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American Morning
Threat of New Terror Attack Has Some Major Hospitals on Alert
Aired November 14, 2002 - 08:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to talk about that FBI threat that came out yesterday, a really fascinating story right now. A threat of a possible bombing or a new anthrax attack has some major hospitals in four cities around the country on alert today. The FBI has notified places, hospitals in four cities, of a new terror threat, including Chicago, Washington D.C., Houston, Texas and San Francisco, California. I want to talk about this on the West Coast now. Jim Eaton in San Francisco, chairman of the Emergency Management Committee at the Cal-Pac Med Center who is our guest this morning.
Jim, good to see you. Thanks for taking time with us. Good morning, and welcome.
So the threat comes out from the FBI, and they say, possibly sometime in mid December, uncorroborated and unverified. We are putting you on notice right now that something may be targeted possibly in your city. How do you interpret the words and warning that came from the FBI?
JIM EATON, CAL. PACIFIC MED. CTR.: We take in any threat like this serious in a hospital environment. We have procedures in place. We alert, of course, our security staff, and we remind our employees to be cautious. We do this throughout the year so that we can serve our community and be here for our patients and our employees.
HEMMER: But knowing that the FBI said what it said, nothing to substantiate this right now, they are just letting you know and putting you on notice. Your interpretation of that is what, Jim?
EATON: Our interpretation is just to let us know and get us aware that potentially something could happen, and they want us to be ready if it does, and we are ready.
HEMMER: Knowing in the past that threats have come and gone without any action taken place, thankfully, do you want to hear the warning, or do you think it's putting some people on edge when it may be not necessarily the case or necessary to do so?
EATON: No, we really do want to hear the warning. It's a way for us to continually remind our staff that we need to be ready to serve the community, and that we are there to take care of our patients. So we do want to hear the warning.
HEMMER: There is some sort of statewide alert or practice that goes into effect today, I believe, in California?
EATON: California is having a statewide disaster drill. It's a biyearly drill. Every November, we hold one. This year, we were focusing on a radiological event.
HEMMER: Knowing the threat came out, is your hospital or other hospitals in the area doing anything differently to prep themselves?
EATON: We are doing what we would normally do. We alert our security staff. We alert our mailroom staff. We alert our regular staff to be cautious of packages, cautious of things that are out of place, and to be really on a higher alert status than we normally would be.
HEMMER: Good luck to you, Jim. We will talk again at some point down the road.
EATON: Thank you.
HEMMER: Jim Eaton, live this morning in San Francisco.
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Aired November 14, 2002 - 08:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to talk about that FBI threat that came out yesterday, a really fascinating story right now. A threat of a possible bombing or a new anthrax attack has some major hospitals in four cities around the country on alert today. The FBI has notified places, hospitals in four cities, of a new terror threat, including Chicago, Washington D.C., Houston, Texas and San Francisco, California. I want to talk about this on the West Coast now. Jim Eaton in San Francisco, chairman of the Emergency Management Committee at the Cal-Pac Med Center who is our guest this morning.
Jim, good to see you. Thanks for taking time with us. Good morning, and welcome.
So the threat comes out from the FBI, and they say, possibly sometime in mid December, uncorroborated and unverified. We are putting you on notice right now that something may be targeted possibly in your city. How do you interpret the words and warning that came from the FBI?
JIM EATON, CAL. PACIFIC MED. CTR.: We take in any threat like this serious in a hospital environment. We have procedures in place. We alert, of course, our security staff, and we remind our employees to be cautious. We do this throughout the year so that we can serve our community and be here for our patients and our employees.
HEMMER: But knowing that the FBI said what it said, nothing to substantiate this right now, they are just letting you know and putting you on notice. Your interpretation of that is what, Jim?
EATON: Our interpretation is just to let us know and get us aware that potentially something could happen, and they want us to be ready if it does, and we are ready.
HEMMER: Knowing in the past that threats have come and gone without any action taken place, thankfully, do you want to hear the warning, or do you think it's putting some people on edge when it may be not necessarily the case or necessary to do so?
EATON: No, we really do want to hear the warning. It's a way for us to continually remind our staff that we need to be ready to serve the community, and that we are there to take care of our patients. So we do want to hear the warning.
HEMMER: There is some sort of statewide alert or practice that goes into effect today, I believe, in California?
EATON: California is having a statewide disaster drill. It's a biyearly drill. Every November, we hold one. This year, we were focusing on a radiological event.
HEMMER: Knowing the threat came out, is your hospital or other hospitals in the area doing anything differently to prep themselves?
EATON: We are doing what we would normally do. We alert our security staff. We alert our mailroom staff. We alert our regular staff to be cautious of packages, cautious of things that are out of place, and to be really on a higher alert status than we normally would be.
HEMMER: Good luck to you, Jim. We will talk again at some point down the road.
EATON: Thank you.
HEMMER: Jim Eaton, live this morning in San Francisco.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
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