TheFluMaster
Resident
County agencies preparing for the worst-case scenario
By NEIL YOUNG
Monday, September 4, 2006 7:43 PM PDT
KINGMAN - Flu pandemics, bioterrorism, hazardous materials spills, fires and floods - various Mohave County agencies are preparing for the worst-case scenario.
After Sept. 11, 2001 the federal government kick-started efforts to better-coordinate with local officials in the event of another attack.
Bruce Leeming is Mohave County's bioterrorism coordinator. ?Following the attacks of Sept. 11, Congress upped the funding for counties and made it mandatory that counties must have a bioterrorism division,? he said.
?I'm responsible for implementing and directing the countywide plan for responding to incidents of bioterrorism and other public health threats such as the pandemic flu, West Nile Virus, things of that sort that come along,? Leeming said.
Health officials worldwide are keeping an eye on the Avian Flu or bird flu virus. They could have their hands full if the virus should ever mutate so that it passes from human to human.
Byron Steward is Mohave County's emergency management coordinator. ?Our job is to coordinate the planning in the county for any kind of disaster.? Those disasters include natural ones, like floods and wildfires and manmade ones, like hazardous material spills.
Steward said he is most concerned with hazmat issues ?because we have so much traffic on I-40 and so many trains that come through the county carrying hazardous materials.?
?We have an emergency operations plan that we're in the process of upgrading and bringing up to new standards that tells how the different agencies in the county and the cities ... would interact in dealing with different types of emergencies that might come up,? he said.
The federal government has put together something called the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) - 12 secret locations where drugs and medical supplies are stored and can be dispensed to any part of the United States within 12 hours in the event of a local emergency.
Jennifer McNally is deputy director for the Mohave County Department of Public Health. ?If something were to happen, whether it's a bioterrorist attack, whether it's a disease ... if they don't have the supplies and the medications available locally, we can then request them through the state health department and then through the governor for the SNS,? McNally said.
?So if we have to do any sort of mass vaccinating for our public or mass medication distribution, they can get that to us within 12 hours for us to set up clinics for us to be able to get that out to the public,? she said.
?One of the things we're working on right now with our pandemic flu preparedness that we're required to do, we're working on setting up what are called PODs (Points of Dispensing) and these are basically clinics that we would plan to use throughout Mohave County in order to get medications or vaccinations out to the public,? McNally said.
They've done practice runs in setting up PODs. ?We have the basic concept, we have a basic plan ready but it's always going to be modified to find a better way to do this,? she said.
The Department of Public Health is looking for volunteers who could help operate the PODs.
?One problem is we just don't have the staff to run something 24 hours a day,? in several locations across the county, McNally said.
?That's why we're always seeking people to sign up right now, even though there may not be anything for them to do right now,? she said. ?If we had to open these (PODs, the volunteers would) be pre-identified, they'd already have an ID card with us and we could just put them to work.?
To volunteer, log onto www.healthelinks.com, McNally said.
The POD concept is not without problems, according to Leeming. ?On the one hand, we are teaching people to keep a social distance from others to keep from spreading a disease, while on the other hand we are asking them to show up and line up at a dispensing site,? where they could catch a disease.
A possible solution to that problem has been found in Nevada, Leeming said. ?What Nevada has done, based on their state law, when an emergency is declared, Nevada can go ahead and bring (for example) ... people into the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, have them bring their vehicles in and dispense right there,? he said.
?People just drive up, you hand them ... Tamaflu, for instance, and they're on their way,? Leeming said.
He's researching Arizona law to see if that can be done here, without workers having to write down medical histories and going through a long procedure that could heighten someone's chances of becoming infected with a disease.
With drive-up service, ?We wouldn't have to go ahead and open all these distribution sites throughout the county,? Leeming said.
?A pandemic will occur, there's no doubt about that, because they do,? he said. There have been flu pandemics in 1957 and 1968, ?just a little bit worse than a normal flu season.? What everyone fears, of course, is something like the 1918 pandemic, which killed more than 40 million people worldwide.
There are some natural disasters that could seriously affect Mohave County, even though they take place miles away, such as a massive California earthquake, with victims flowing into surrounding states, much like what happened with Hurricane Katrina.
Steward spoke of placing staging areas at the border, where victims could be interviewed. ?As people came into the county, we would try to determine what their needs were,? such as a simple meal or a tank of gas, medical attention or a temporary place to stay.
