23 June 2009 "Emergency Containment" Area sign erected near the North and South Carolina border. A Guide to Emergency Quarantine and Isolation Controls of Roads in Rural Areas may provide a clue as to the containment areas. The text states in part:
Response to agro-terrorism or other biological outbreaks of food contamination or animal disease often requires immediate (within hours) isolation and/or quarantine of potentially infected areas. Researchers indicate that the economic impact of the outbreak is a function of the time it takes to enforce a quarantine and eradicate or control the infection. It is essential that emergency quarantine and isolation controls be available that can be implemented immediately at the local level. Traditional methods of containment (i.e., posting law enforcement officers to control travel) are not feasible in many potentially affected areas; thus, more innovative methods are needed that can be implemented in partnership with law enforcement, military (Active, Reserve, and Guard), the private sector, transportation agencies, and others at the local and state levels.
Quarantine or isolation of even a limited area could involve many roads and could need to be in place for weeks to months. While federal support for the longer duration may arrive in a few days, vector control (i.e., containment of damages) requires an effective locally implemented response within hours.
There is a need to develop or identify emergency quarantine and isolation controls for road networks (e.g., all roads in a 3- to 6-mile radius of a feed lot) in a short time frame (e.g., 6 to 12 hours).
What the document does not state is what the area is for: animals or citizens. Stay tuned for more.
Posts
