Nuclear panic on Portland: Residents tell of fear

10:00am Friday 12th March 2010 in News By Laura Kitching

Ashley Reed with residents who say a nuclear accident emergency plan exercise was carried out with little warning and left them fearing for their lives Ashley Reed with residents who say a nuclear accident emergency plan exercise was carried out with little warning and left them fearing for their lives

TERRIFIED Portlanders feared they had been hit by a nuclear attack amid scenes of chaos.

Residents barricaded themselves in their homes and made desperate phone calls for help during the scare.

Elderly and vulnerable people in the Fortuneswell area feared ‘bombs were going to drop’ when ‘alarmist’ information booklets were pushed through their letterboxes after dark.

And they were furious when they found out the panic had been caused by an emergency exercise.

They have accused organisers of the Nuclear Accident Emergency Plan exercise on Wednesday evening of ‘scare-mongering.’ The exercise, led by Dorset County Council, the Royal Navy, Maritime and Coastguard Agency, the borough council and other nuclear officials, involved a leaflet drop to 1,200 residents living within 1.5km of Portland Port.

The situation was exacerbated by Wessex Water officials making loud hailer announcements about water being turned off at the same time and radios being used by officials.

John Morris said: “I went outside when I heard the loudhailer announcement. I was handed this leaflet about nuclear leaks by a bloke who said nothing and there were several people talking on radios. It looked serious and it’s no wonder people panicked. The organisers dealt with this in an utterly incompetent manner.”

Vivien Hawkins, 78, of Artist Row, said: “It was frightening.

“I heard this awful noise, opened my front door but couldn’t understand what they were saying.

“After that a booklet came telling me to shut all the windows and douse fires. It was frightening, did they want me to freeze?

“I called my son who works at Winfrith, and he wondered if a submarine was leaking in Portland Port.”

One elderly man said: “I came home from work and found my wife in tears, she’s distraught.

“All I know is there’s a radiation emergency on Portland Port. I’ve had to give my wife a sleeping tablet to help with the shock.

“They’ve given us a whole list of things to do if an emergency happened, like do not leave the area and put out or damp down fires.

“My wife’s reading all this stuff and she’s scared. She’s going to have nightmares tonight.”

Louise Armstrong, 45, of King Street, said: “It was very strange, there was no prior warning.

“It would’ve been nice to have a letter before these leaflets.”

Ashley Reed, 42, said: “The impact of these leaflets coming through our letterboxes is the real crux of the anxiety generated.

“The first impression when you pick it up is this is because of a radiation leak and these were delivered at night and after dark.

“It’s not what you expect and it’s just the sheer absurdity of it – as if these alarmist booklets could bring any comfort.”

A King Street resident added: “When I got the leaflet I thought ‘When’s the bomb going to drop?’”

Fortuneswell resident Geoff Buckley, 73, a former senior commissioner engineer with Vickers, said: “If people don’t know what’s going on it scares them.

“Instead of using pamphlets, they should spend a bit of time going around to visit people.”

Winifred Groves, 81, of Fortuneswell said: “It’s disgusting. It was very scary.”

The exercise was a pre-cursor to a much larger exercise on Tuesday, April 27, to validate the Portland Port off-site reactor emergency plan and the site-specific aspects of the Royal Navy’s emergency plan.

Comments(54)

b+w geezer says...
10:18am Fri 12 Mar 10

Floods of tears rolling down my cheek at the moment.

Great way to start a Friday

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maximan says...
10:24am Fri 12 Mar 10

Shouldn't really laugh but can't help it....don't panic

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bungy says...
10:32am Fri 12 Mar 10

Oh dear, what a load of c**p there was pre warning this exercise was taking place. Lest face it if there had been a leak not even W&PBC or DCC
firsts reaction to get sombody to put leaflets through doors in a contaminated area.

Still this is portlanders

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17th Earl of Fortuneswell says...
10:34am Fri 12 Mar 10

Sorry to say that I am ashamed to share an Island with such a load of hysterical windbags.
It was announced that these leaflets were to be dropped a couple of weeks ago but no lets all puff our chests out and run to the Echo like a load of bantam ****.
I do hope that the people of Wyke, Weymouth et al don't split their sides too much.

