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. . . San Jose Emergency Plans Set Example San Jose, the seat of Silicon Valley, was the first of the 27 cities in the federal program to complete the Defense Department's training and exercises program and the first to finish a written plan for dealing with telTorist attacks. The genius of the program, said Dr, Edwards-Winslow, is that from its inception, it made sure that emergency plans were drawn up by every group that would be participating -- the Police and Fire Departments, county public health emergency services, the medical examiner, representatives of the public and private hospitals, and ambulance servIces. Dr. Gregory A. Schmunk, San Jose's chief medical examiner, said his department considered itself as prepared as it could be for emergencies, "If something happens, if and when it happens," Dr. Schmunk said, "it will be on one location where the rest of us can pull together and send resources, And we have the contacts in place to make that work, as long as we don't have a scenario where we see four or five incidents at the SaJ11e time." Besides city departments, the emergency preparedness team has about 1,000 volunteers on call, with their own vests and hard hats and at least 16 hours of training for response to disaster, natural or otherwise. "Preparedness is not a station, it's a journey," Dr. Edwards-Winslow said, "People who are telTorists and sociopaths don't have the normal thinking we have, so they would imagine things that would never occur to most Dfus, I would never say, 'Oh, yeah, we're as prepared as we can be.! " Hom~ I Back to National I Search I Help BachJp. Tnp ~ E.I.1aHThi$ Ar::,icle ~'Pdntef.Fri8n-dly Fo-rm.ai ~ M08, E..Mail8d Anide6 .. Click tlere to Receive 50% Off Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Lender Fees Copyright 2001 The. NE!vv YQf~. Ttrn~~. ~QI!lP?l-ny I Privacy Il1f9rrD~tion Imp:/ /www.nytimes.com/2001/10/29/national/29JOSE.html?todaysheadlines Page 3 of3 10/29/200 I