【正文】
force is made up of at least 60 members. 5. If a city has earned the CDC39。t s help a massive number of burn victims or people suffering from chemical exposure unless the hospital is prepared to treat them. But all the cities in our survey have specialty units in their hospitals that can handle such cases. Are local teams trained to respond quickly and work together? If and urban area was targeted by weapons of mass destruction, city health officials couldn39。re sound asleep? Not a problem if your city has a way of alerting you at any time of day. Some rely on street sirens(警報(bào)器)to do the trick. Others have used their websites to invite residents to sign up for notifications or automated phone calls in an emergency. Medical Response Are there at least 500 hospital beds for every 100,000 residents? Getting to victims quickly is a critical first step. But you39。ve incorporated E911 (or enhanced 911). This technology enables emergency operators to identify the precise location of cellphone callers through GPS systems. If you wind up stranded in floodwaters, E911 could save your life. Does the city provide 24hour emergency alerts? What if an evacuation order goes out, but it39。ve taken part in RapidCom, a DHS program providing technical assistance and training that speeds up the transition. Has the city adopted E911? Many cities have upgraded their 911 call centers in recent years, but they39。s disaster planning shows no awareness of specialneeds people, it isn39。 a disproportionate number of them were older residents who lived alone. In any crisis, the elderly and disabled can be uniquely vulnerable. That39。s evacuation plans were both inadequate and poorly municated. One way cities can avoid a similar nightmare is to put clear and easytofind evacuation information on their websites. Some cities, such as Boston and Washington, post the preferred street routes. Others, like Las Vegas, won39。re best off if your city has earned the CDC39。re our first line of protection in almost any disaster situation—professionals who are trained to handle everything from rescuing victims to providing first aid, to enforcing quarantines(封鎖), to directing traffic for evacuations(疏散). Are there federal searchandrescue teams based within 50 miles? Large cities often have specialized teams to deal with such things as highrisebuilding rescues or hazardous chemical spills. But these squads are sometimes small, illequipped, or run on a shoestring. This is not true of federal urban searchandrescue task forces that the DHS supports across the country. Each task force is made of 62 members and 4 canines, as well as a prehensive cache of equipment. DHS task forces are not automatically assigned。ll be hit again—maybe even harder—because the list of possible calamities(災(zāi)難)is long: from a bird flu pandemic to a massive California earthquake, to more monster storms, to another terrorist attack. But are we really prepared to protect people, as well as their homes and businesses? Every major urban area has received federal funding, much of it from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in order to make their cities more secure. But there are no set criteria for measuring preparedness (the feds are working on that), and the quality of disaster plans varies widely throughout the country. So we decided to do an independent assessment of 10 highrisk urban areas, focusing on key security indicators. We analyzed public data, consulted with federal and local emergency workers, and contacted the mayors39。d expect our major cities to be ready with disaster plans that will save lives and property. There39。 N (for NO) if the statement contradicts the information given in the passage。s viewpoint is that ________. [A] nations in that region are just fighting for water [B] people there are thirsty for peace instead of water [C] water is no problem as long as there is peace [D] those nations have every reason to fight for water 5. The author39。s potential was only 1,100. Israel had 460. Jordan had a meager 260. But these are not firm figures, because upstream use of river water can dramatically alter the potential downstream. Scarcity is only one element of the crisis. Inefficiency is another, as is the reluctance of some waterpoor nations to change priorities from agriculture to less waterintensive enterprises. Some experts suggest that if nations would share both water technology and resources, they could satisfy the region39。 to Israel and Jordan, neighbors across the valley of the Jordan。s accelerating population, expanding agriculture, industrialization, and higher living standards demand more freshwater. Drought and pollution limit its a availability. War and mismanagement waste it. Said Joyce Starr of the Global Water Summit Initiative, based in Washington, . Nations like Israel and Jordan are swiftly sliding into that zone where they are suing all the water resources available to them. They have only 15 to 20 years left before their agriculture, and ultimately their food