Editorial: When disaster strikes

Friday, Sept. 12, 2003 | 9:17 a.m.

Sheriff Bill Young wants to establish a joint communications system among all police agencies and fire departments here. He says if there were a large-scale emergency, such as an act of terrorism, Clark County's first responders would have only a limited means of communicating with each other over the existing radio system.

Many firefighters' lives in New York City might have been saved in the 9-11 terrorist attacks if they would have had better communications equipment. And we recently saw the need for an improved communications system here when several Las Vegas firefighters had to be rescued after they became stranded in floodwaters during a storm; they couldn't contact Metro's search and rescue team because their communication systems weren't compatible. It required Young's wife, who works for the fire department, to call her husband on his cell phone to get help.

Police officers and firefighters should have all the tools they need to rescue others and get aid for themselves when necessary. Metro Police is in line to receive $250,000 in state funds to enhance the existing communications system. A complete overhaul, one that would allow first responders to be on the same system, would cost considerably more -- between $30 million and $50 million.

The city of Las Vegas and Clark County have sought a $12 million grant from the U.S. Homeland Security Department to defray the costs of installing a single system. We believe that the federal government should bear a large portion of the cost of any new communications system because it would be a national security issue if a disaster involved an act of terrorism. We should act upon a major lesson of 9-11 -- that poor communication can put lives at risk.