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b+w geezer says...
10:44am Fri 12 Mar 10

Best quote..

"I’ve had to give my wife a sleeping tablet to help with the shock."

Uh-huh!

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Duckorange says...
10:46am Fri 12 Mar 10

17th Earl: I can confirm there was no panic at all in Wyke.
In fact, I led an orderly procession to Ferrybridge, and was ready to blow the charges in order to keep the irradiated hordes on the island when the authorities had me stand down.
All in a day's work.
I am not mad.

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ballstoit says...
11:00am Fri 12 Mar 10

Holy crap. Are people really that thick or is this a made up story.
Weymouth residents must be positively weting themselves - at least moreso than usual.

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HotBeaver1 says...
11:10am Fri 12 Mar 10

Another nail in the coffin of any credibility that "rock apes" once had. How they manage to run a council when they can't tell a publicised exercise from the real thing I don't know - but then I am not a rock ape!

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free wessex says...
11:26am Fri 12 Mar 10

mmm.. I laughed at first but is this not a training event in case terrorists let off a dirty bomb during the olympics?

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potterguy says...
11:29am Fri 12 Mar 10

free wessex no this is an exercise as either this page orthe other page on this stoiry tells us on what would happen if a nuclear submarine moored in the harbour suddenly started leaking nuclear fuel into the water

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niblick says...
11:33am Fri 12 Mar 10

Not often the Echo makes me laugh out loud the quotes from the public in this story are priceless.

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Genghis says...
11:51am Fri 12 Mar 10

They delivered a leaflet to my house like they said they would the other week. Very informative. Was the panic optional or did I miss out on something?

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PortlandYoof says...
11:53am Fri 12 Mar 10

Haha what a load of rubbish. Words can't describe how stupid these people are. Nuclear disaster? LOL! I'll be perching behind my window in fortuneswell waiting for the mushroom cloud thanks :-)

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ballstoit says...
11:59am Fri 12 Mar 10

Can we start looting yet or do we have to wait for the zombies to start appearing?

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I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY DON'T LIKE THE NEW ECHO WEBSITE says...
12:14pm Fri 12 Mar 10

Brilliant! There has been a nuclear disaster, the world is going to end- and people are out casually putting leaflets through letterboxes! That's right- instead of running for their lives, they decided to spread the word (as quietly as possible) through the medium of a leaflet through your door.

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likeitornot says...
12:48pm Fri 12 Mar 10

If I didn’t know better I would have thought it was April 1st, but I would like to point out that not everybody that lives on the island is a nutter, I don’t know whether the Echo is responsible for this hysterical reaction in search of a story or whether some people really are so stupid to get their knickers in a knot over something that has been well publicised. The term storm in a tea cup springs to mind, I haven’t even opened my booklet and I am not inclined too Nuclear Subs are very rare visitors to Portland so the chances of any accident involving one are minimalistic to say the least and if the very worst did happen I don’t think we would have a lot to worry about.

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CHEVAL says...
1:03pm Fri 12 Mar 10

Does Kelvin McKenzie write for the Echo?

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biggestoaf says...
1:12pm Fri 12 Mar 10

I don't suppose this comment will survive for long before it is removed for daring to criticise the Echo. To me this is another example of the Echo becoming more and more sensationalist and tabloid in style. The language used in this story - "panic" , "scenes of chaos", "barricaded themselves in their homes", "desperate phone calls for help" and "furious" to describe what was probably not a panic situation at all, is clearly designed to exaggerate in the hope of selling more papers. The Echo has never been the most reliable paper in getting its facts right but now it makes matters worse by its ridiculous sensationalism. The sad thing is it seems to be successful since they were bosting recently of increased sales.

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biggestoaf says...
1:14pm Fri 12 Mar 10

*boasting* not bosting. Oops.

