Metro Emergency Guide: Better Start Praying

Medical mask. Radio. Bottled water. Flashlight. Whistle.

These are all items listed under a brief article titled "Subway Survivalism," in today's Express, the Washington Post's free daily for Metro commuters. The piece was among other related stories in a special 12-page "Metro Emergency Guide" in case of a terrorist attack.

Another brief article lists different types of respirators (i.e. "Elastomeric Half Mask, $10-$40) that protect against chemical, biological and radiological particles. Above it is a photo of Tokyo subway commuters crouching and desperately covering their eyes, nose and mouth against the deadly Sarin gas attack in March 1995.

This emergency guide, alas, is not borne of paranoia. The bombing of Madrid's subway earlier this year killed 191 people. Five thousand people were injured and 12 people died in the the Tokyo subway terrorist attack.

Washington, D.C. is a big fat terrorist target. It's like we have a red bulls-eye over the National Capital Region.

First, a plane smashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, killing about 200 people. Then there were the anthrax attacks, killing two people and sending hundreds of thousands into high alert. After that were the sniper shootings, killing more than a dozen Washingtonians. It makes you wonder what's next.

Rarely have I seen any security on the metro trains or in the stations. It would be laughably easy to cripple the nation's second-largest subway system, used by 1.1 million people a day, me among them.

Here are a few tidbits from Express that made me giggle despite being alarmed:

"A biological attack would likely be carried out covertly. Most symptoms would not emerge for days or weeks ... The risk of an undetected biological weapon is just one more excellent reason to wash your hands with soap and water after riding the Metro."

And this: "An emergency is no time for modesty. Decontamination will most likely mean taking off all of your clothes."

Cipro shot, anyone?