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Homeland security teams alerted Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0815blackout-security15.htmlhttp://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0815blackout-security15.html
Homeland Security teams alerted, ready to aid with blackout
Wire services
Aug. 15, 2003 12:00 AM
WASHINGTON - The new Department of Homeland Security, facing its first widespread crisis, summoned its emergency support teams to deal with the power outage across the East but never deployed them, a department spokesman said Thursday night.
"They were activated and alerted, and they're still ready to go," Brian Roehrkasse said. "However, we've had no requests for federal assistance."
Additionally, he said, the department's Federal Emergency Management Agency and border and transportation protection units received no urgent requests for additional help.
Roehrkasse said the department's Washington command center was quickly alerted to the power problems and, at first, "it was unclear what may have caused the outage."
Security officials had all but ruled out terrorism in the "first couple of hours," he said.
"This most likely was because of a power system failure and overload on the grid," he said. "However, we still do not have the specific details as to what caused it."
An FBI spokesman in Washington said specialists in counterterrorism and cybercrimes in bureau field offices in the Northeast spent part of the afternoon reaching out to power companies and other sources to check for the possibility of terrorist involvement in the blackouts and quickly determined that there wasn't any.
The FBI formerly operated a center that helped monitor security problems at computer networks and so-called critical infrastructure, such as the power grids. Those functions were transferred to the Homeland Security Department this spring, turning Thursday's outages into a sort of trial run for the new agency.
A key division of the department is responsible for protecting critical infrastructure, keeping energy producers, transportation, computer and water systems safe from terrorist attack and massive technical failure.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge was in Washington, Roehrkasse said, and conferred with President Bush, who was in California, and the president's chief of staff, Andrew Card, who was in Maine.
Also, the White House Situation Room, which helps coordinate crisis management for the president, convened a videoconference with necessary federal agencies, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said.
"The organization of Homeland Security is aimed at quick communications with the state and local authorities," Bush told reporters in California, "and I think that communication was quick and thorough."
In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he had also talked with Card, who offered whatever federal assistance was needed.
The mayor said he didn't ask for any.
"We believe that our internal capacity is adequate to maintain public safety," he told reporters in New York. "Everybody has been as helpful as you could possibly ask them to be."
Nonetheless, Homeland Security and myriad other federal agencies, still mindful of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, were quick to activate emergency response plans.
Within an hour of the outage, the department had issued a statement indicating no early evidence of terrorism.
"The Department of Homeland Security is working with state and local officials and the energy sector to determine the cause of the outage, as well as what response measures may be needed," the statement said.
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