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Alabama Town Prepared for Army Destruction of Weapons Thanks to Safe Planning
Aired July 02, 2003 - 10:21 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: In Iraq, the search for weapons of mass destruction goes on. In Aniston, Alabama their presence is painfully well-known.
This month the Army plans to begin destroying almost 2,300 tons of deadly nerve and blister agents currently stored in that town. The potential risk is undeniable. The Army has distributed protective hoods to 22,000 people living nearby.
Our next guest, Eli Henderson, is a Calhoun County commissioner whose district encompasses the Aniston Army Depot. Mr. commissioner, good morning. Thanks for with being with us here.
ELI HENDERSON, CALHOUN COUNTY COMMISSIONER: Good morning to you, Daryn.
KAGAN: I think a lot of people would be surprised to know that all this stuff is hanging out in Alabama.
HENDERSON: Well it is but hopefully we're going to work through that hopefully within the next -- the end of July, which I think this is July. Hopefully the end of July we'll have all of these things -- we'll begin to process the burning and we'll put this ugly tale behind us.
KAGAN: I think you're a really interesting story because if you go back a few years the Army was planning on burning this stuff without taking a lot of these precautions. You're an example that you can fight the federal government. You're one of the people in this community who spoke up and said, Hey, hold on a second here, guys. There's people living around here and you're not going to do it like this.
HENDERSON: I like you already. And that's exactly...
(CROSSTALK)
HENDERSON: You're exactly right.
And finally, though, the Army has listened, the FEMA folks have listened. And as you mentioned, we've got the protective hoods in place. We've got the special needs population -- finally got the funding for that. We've the depot sounding the alarm now instead of us having to do that at our EMA office.
So everything's in place. An so now, hopefully, we begin the destruction process this month, and hopefully...
KAGAN: Do it safely.
HENDERSON: ... do it safely, and I appreciate your concern for the safety of the people who live in Calhoun County.
KAGAN: Now 22, 000 people, about, are going to get these hoods. You brought one of the hoods with you. If you can take it out of the container and show us. As I understand, only about half of the people have got their hoods so fa because they have to go and pick it up and get a special training. Is that right?
HENDERSON: Let's hope that after people watch you and I, Daryn, this morning, more people, go get your hoods.
KAGAN: Show us how to put it on.
HENDERSON: OK, here we go.
KAGAN: We can keep talking as do you this. This is, in case something goes wrong. This is not -- this is in case of emergency.
HENDERSON: Right, well, this (UNINTELLIGIBLE), is good for 46 (ph) hours, it's got a battery inside. And what you do is you turn it around like this...
KAGAN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that buzzing sound?
HENDERSON: That buzzing sound tells you that the battery is good and that the protective hood is effective.
But what you do is you take your hands on the backside like this, spread it out like this, do it like this.
KAGAN: We're going to mess your hair instead of mine.
HENDERSON: I'm going to mess my hair up.
KAGAN: Go ahead.
KAGAN: My goodness. How does that feel in there?
HENDERSON: It feels good.
KAGAN: It fells good. OK, there you go. Get a look at that. Now I'm going to have you take it off because we're going to hear the buzzing more than your voice and I have a few more questions to ask you here.
How long can someone keep that on?
HENDERSON: This is good for 46 hours, and we call it an "escape hood," a safety hood. and what you can actually do with this, Daryn, is if we have -- if we have an accident or incident involving a nerve agent, what we'll do is we won't evacuate the whole county. We won't evacuate the whole cities. What we'll do is only evacuate the areas that the plume, if we were to have leaks, if the plume is headed in that direction. So what we can do with these is you can get in your vehicle and you can drive away.
KAGAN: Really you can?
HENDERSON: Yes.
KAGAN: I mean I got to tell you, Mr. Commissioner, when I look at this and I see this, that is a very scary site to me, especially living in a safe place, like rural Alabama.
HENDERSON: Well it's not really rural Alabama. We're between -- the population of our county is about 113,000. And we do have a large population. In fact, of the eight (UNINTELLIGIBLE) sites, Aniston, Alabama has the largest population at risk. We've got about 70,000 people...
(CROSSTALK)
KAGAN: But still the idea of having to put on one of these masks...
HENDERSON: Well this is a tough issue. It's like a lot of things that our government does. We invent things to destroy other people, and then after we never use it, we forget to invent a way to take care of the problem. So we've got a problem here and hopefully the Army and the FEMA folks will solve the problem and we'll be hopefully in a couple years we'll be down the road getting rid of these weapons and making it a lot safer (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
KAGAN: And as we should mention, it's international law that's insisting that the U.S. has it, it has to be destroyed and has to happen somewhere.
Thanks for coming to join us. We wish once this all gets going nothing but a safe time for the folks of Aniston, Alabama. And if there's any problem, come on and tell bus it.
HENDERSON: I appreciate that.
KAGAN: Thank you very much. Eli Henderson, commissioner of Calhoun County.
Want to also let you know there's not actually an exact date on the burn. The Army Corps of Engineers says that they have actually delayed the burns but they do still plan to carry them out in the near future. And you can bet Mr. Henderson will be on top of things to make sure they are doing it safely.
