Amanda Ripley Author of The Unthinkable

I went to National Airport in DC this week to do a story for Time.com about the new TSA screener uniforms. I came away very mixed about the new look. On the one hand, if the screeners look more professional, they will probably act more professionally, and passengers will treat them better, leading to a magical, positive feedback loop.

On the other hand, making screeners, the face of homeland security, look more militaristic does not necessarily feel like progress. In other countries, the airport security staff wear tailored suits and ties. They look like Men in Black, not cops. There are lots of clever ways to do this, and I’m not sure more rent-a-cop outfits are going to get us there. But check out the photo or report back from your travels, and let me know what you think. 

I did the Diane Rehm show today, which was a blast. (Rarely do you get an hour of media time to talk about anything, let alone an obsession that you’ve been researching for years.)

But I wanted to share with you what one listener sent in by email during the show. I wish I could have said it half as well:

From Jerry in O’Fallon, Missouri:

“I spent over 15 years training airline pilots and flight attendants in emergency procedures. Here’s what I know: Everyone has a moment of panic. The trick is to move past that and begin to figure out where you are and what you should do now. And the best way to do that is to have lived this moment before--in drills and in your imagination. It’s not knowing what to do that will save you. It’s knowing that you know what to do.”

Four boys died when a tornado ripped through their camp in western Iowa this week. It was a terrible loss. But it was also an example of how reasonable acts of preparation can save lives.

The Boy Scouts take great pride in being prepared. It isn’t a sign of weakness or neurosis--the way preparedness is viewed in much of adult land. It is a sign of strength. And here is what it looks like:

On Tuesday, the Scouts held an emergency preparedness drill. On Wednesday, the storm rolled in. When a Scout leader spotted a funnel cloud churning toward the camp, he flipped on a siren, and the boys began to run for shelter. Unfortunately, as is often the case with tornadoes, they only had a few seconds of warning, and many boys only had time to run under picnic tables before the tornado hit.

Afterwards, the boys and men who were not hurt--and even some who were--immediately took action. They wrapped their shirts around wounds and applied gauze and ran for help.

“If it had to happen, it was good that it happened at a Boy Scouts camp,” one boy named Ethan later told NBC. “We were prepared. We knew that we had to place tourniquets on wounds that were bleeding too much. We had first Aid kits. We had everything. We knew about this. We knew how to do it. If it had happened anywhere else, there wouldn’t be that many people who knew.”

I have met small-town officials all over the country who insist their town is a terrorist target. “We have an interstate highway here,” they say, with a hard, ominous stare. “And an airport.” For a TIME story on why Wyoming gets more homeland security cash per capita than any other place, I listened to a room full of 22 nice, well-meaning Casper fire fighters say they would feel insulted by any suggestion that Casper (pop. 50,000) should get less homeland-security money. “No one can say Casper can’t be a terrorist target,” fire fighter Roy Buck told me.

So is being a terrorist target now part of the American dream? I’ve never been 100% sure if people are saying these things because they really believe it...or because they want the federal money that comes with high-risk status. But this USA Today story confirms that a few officials really, truly believe it. Some villages you’ve never heard of (West Baraboo, Wisc., pop. 1,248) are using their own residents’ money to pay for terrorism insurance to protect their water towers and police stations from the enemy.

Here’s the thing: yes, a rural attack by international terrorists would be frightening for Americans, and in that sense, it would be psychologically effective. But Americans are not the audience for groups like al Qaeda. Muslims around the world are the target demo, and they don’t get fired up about West Baraboo. (Sorry, I know this is hard to hear...) But major targets for these kinds of groups will almost certainly be places that people who have never been to America can effortlessly visualize: places like New York City, Washington, DC, Los Angeles.

But this yearning to be part of the action is actually really interesting. When did the threat of random violence against civilians become a badge of honor? How did vulnerability get confused with civic pride? Consider what West Baraboo village clerk Mary Klingenmeyer is saying when she tells USA Today: “We had quite a few outlying areas laughing at us,” Klingenmeyer said [about the decision to adopt terrorism insurance]. “Maybe we’ll have the last laugh.”

The last laugh? After your village has been attacked by terrorists, you’ll have the last laugh? Really? I’m guessing it wouldn’t actually be so supremely gratifying. Except for the terrorists, of course. Although it appears that in West Baraboo, at least, they have already won.

And now we pause to celebrate that most rare and precious of news: FEMA may be getting stronger. At least in some places.

I wouldn’t trust everyone on this, but I trust Eric Holdeman. Based in Seattle, Eric ran King County’s Office of Emergency
Management in Washington state for 11 years, and he is a reporter’s lifesaver: he knows a ton; he will tell you the truth; and if he doesn’t know the answer, he’ll send you to someone who does.

Anyway, Eric’s blog is a useful clearinghouse for news in emergency preparedness. And the other day, he tacked up this pretty swatch of hope (please forgive the emergency-ops jargon. That’s just how these guys talk.):

I got the following information from Garry Briese, Regional Administrator for FEMA Region VIII in Colorado. I had commented to him about the tornado that hit Colorado. He replied, “The tornado was impressive, but not nearly as destructive as the ones in Kansas and Iowa. Our 5-person State Support Team (SST) from R8 was in the state EOC within two hours of the impact and we launched a second team to Wyoming the next morning. On the initial helicopter fly-over that same afternoon, our SST Team Leader was on the helicopter with the Governor. Twenty-four hours after impact we had more than 50 FEMA on site doing communications (MERS) and preliminary damage assessment (IA & PA). Best of all, the Presidential Declaration was requested, processed here, sent to FEMA, sent to the WH [White House], and approved within 48 hours over the holiday weekend.”

I’ve been involved in many disaster response activities at the state and local level. The speed with which FEMA Region VIII responded and also the State of Colorado in requesting the disaster declaration is I think very impressive!

Maybe things are really getting better. Way to go FEMA!