Monroe is site of nuclear attack scenario

By William Doolittle
For the Messenger


Mass death and widespread misery would follow a nuclear attack on Monroe County, Pa., a scenario prepared for the Army War College in Carlisle 
predicts.


Death and personal injury would be widespread if an atom bomb were to be detonated by terrorists.
 There would be so many bodies, the report predicts, mass burials or freezing of corpses might have to be used.


The imagined 10-megaton explosion at Pocono Raceway during a popular race weekend likely would engulf and consume local, state, and regional emergency responses. Unless very well-trained, many of the initial responders could become victims themselves.


The Army’s paper, written by Professor James Kievit and Lieutenant Colonel Jeff McNary, surmises, “More than 100,000 people were in the immediate vicinity of 
the detonation, many of them transients from out-of-state. Blast and heat immediately destroyed or severely damaged most structures within 1,000 meters of the detonation.


“An electromagnetic pulse damaged many electronic devices within about 5 kilometers ( 3 miles). Injuries from flying debris occurred out to 6 kilometers ( 3.7 miles). Temporary
 flash-blindness contributed to innumerable traffic accidents on nearby highways, including multi-vehicle pileups in both directions on nearby I-80. Radioactive fallout drifting east southeast directly threatens the Stroudsburg area (pop. approx 30,000), with the potential to drift through New Jersey, perhaps as far as Newark, or even to Staten Island, N.Y."

The report also predicts and recommends the following:
– On site tracking of current and cumulative radiation dosage among responders, and rotation of forces. Currently no centralized management system 
exists.
– Sufficient immediate treatment and medical evacuation capabilities. Mass casualties will overload local and state capabilities; federal assets cannot 
deploy in time to provide effective aid.
– Immediate availability of sufficient specialized aircraft and crews to accomplish medical evacuation and movement of responders.
– Victim registration and dose identification of all survivors for purposes of lifelong medical monitoring.
The writers’ bleak conclusion states, “Response to an attack of this nature may well be qualitatively and quantitatively overwhelming.”