What a mess.
No question. On the bright side :-( if we want to assume that the cited figure is for some extreme situation in the area, we might assume that this refers to geiger counter readings, and that these readings reflect radioactivity of materials on the ground. A lot of this radiation ( alpha emission ) is short range ( a few centimeters,) so a reading like this might refer to a geiger counter reading along the ground in some relatively isolated "hot spot", due to fallout from a release event.
Well, very much a sickening situation, but that being so, it's still important to maintain a rational perspective.