to us but are common in other parts of the world.

After Israel was attacked by Iraqi Scud missiles in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, for example, the government required new homes and apartment buildings be outfitted with sealable rooms, where a family could retreat in the event of an attack. It’s impossible to know what kind of attack—if any—may come from terrorists.

But in another sense, this isn’t about an attack. This is about piercing the cocoon of comfort and complacency that most Americans take as their birthright. Who thinks about running water, electricity, transportation, police and fire protection—until they are disrupted?

There’s no need to dwell on that, of course, but there’s good reason to contemplate how you and your family would confront a situation in which you’re on your own for a few days.

Look on the bright side; Even if nothing happens, you can always use some extra duct tape.