LITTLE ROCK (AP) -- Arkansas emergency officials were awaiting word Thursday for federal Homeland Security instructions in light of the increased national alert and the London transit bombings.
Jerry Henderson, U.S. Transportation Security Administration director for Arkansas, said he could make no public comments until further instruction from the Homeland Security Department in Washington, D.C.
''We haven't been notified of anything,'' Phil Launius, a spokesman for the Little Rock National Airport, said before federal officials held a news conference on the Orange Alert status for mass transit systems. ''At this point, we're at the same conditions we were this morning before the London attack.''
Launius said he assumed if the alert applied to mass transit only, that would mean subways and buses. ''But I don't know how they'll define it,'' he said.
At Entergy's nuclear power plant near Russellville, spokesman Phil Fisher said, ''The information we have is that it's specifically directed at the transit industry. As of this point, we're not included.
''But we are aware of the unrest and the bombings in London. We have briefed our security force to be especially vigilant. If at some point the terrorist threat level for nuclear facilities is elevated from red to orange, we have some well-defined actions that go into effect,'' Fisher said.
Fisher would not describe the measures the plant would take.
Cheryl Avery, spokeswoman for the Pine Bluff Arsenal, one of the country's chemical weapons storage sites, said the arsenal also hasn't changed its security measures because it hadn't been instructed to do so. She also would not elaborate on the existing security operations.
Officials with Gov. Mike Huckabee's office, with the state Emergency Management Department, and with the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport were not immediately available for comment Thursday morning.