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portlandresident says...
1:17pm Fri 12 Mar 10

Right. Where to begin... Firstly, the booklets that have been put through people's doors, are the same as those which were put through in 2007. Does anyone recall them from 2007? Probably not, as they tend to go straight into the bin. Anyway, contrary to what many people beleive, they're not intended to cause unnecessary panic. They're put through doors, because for some legal reason they have to be distributed in that way. They're designed for people to have all the facts. What frustrates me, is that as soon as someone mentions the 'nuclear' word, people begin to panic. What people should realise is that if there were a problem in the pipeline, they'd be notified in more ways than one! Firstly, no-one would be able to watch anything on the TV because it would be littered with warnings, cautions and useful advice. What's more, the local radio stations would be transferred to the local emergency broadcasting network and provide constant information and updates. There would be an incredibly high presence of emergency services. Wessex Water would not be one of them!!! There may or may not be restrictions to traffic and road use (to keep space clear for emergency vehicles, military operations etc). Further more, it should be noted that there would be more than a booklet popping through your letter box. So, for heaven's sake - pull yourselves together. Just read the leaflet, and put it somewhere safe. Mine resides on the coffee table and is a nice mat for my plant pot. By no means is this an excuse to start complaining. Just be grateful you're being offered the opportunity to read about what's happening! If you weren't informed about things, you'd complain no matter what! So, sit back, relax, and let people get on with their jobs and stop causing problems that don't need to be caused!

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Dorset Boy says...
1:30pm Fri 12 Mar 10

Thankyou Echo I needed a good laugh to get over a c**p week

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Tremendous Eddie Tremendouson says...
1:41pm Fri 12 Mar 10

You could see this coming a mile off! The Echo has been setting this storyline up over the last couple of weeks.

Still makes you laugh though at the stupidness of some people.

Still what can you expect in a day and age when the likes of Al Gore are seen as truthful messiahs and people get their information from the Sun, Mirror, BBC etc.

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boxfile says...
1:43pm Fri 12 Mar 10

Was it Orson Wells that caused panic in the USA after reading War of the Worlds on the radio ?. I just think it was a slow news day, the echo went out and found some slow people for us all to laugh at, shame on you Echo!!

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lellski says...
2:09pm Fri 12 Mar 10

Its ok for Weymouth and Wyke to take the p##s out of Portland people but lets remember the Olympics
is in Portland harbour not WEYMOUTH BAY!!!!

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crazyhorse99 says...
2:23pm Fri 12 Mar 10

Actually lellski I think you will find that most of the races take place in Weymouth waters!! - what exactly have the the Olympics got to do with this story. Except the fact that a few idiots actually believed they were in danger. Proves some people are more stupid that i would believe possible and in this case they lived on Portland.

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Stoneman says...
2:27pm Fri 12 Mar 10

HotBeaver1 wrote:
Another nail in the coffin of any credibility that "rock apes" once had. How they manage to run a council when they can't tell a publicised exercise from the real thing I don't know - but then I am not a rock ape!
About a CREDITable as your football club. We all know why your not a Rock-Ape moosh You Failed the Intelligence test

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likeitornot says...
3:37pm Fri 12 Mar 10

Stoneman wrote:
HotBeaver1 wrote:
Another nail in the coffin of any credibility that "rock apes" once had. How they manage to run a council when they can't tell a publicised exercise from the real thing I don't know - but then I am not a rock ape!
About a CREDITable as your football club. We all know why your not a Rock-Ape moosh You Failed the Intelligence test
One up to you Stoneman nice one.

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nigefromdorchester says...
5:13pm Fri 12 Mar 10

Tee Hee.... I laughed so much that I spilt my coffee all over the keyboard and have just finished clearing it up. Thank you to the people of Portland for cheering up a dull Friday....you really are priceless.

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daddykingcool says...
5:35pm Fri 12 Mar 10

nigefromdorchester wrote:
Tee Hee.... I laughed so much that I spilt my coffee all over the keyboard and have just finished clearing it up. Thank you to the people of Portland for cheering up a dull Friday....you really are priceless.
I know, I think I have injured myself laughing so much at these dip-sticks - anyway I thought that Portland was already contaminated or are they naturally stupid.

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Chalbury says...
5:40pm Fri 12 Mar 10

Why oh Why does the Editor allow such stupid headlines? It is headlines like this that remove all credibility that the then 'Dorset Evening Echo' used to have.

I cannot beleive such rubbish was printed. I used to buy this paper every day - now I only look at it when someone else has discarded a copy. This type of headline is the reason why I do not waste my money on the Dorset Echo any more.

The people who contributed to this story must be dying of embarrasment - which is more likely than any nuclear attack.

Anyway - if an attack was likely to occur - don't you think that it would have a mention on National News broadcasts???

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Hemlock Sholmes says...
8:20pm Fri 12 Mar 10

Oh dear, What has happened to the Echo? As an ex pat sat in my study up in the smoke, I enjoy catching up on the goings on "back home", but recently, reading the Echo is more like reading the Daily Sport - without the girls unfortunately, but thats another issue. Come on Echo, give me some news, please. However, I should praise you for the laughs you provide.

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Get a grip says...
8:45pm Fri 12 Mar 10

If you are thick best to keep your mouth shut.

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Captain Sensible says...
9:06pm Fri 12 Mar 10

This is the funniest article I've seen in a local paper for years, brilliant, a load of confused old airstealers thinking the world was coming to an end. Fantastic, just what local papers exist for...

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niblick says...
9:20pm Fri 12 Mar 10

This story has got to be picked up by the nationals then the whole country can have a good laugh at these dimwits.

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nigefromdorchester says...
9:36pm Fri 12 Mar 10

"A King Street resident added: “When I got the leaflet I thought ‘When’s the bomb going to drop?’”


Tee Hee..... I'm not sure that it is on the check list of Nuclear antagonists to send a leaflet prior to launching a nuclear attack.....

I must remind Kim Jong-Il to ensure that he delivers every one a colourful glossy brochure before he launches his arsenal of Taepodong missiles.

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Genghis says...
9:53pm Fri 12 Mar 10

What's a nuclear attack got to do with the price of chips? The leaflets are advice on what to do if one of the visiting submarines has an accident and there's a radioactive leak.

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GrahamC says...
9:04am Sat 13 Mar 10

niblick wrote:
This story has got to be picked up by the nationals then the whole country can have a good laugh at these dimwits.
It already has ..... Daily Mail is running it. Will try to give you a link below

http://www.dailymail
.co.uk/news/article-
1257540/Residents-Do
rset-town-left-terri
fied-fake-nuclear-em
ergency-staged-follo
wing-distribution-al
armist-leaflets.html

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james the thirst says...
9:09am Sat 13 Mar 10

Panic, chaos? must have been conjured up by the same people who report when we get an inch of snow

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HarryN12 says...
9:11am Sat 13 Mar 10

Like Hemlock Sholmes, I too am an ex-pat living in the big smoke (that's London, not Dorchester).
I laughed out loud when I read this - as did my colleagues when I circulated it round the office "scenes of chaos" "Residents barricaded themselves in their homes and made desperate phone calls for help"
On a more serious note, I would suggest that the Editor either sends Laura Kitching on a report-writing course, or tells her to "calm down, dear!"

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james the thirst says...
9:13am Sat 13 Mar 10

Do we remember the advice we were given during the days of the so called 'cold war'? stand with your back to the blast with your feet approximately 18 inches apart, arch you upper body forwards, tuck you head between your legs and kiss your a**e goodbye

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james the thirst says...
9:14am Sat 13 Mar 10

Do we remember the advice we were given during the days of the so called 'cold war'? stand with your back to the blast with your feet approximately 18 inches apart, arch you upper body forwards, tuck you head between your legs and kiss your a**e goodbye

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Tremendous Eddie Tremendouson says...
9:32am Sat 13 Mar 10

james the thirst wrote:
Do we remember the advice we were given during the days of the so called 'cold war'? stand with your back to the blast with your feet approximately 18 inches apart, arch you upper body forwards, tuck you head between your legs and kiss your a**e goodbye
And in the home; turn the sofa over and get underneath it! Of course in those days the sofa material was highly inflammable! And all in the "Protect & Survive" manual. A nuclear blast-proof sofa - don't see many of them these days!

