Sheriff, other officials say Augusta still keeps watch

Miles away from New York and Washington and two years after the terrorist attacks, officials say Augusta is still on alert.

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The Richmond County Sheriff's Office is more observant than ever, Sheriff Ronnie Strength said.

"It made all law enforcement and the community cognizant that any area could be a possible threat," Sheriff Strength said.

Patrols and extra observation are emphasized now on government buildings, schools, utilities, factories and plants, Augusta's two airports and other public facilities, he said.

"Overall, it's made law enforcement a lot more suspicious of folks who could be a possible threat to the community," Sheriff Strength said.

Extra homeland security funding promised to Augusta authorities has been slow in reaching his agency, the sheriff said, just as it has to other local and state agencies.

"We were expecting it, but the wheels are turning mighty slow," he said. "We're having to do a lot more with the same amount of people."

Sheriff Strength said that the sheriff's office has no information that there could be a problem today on the second anniversary of the attacks but that it would "do due diligence" to be prepared.

Emergency planning has come full circle two years after 2001, said Pam Tucker, the director of the Columbia County Emergency Management Agency.

When she started in emergency management in Richmond County more than 20 years ago, the focus of the Office of Civil Defense, the predecessor to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was protecting people against man-made emergencies - specifically, nuclear war.

Later, as the Cold War ended, the agency shifted its focus to natural disaster preparedness and mitigation, Ms. Tucker said. In the 1990s, emergency planners again began to focus on man-made emergencies, such as chemical spills and school violence.

Now, Ms. Tucker said emergency planning is back to preparing residents and protecting them against attacks of a different kind, but becoming much more flexible in facing new threats.

"You have to be flexible," she said. "There's thousands of elements in an emergency program."

Ms. Tucker said Columbia County is working to train civilian volunteers to help respond to emergencies and help emergency workers do routine things that they might otherwise be too overwhelmed to do: directing traffic, performing first aid or even removing people from a collapsed building.

She said her agency is working to obtain a special mobile communications center - about the size of a school bus - that could become a backup 911 center if something happens to a county's communications center.

The vehicle could be dispatched to other counties in the area if needed, she said.

At Augusta Regional Airport, the most significant change that travelers saw was the transfer of security responsibility from the airport itself to a new federal agency, said Kathryn Solee, the airport's marketing director.

The Transportation Security Administration took over screening functions at the airport by the end of 2002 and began screening every piece of checked baggage as required by federal law for explosives.

Other restrictions, as experienced at nearly all the nation's airports after the attacks, also were in effect in Augusta.

"It's been in various increments," Ms. Solee said. "The 300-foot rule for curbside parking, the times we've had for vehicle checks - there's been a lot of different types of security changes."

Also affecting passengers, she said, is a hard-and-fast rule instituted by the airline industry that passengers must check in at least 30 minutes before departure.

"For a small airport, it's been one of those things that's been a change for folks to understand," Ms. Solee said.

Fort Gordon's changing security measures have been seen, and not seen, by the public in the two years since the attacks, officials said.

"We've upgraded security significantly," said Marla Jones, a civilian public affairs office for the Army post. "A lot of it is obvious; a lot of it is not."

Right after the attacks, security measures were drastically heightened so much that traffic backed up for miles on Jimmie Dyess Parkway leading into the post's Gate 1.

Security personnel checked identification, and photo IDs are still required for every adult to get onto the post. Vehicles without Department of Defense decals are still inspected at the gate.

Driveways and paths in front of some buildings are blocked by barricades, and Signal Towers requires visitors to sign in when entering the building.

Reach Jeremy Craig at (706) 823-3409 or jeremy.craig@augustachronicle.com.

--From the Thursday, September 11, 2003 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle