Fairgrounds Could Be a Refuge
By David Snyder
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 8, 2004; Page C01

The scenario is among a disaster planner's worst nightmares: A terrorist
attack forces hundreds of thousands of residents to flee a major city,
in this case Washington or Baltimore. A crush of panicked motorists
overwhelms interstate highways. Traffic grinds to a halt as the hordes
desperately seek shelter and medical help.

Under a detailed emergency plan called the Genesis Project, drafted by
the Frederick County sheriff and other members of a local committee, the
sick and injured would end up at the 64-acre Frederick Fairgrounds. The
site, in the heart of the city of Frederick, would be converted into a
mass-casualty treatment and decontamination center, handling perhaps
thousands of refugees from either of Frederick's big municipal
neighbors.

The fairgrounds' parking lots would become triage centers, according to
the plan.

Livestock barns would become morgues.

Drawn up in secret by Sheriff James W. Hagy and others in a group that
dubbed itself the Nuclear Subcommittee, the plan has not been unveiled
for the public. But it has been quietly shown to more than 75 people,
mainly state and local officials, some of whom, in interviews, called
the Genesis Project "ludicrous" and "dangerous."

Several critics, including Frederick Mayor Jennifer P. Dougherty (D),
complained of being excluded from the planning process and warned that
an onslaught of wounded people would overwhelm the city and its
130-member police force and create a public health hazard.

John L. Thompson Jr. (R), president of the Board of County
Commissioners, said the Nuclear Subcommittee -- made up of Hagy and the
members of the county's Local Emergency Planning Committee -- have "gone
well beyond their statutory authority."

"They picked the ball up and ran for a touchdown -- and they kept
running on out of the stadium, like Forrest Gump," Thompson said. He
said the local committee exists to "plan for nonsecret, run-of-the-mill
accidents." By joining Hagy in drafting the ambitious Genesis Project,
Thomas said, committee members went "well beyond their role."

Hagy defended the decision not to seek advice from the public or other
officials in drafting the plan, which was about two years in the making.


"If you tell the public, you tell the terrorists at the same time," Hagy
said. If the Genesis Project gets a lot of public attention, he said,
terrorists may also strike Frederick, hoping to disrupt the Genesis
Project. "All those terrorists were educated right here in our own
country, or a lot of them were," Hagy said. "We're not talking about
stupid people here."

County Commissioner Michael L. Cady (R), a Hagy supporter, agreed with
the sheriff's approach. "There are some things in homeland security that
are not for public consumption," he said. "How many teams in the NFL
hand over their playbook to the enemy?"

A person who was briefed on the Genesis Project and disagrees with the
secrecy gave a reporter a copy of a 54-page plan that details how the
fairground would be turned into an emergency center, with helicopter
pads, hospital wards, decontamination rooms, latrines, communications
posts, food storage and distribution systems and dorms for doctors and
nurses.

Where the money would come from to finance the plan is unclear.
Authorities familiar with the plan, including the sheriff, declined to
discuss the issue, and other officials in Frederick said they are not
sure how the supplies needed to carry out the Genesis Project would be
paid for and stockpiled. It also is unclear what approval process, if
any, the plan must be subjected to. And no one can say for sure whether
it would work.

Dennis R. Schrader, director of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s Office of
Homeland Security, said he is familiar with the Genesis Project but has
taken no position on it.

"I suggested that if they want to move forward on this and get the
state's thoughts that they should have a public hearing first to make
sure everybody's on board," Schrader said.

County commissioners in March appointed Hagy "incident commander" in
case of a weapon of mass destruction incident, giving him authority to
draw up plans for a response to a terrorist attack. His appointment was
bitterly contested, but it passed by a 3 to 2 vote, with Thompson and
Commissioner Jan H. Gardner (D) opposing it.

Gardner and Thompson said the county's director of emergency management
should oversee the response to such an incident. But Hagy's backers
argued that an attack using weapons of mass destruction would be a
crime, so a law enforcement official would be best qualified to take
charge.

When the Nuclear Subcommittee began meeting, the group realized that if
a large-scale terrorist attack occurred in Washington or Baltimore,
interstate highways leading to Frederick would be jammed with evacuees,
and the county should be prepared, according to the plan.

However, "in order to pick an evacuation site that could treat the
victims of some mass-casualty attack, we would have to have many more
people involved in the site selection and logistics," Dougherty said.
"We're not talking about a secret location for a continuation of
government. We're talking about people that might be affected by an
attack."