People Near Chemical Depots Worry

By REX W. HUPPKE Associated Press Writer

September 28, 2001, 1:51 AM EDT

NEWPORT, Ind. -- Wiping yellow shards of cheese off a slicer at Gidget's Deli, on the north side of the freshly mowed courthouse square, Linda Clawson's eyes grow wide as she describes her town's fear of a terrorist attack.

With a population of about 700, flanked on all sides by rolling farmland, it seems an unlikely target. But Newport is only a few miles from an Army chemical depot that stores 2.5 million pounds of VX, the deadliest nerve gas ever created.

And that's reason for concern in this town about 100 miles from Indianapolis.

"If we get bombed, this town's wiped out," Clawson said. "If the alarm goes off, it takes 11 seconds for that gas to get here."

Just enough time, some folks say, to start praying.

Across the country, people in towns and cities that are home to ammunition and chemical weapon depots or nuclear power plants haven't been able to avoid the question: What if the terrorists who have lashed out at America come after us?

Residents in Anniston, Ala., know all about the deadly substances held at a nearby chemical weapons incinerator, like sarin, which kills by paralyzing the lungs and other vital organs. They wonder who else knows.

"We would not even be on the terrorist map if it weren't for the stockpile out there," said Keith Howland, a salesman who also stars as Enviroman on a public-access television show. "Right now, we're sitting ducks -- it's public information."

Kay Bryan, who lives eight miles from the Umatilla Chemical Depot in northeastern Oregon, said a routine check of the Army's alarm system this week gave her quite a scare.

"I had my windows open, I was sound asleep and the sirens went off," she said. "I jumped up and panicked and thought: 'Oh my God, I thought they said (Osama) bin Laden wasn't going to attack again."'

The Oregon depot holds 12 percent of the nation's chemical weapon stockpile.

Security at military depots across the country has been increased since the Sept. 11 attacks. For example, hundreds of members of the 101st Airborne have been dispatched to the Newport Chemical Depot and to a rocket and nerve gas depot in Richmond, Ky.

Richmond native Rachel Rose said she was glad to see the troops come, and she's noticed they've kept the depot gates closed since they arrived.

"That was the first time in my life I've ever seen the gates closed during the daytime," she said. "It feels safer though, it's just not easy sitting so close to that much ammunition and nerve gas."

Of course military sites aren't the only concern.

Karen Herrick, who works at a flower shop near the Seabrook Station nuclear plant in Seabrook, N.H., said the attacks have been unnerving. She said local businesses and residents get instructions each year about evacuation routes should anything happen at the plant, but she usually throws them away.

"I can't say I'm afraid," she said, "but I've been thinking about where my evacuation papers are."

About 55 miles west of Phoenix, in Wintersburg, Ariz., is the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, the nation's largest nuclear power plant both in size and output. But not everyone here is paranoid about recent events.

Sitting in the shade of his mobile catfish stand, in clear view of the plant's bullet-shaped cooling towers, Thurman Payne said the terrorist attacks haven't changed the way he views the plant.

"The only thing I did different is hang up my flag," he said, nodding to an American flag flapping on the side of his stand. "All that's happened after the attacks is that we're dealing with a new reality, no different than any other American."

At the Wintersburg General Store, about three miles from the plant, store owner Ann Hollenstein echoed Payne's opinion.

"That plant does not bother me at all," she said. "I think that plant is pretty much built to withstand more than the World Trade Center."

Standing on a corner by the courthouse square in Newport, waving at the occasional car passing by, Dick McArty, who worked for 24 years as an electrician at the Newport Chemical Depot, said he knows the facility as well as anyone.

"It's secure as it is," he said, his eyes hidden behind tinted glasses. "But with these terrorists, what the hell is secure? What's safe anymore?" Copyright © 2001, The Associated Press

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2001