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biggestoaf says...
10:09am Sat 13 Mar 10

GrahamC wrote:
niblick wrote: This story has got to be picked up by the nationals then the whole country can have a good laugh at these dimwits.
It already has ..... Daily Mail is running it. Will try to give you a link below http://www.dailymail .co.uk/news/article- 1257540/Residents-Do rset-town-left-terri fied-fake-nuclear-em ergency-staged-follo wing-distribution-al armist-leaflets.html
Ah, the Echo and the Daily Mail - together setting the highest standards of responsible news reporting. Only surprise is that the Mail didn't try to suggest the leaflets were distributed by a team of asylum seekers.

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PORTLAND ROVER says...
11:28am Sat 13 Mar 10

I find it amusing that all you Weymouth and wyke lot, are having a good laugh at the (if the Echo is to be believed) stupidity of these Portland folk! It is a known fact, that there are very few real Portlanders left, the large majority of people who live on Portland are from the mainland, so whilst you sit at your computers laughing away, you lot, who live on the mainland. Are only laughing at yourselves! No wonder the grey horse is facing away from Weymouth! That is the direction I would want to go having seen your cruddy town!

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niblick says...
5:16pm Sat 13 Mar 10

PORTLAND ROVER wrote:
I find it amusing that all you Weymouth and wyke lot, are having a good laugh at the (if the Echo is to be believed) stupidity of these Portland folk! It is a known fact, that there are very few real Portlanders left, the large majority of people who live on Portland are from the mainland, so whilst you sit at your computers laughing away, you lot, who live on the mainland. Are only laughing at yourselves! No wonder the grey horse is facing away from Weymouth! That is the direction I would want to go having seen your cruddy town!
Ooooooh! Get Her.

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captainsea says...
7:56pm Sat 13 Mar 10

Where oh Where was the citizens party, they cause more alarm than a few leaflets - yes RD-W

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Joey_dobe says...
7:28am Sun 14 Mar 10

OMG these idiots have made the nation news........

Security word
warn-cold


hahahhaa

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Octave says...
2:02pm Sun 14 Mar 10

This is one of the funniest storys,that I have ever read, Dont Panic Captain Mannering...
Hope they dont carry out the same exercise in Sutton Poyntz...

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Get a grip says...
4:43pm Sun 14 Mar 10

Poertland Rover Well perhaps is best if you stay on Portland.

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Monmouthsman says...
1:06pm Mon 15 Mar 10

Trying to figure out which is worst - The echo being gullible enough to be wound-up by some clever Portlanders or there really is a body of people on Portland who are that stupid. Either way the report of it was very unclever sensationalism. Should I look forward to an Echo headline that says 'Nothing much happened here today' though?

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Mr irate says...
1:15pm Mon 15 Mar 10

Portland is basically a slum and should be turned into a giant Zoo to house all these rock-apes !!

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creamcheese says...
6:16pm Mon 15 Mar 10

Leaflets - to Portland??? That's assuming they can read - big mistake!

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maximan says...
1:02pm Tue 16 Mar 10

Funny thing about it, is that anyone who went to the local grammer school that became Budmouth could probably bare witness to the fact that around 30% of he students came from Portland. Weymouth has a population of 52,950 and Portland only 12,710. That simply equates to the fact that if Portlanders are thick, then god help their neighbours on the mainland.

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wes_mantooth says...
11:43pm Thu 18 Mar 10

Greatest local news article ever! Even the dribbling bigots who comment on Daily Mail articles can't believe the stupidity of these folk. So much so, that the Daily Mail state that "We are no longer accepting comments on this article."

I think the key is the leaflet says in LARGE WRITING - "Information in the event of..."

Face it, Portlanders, this does make you look a bit silly.

Read more: http://www.dailymail
.co.uk/news/article-
1257540/Residents-Do
rset-town-left-terri
fied-fake-nuclear-em
ergency-staged-follo
wing-distribution-al
armist-leaflets.html
#ixzz0iZgRXOFz

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