Author warns of myopic disaster planning by West Coast ports

Author warns of myopic disaster planning by West Coast ports U.S. ports need to think more about surviving a disaster or terrorist attack than preventing them, said the author of a new book on America's disaster readiness.
   Stephen Flynn, a former U.S. Coast Guard commander, said ports like the giant facility in Los Angeles are especially vulnerable to attacks or natural disasters.
   Flynn, whose is making the rounds promoting his latest book, 'The Edge of Disaster,' told National Public Radio that an earthquake or terrorist attack on the Port of Los Angeles, one of the world’s largest ports and a key energy transit point, would have a ripple effect throughout the economy. The lockout of waterfront labor by employers in 2002 effectively shut down West Coast ports for 10 days, costing the U.S. economy an estimated $1 billion a day.
   In addition to the potential damage to business interests, Flynn also points to the danger of running out of commodities shipped through the ports, such as petroleum. 'If you disrupt the harbor and the oil tankers don't come in, you literally run out of gas in about two to three weeks,' he said.
   Flynn, a security expert with the Council on Foreign Relations, said the U.S. government has made 'important progress' in boosting port security, such as programs to inspect containers before they head for U.S. shores. But, he emphasized, far more needs to be done, including disaster drills.
   'One of the things that we certainly need more of are exercises that would test (the response) ' if we have various scenarios, how would we respond? How would we clean up the mess in a hurry?' Flynn said salvage vessels must be available to respond in case an oil tanker is attacked, so that the port can be quickly reopened. Port officials at Los Angeles and the neighboring Port of Long Beach have long feared a catastrophic tanker accident that could seal off waterways and berths until cleaned up.
   Officials should think less about security than about resiliency, Flynn said.
   'We're focused almost myopically on preventing every act of terror, which is ' frankly an impossibility,' he said. 'But what we can do, what we can control, is how we respond when terrorist incidents happen or when accidents happen.'