6 of 75 metro areas score high for emergency communication

WASHINGTON — Only six of 75 U.S. metropolitan areas won the highest grades for their emergency agencies' ability to communicate during a disaster, five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to a federal report obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

A draft portion of the report, to be released today, gives the best ratings to Washington, D.C.; San Diego; Minneapolis-St. Paul; Columbus, Ohio; Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Laramie County, Wyo.

The lowest scores went to Chicago; Cleveland; Baton Rouge, La.; Mandan, N.D.; and American Samoa. The report included large and small cities and their suburbs, along with U.S. territories.

In an overview, the report said all 75 areas surveyed have policies in place for helping emergency workers communicate. But it cautioned that regular testing and exercises are needed "to effectively link disparate systems."

It also said while cooperation among emergency workers is strong, "formalized governance (leadership and planning) across regions has lagged."

Democrats who take over the majority in Congress this week have promised to try to fix the problem that emergency agencies have communicating with each other, but have not said specifically what they will do, how much it will cost, or how they will pay for it.

"Five years after 9/11, we continue to turn a deaf ear to gaps in interoperable communications," the term used for emergency agencies' abilities to talk to each other, said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "If it didn't have such potentially devastating consequences, it would be laughable."

Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke would not comment on the report, saying only that in releasing it today, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will "talk about nationwide assessments for interoperable communications."

The Sept. 11 attacks revealed major problems in how well emergency agencies were able to talk to each other during a catastrophe. Many firefighters climbing the World Trade Center towers died when they were unable to hear police radio warnings.

In New York now, the report said, first responders were found to have well-established systems to communicate among each other, but not the best possible. Thirteen U.S. cities scored better than New York.

Communities were judged in three categories: operating procedures in place, use of communications systems, and how effectively local governments have coordinated in preparation for a disaster.

Most of the areas surveyed included cities and their surrounding communities, based on the assumption that in a major crisis, emergency personnel from all local jurisdictions would respond.

The Seattle area received the second-highest grade, "well-developed," for its operations procedures and its use of communications systems, and the third-highest grade, "intermediate," for its government coordination.

The cities with the six best scores were judged "advanced" in all three categories.

The areas with the lowest grades had reached the early implementation stage for only one category, and intermediate levels for two categories.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, $2.9 billion in federal grant money has been distributed to state and local first responders for the improvement of their emergency communications systems. Congress has ordered that the television broadcast industry vacate a portion of the radio spectrum to make it available for public-safety communications.

Lawmakers have also created a new Homeland Security office to oversee the issue, though they have yet to provide money for it.