Agenda Packets - 2012/08/13 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Section 4 4-42 Ramsey County Multijurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan | July 2012 The most frequently used terrorist methods in the United States include, but are not limited to:  Bombs, Guns, and Explosives. These are the “traditional” weapons used by terrorists worldwide. Typically, these weapons are less technically and resource demanding.  Biological Weapons. These weapons use infectious microbes or toxins to produce illness or death in people, animals, or plants. Potential biological weapons include anthrax, botulism, smallpox, viral hemorrhagic fevers, water safety threats (for example, cholera), and food safety threats (for example, salmonella). Biological weapons are relatively difficult to cultivate and disseminate.  Chemical Weapons. Chemical weapons cause severe health reactions designed to incapacitate or cause death. There is a wide array of potential chemical agents that could be used as weapons. These agents vary in how their effects on the body, required dose, exposure mechanism, length of exposure, toxicity, origination, and form (for example, liquid gas). Examples of chemical agents include sarin, mustard agent, VX, and cyanide.  Radiological and Nuclear Weapons. Although there has been much speculation by media and various governmental agencies regarding the potential for a terrorist to obtain fissionable material or a nuclear bomb, there are no known unclassified cases of any such organization or group actually obtaining weapons-grade material. Constructing a nuclear bomb would be relatively difficult and require special resources, training, and materials. Assets Exposed to Hazard  Property Risk/Vulnerability: All assets within Ramsey County are susceptible to being affected by a terrorist incident. Ramsey County is also home to several labs that perform experiments and test chemicals on animals. This increases the risk that animal activist groups may pose a threat within the County. Typically, animal activist groups target property and infrastructure as opposed to people.  People Risk/Vulnerability: In evaluating vulnerability of the population in the County, it was determined that risk/vulnerability includes the entire population of Ramsey County since there is no way to determine the impact/magnitude of a terrorist incident and no way to predict where and when a terrorist incident will occur. People are vulnerable to terrorist events through physical injury or disease, power outages, effects on transportation routes, establishment of shelters, effect of incident on mental state of the public, confidence of public in law enforcement support, etc.  Environment Risk/Vulnerability: Risks to the environment are high should a terrorist incident occur but the frequency of terrorist events in Ramsey County are low. Environmental concerns would be interruption or contamination of water or food supplies, secondary events such as fires and hazardous materials accidents (such as gas pipelines rupturing, rupture of hazardous material containers at facilities, etc.). Land Use and Development Trends Future development throughout Ramsey County will take into consideration possible events.