HENDERSON: Thank you very much, Daryn.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Thanks to Safe Planning>
Aired July 2, 2003 - 10:21 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: In Iraq, the search for weapons of mass destruction goes on. In Aniston, Alabama their presence is painfully well-known.
This month the Army plans to begin destroying almost 2,300 tons of deadly nerve and blister agents currently stored in that town. The potential risk is undeniable. The Army has distributed protective hoods to 22,000 people living nearby.
Our next guest, Eli Henderson, is a Calhoun County commissioner whose district encompasses the Aniston Army Depot. Mr. commissioner, good morning. Thanks for with being with us here.
ELI HENDERSON, CALHOUN COUNTY COMMISSIONER: Good morning to you, Daryn.
KAGAN: I think a lot of people would be surprised to know that all this stuff is hanging out in Alabama.
HENDERSON: Well it is but hopefully we're going to work through that hopefully within the next -- the end of July, which I think this is July. Hopefully the end of July we'll have all of these things -- we'll begin to process the burning and we'll put this ugly tale behind us.
KAGAN: I think you're a really interesting story because if you go back a few years the Army was planning on burning this stuff without taking a lot of these precautions. You're an example that you can fight the federal government. You're one of the people in this community who spoke up and said, Hey, hold on a second here, guys. There's people living around here and you're not going to do it like this.
HENDERSON: I like you already. And that's exactly...
(CROSSTALK)
HENDERSON: You're exactly right.
And finally, though, the Army has listened, the FEMA folks have listened. And as you mentioned, we've got the protective hoods in place. We've got the special needs population -- finally got the funding for that. We've the depot sounding the alarm now instead of us having to do that at our EMA office.
So everything's in place. An so now, hopefully, we begin the destruction process this month, and hopefully...
KAGAN: Do it safely.
HENDERSON: ... do it safely, and I appreciate your concern for the safety of the people who live in Calhoun County.
KAGAN: Now 22, 000 people, about, are going to get these hoods. You brought one of the hoods with you. If you can take it out of the container and show us. As I understand, only about half of the people have got their hoods so fa because they have to go and pick it up and get a special training. Is that right?
HENDERSON: Let's hope that after people watch you and I, Daryn, this morning, more people, go get your hoods.
KAGAN: Show us how to put it on.
HENDERSON: OK, here we go.
KAGAN: We can keep talking as do you this. This is, in case something goes wrong. This is not -- this is in case of emergency.
HENDERSON: Right, well, this (UNINTELLIGIBLE), is good for 46 (ph) hours, it's got a battery inside. And what you do is you turn it around like this...
KAGAN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that buzzing sound?
HENDERSON: That buzzing sound tells you that the battery is good and that the protective hood is effective.
But what you do is you take your hands on the backside like this, spread it out like this, do it like this.
KAGAN: We're going to mess your hair instead of mine.
HENDERSON: I'm going to mess my hair up.
KAGAN: Go ahead.
KAGAN: My goodness. How does that feel in there?
HENDERSON: It feels good.
KAGAN: It fells good. OK, there you go. Get a look at that. Now I'm going to have you take it off because we're going to hear the buzzing more than your voice and I have a few more questions to ask you here.
How long can someone keep that on?
HENDERSON: This is good for 46 hours, and we call it an "escape hood," a safety hood. and what you can actually do with this, Daryn, is if we have -- if we have an accident or incident involving a nerve agent, what we'll do is we won't evacuate the whole county. We won't evacuate the whole cities. What we'll do is only evacuate the areas that the plume, if we were to have leaks, if the plume is headed in that direction. So what we can do with these is you can get in your vehicle and you can drive away.
KAGAN: Really you can?
HENDERSON: Yes.
KAGAN: I mean I got to tell you, Mr. Commissioner, when I look at this and I see this, that is a very scary site to me, especially living in a safe place, like rural Alabama.
HENDERSON: Well it's not really rural Alabama. We're between -- the population of our county is about 113,000. And we do have a large population. In fact, of the eight (UNINTELLIGIBLE) sites, Aniston, Alabama has the largest population at risk. We've got about 70,000 people...
(CROSSTALK)
KAGAN: But still the idea of having to put on one of these masks...
HENDERSON: Well this is a tough issue. It's like a lot of things that our government does. We invent things to destroy other people, and then after we never use it, we forget to invent a way to take care of the problem. So we've got a problem here and hopefully the Army and the FEMA folks will solve the problem and we'll be hopefully in a couple years we'll be down the road getting rid of these weapons and making it a lot safer (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
KAGAN: And as we should mention, it's international law that's insisting that the U.S. has it, it has to be destroyed and has to happen somewhere.
Thanks for coming to join us. We wish once this all gets going nothing but a safe time for the folks of Aniston, Alabama. And if there's any problem, come on and tell bus it.
HENDERSON: I appreciate that.
KAGAN: Thank you very much. Eli Henderson, commissioner of Calhoun County.
Want to also let you know there's not actually an exact date on the burn. The Army Corps of Engineers says that they have actually delayed the burns but they do still plan to carry them out in the near future. And you can bet Mr. Henderson will be on top of things to make sure they are doing it safely.
HENDERSON: Thank you very much, Daryn.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Thanks to Safe Planning>
