Editorial

It could never happen here, right?

That’s what most of us believed before April 19, 1995. That was the

day that Timothy McVeigh shattered our naivete with a massive bomb that

blasted through the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing

scores of innocents, including young children.

No more could the United States look at terrorism abroad and feel

secure that we were, for the most part, untouchable.

Hence the basis for a May 23 drill at the Huntington Beach Pier in

which a mock explosion took place at a mock volleyball tournament,

resulting in the mock injuries and deaths to a few hundred spectators.

As part of a U.S. Department of Justice program, drills like the one

here are taking place nationwide in 120 of the country’s largest cities.

And we are grateful that Huntington Beach could be a host for the

program, the first this year, to determine how local agencies would react

to an attack with weapons of mass destruction.

As blessed as Surf City is with its beaches and coastline, it also can

be considered a possible target with the large numbers of visitors who

come here each year, especially in the summer.

The Fourth of July Parade on Main Street alone draws 300,000 people

and thousands are drawn here to the annual surf contests that take place.

Those residents and visitors need to be protected first and foremost.

But in the event of a disaster or attack, those same residents and

visitors should be assured that the best of care and highest level of

training will be employed to handle emergencies.

And it was good to see our police officers, firefighters, lifeguards

and other city officials taking these important precautions seriously.

“It’s nice to know they have the practice for this stuff, in case it

ever happens,” said June Duong, one mock casualty of the early morning

drill.

We tend to agree.

Because no matter how safe we feel, no matter how unlikely an attack

is, the unfortunate truth is that we will forever need to be prepared for

the very worst.

And whether that’s good or bad, we can give McVeigh a lot of the

credit for that.