State, federal coordination broke down during anthrax scare last week

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Posted 4:19PM on Thursday, February 28, 2002

ATLANTA - There was a breakdown in communications among state and federal agencies last Friday when a suspicious white powder initially tested positive for anthrax at Fort McPherson. The FBI sent the material, which turned out not to be anthrax, to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, instead of allowing a specially trained National Guard unit to test the substance. State officials met Thursday to review the response. Governor Barnes sought to minimize the episode during a news conference and said he doubts it made any difference in how the incident was handled. The governor told reporters, ``I won't say there was a lack of coordination. I will say it does point up the need for passing the bioterrorism bill.'' He added, ``Coordination could always be better, and that bill allows us to put in some further methods to allow better coordination.'' The measure has passed the Senate and is pending before the House. Barnes said the event was reviewed earlier Thursday in a joint meeting between state and federal authorities, who discussed how to make sure the information is better coordinated. National Guard officials say the FBI decision delayed test results by a full day and left nearly 1,000 people who work in the building where the substance was found unnecessarily worried about their risk of exposure. Major Jeff Allen is head of the fourth Weapons of Mass Destruction-Civil Support Team based at Dobbins Air Force Reserve Base in Marietta. In an interview with The Atlanta Constitution, Allen said ``With our equipment, we could have given them a 99-point-nine percent probability result that night instead of waiting 24 hours.'' Officials at the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, which has a round-the-clock communications center to be the state's hub for terrorist attacks and natural disasters, say they first learned of the anthrax scare on local television news.