County officials hope to benefit from lessons learned on 9-11 when various agencies in New York City had trouble communicating with each other. ?We have a communications van that we were able to acquire from the state,? Steward said, ?that allows us to drive it out to the scene of an incident and it has equipment ... that allows us to patch through the different frequencies from the different agencies that are out there on the scene.
?So if you have people show up that are on different bandwidths ... you can ... have them talk to each other, which otherwise they would not be able to do that,? he said.
Mohave County has custody of the van, but shares it with Yavapai and La Paz counties, Steward said.
Something people who live along the Colorado River fear is massive flooding, due to a breach in Hoover or Davis dams.
?We do extensive planning for evacuations along the Colorado River, if there should be a problem with the dams,? Steward said.
?It's highly, highly unlikely that we would have a problem with the dams,? he said. ?They're a very hard target for terrorists to attack and very hard for them to do any damage to.
?If we did have a problem, it would be catastrophic and so we try to plan for the events that are most likely to happen, but we also plan for those events that are really highly unlikely, but if they happen, would have a catastrophic impact,? Steward said.
http://www.mohavedailynews.com/articles/2006/09/05/news/top_story/top1.txt
By NEIL YOUNG
Monday, September 4, 2006 7:43 PM PDT
KINGMAN - Flu pandemics, bioterrorism, hazardous materials spills, fires and floods - various Mohave County agencies are preparing for the worst-case scenario.
After Sept. 11, 2001 the federal government kick-started efforts to better-coordinate with local officials in the event of another attack.
Bruce Leeming is Mohave County's bioterrorism coordinator. ?Following the attacks of Sept. 11, Congress upped the funding for counties and made it mandatory that counties must have a bioterrorism division,? he said.
?I'm responsible for implementing and directing the countywide plan for responding to incidents of bioterrorism and other public health threats such as the pandemic flu, West Nile Virus, things of that sort that come along,? Leeming said.
Health officials worldwide are keeping an eye on the Avian Flu or bird flu virus. They could have their hands full if the virus should ever mutate so that it passes from human to human.
Byron Steward is Mohave County's emergency management coordinator. ?Our job is to coordinate the planning in the county for any kind of disaster.? Those disasters include natural ones, like floods and wildfires and manmade ones, like hazardous material spills.
Steward said he is most concerned with hazmat issues ?because we have so much traffic on I-40 and so many trains that come through the county carrying hazardous materials.?
?We have an emergency operations plan that we're in the process of upgrading and bringing up to new standards that tells how the different agencies in the county and the cities ... would interact in dealing with different types of emergencies that might come up,? he said.
The federal government has put together something called the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) - 12 secret locations where drugs and medical supplies are stored and can be dispensed to any part of the United States within 12 hours in the event of a local emergency.
Jennifer McNally is deputy director for the Mohave County Department of Public Health. ?If something were to happen, whether it's a bioterrorist attack, whether it's a disease ... if they don't have the supplies and the medications available locally, we can then request them through the state health department and then through the governor for the SNS,? McNally said.
?So if we have to do any sort of mass vaccinating for our public or mass medication distribution, they can get that to us within 12 hours for us to set up clinics for us to be able to get that out to the public,? she said.
?One of the things we're working on right now with our pandemic flu preparedness that we're required to do, we're working on setting up what are called PODs (Points of Dispensing) and these are basically clinics that we would plan to use throughout Mohave County in order to get medications or vaccinations out to the public,? McNally said.
They've done practice runs in setting up PODs. ?We have the basic concept, we have a basic plan ready but it's always going to be modified to find a better way to do this,? she said.
The Department of Public Health is looking for volunteers who could help operate the PODs.
?One problem is we just don't have the staff to run something 24 hours a day,? in several locations across the county, McNally said.
?That's why we're always seeking people to sign up right now, even though there may not be anything for them to do right now,? she said. ?If we had to open these (PODs, the volunteers would) be pre-identified, they'd already have an ID card with us and we could just put them to work.?
To volunteer, log onto www.healthelinks.com, McNally said.
The POD concept is not without problems, according to Leeming. ?On the one hand, we are teaching people to keep a social distance from others to keep from spreading a disease, while on the other hand we are asking them to show up and line up at a dispensing site,? where they could catch a disease.
A possible solution to that problem has been found in Nevada, Leeming said. ?What Nevada has done, based on their state law, when an emergency is declared, Nevada can go ahead and bring (for example) ... people into the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, have them bring their vehicles in and dispense right there,? he said.
?People just drive up, you hand them ... Tamaflu, for instance, and they're on their way,? Leeming said.
He's researching Arizona law to see if that can be done here, without workers having to write down medical histories and going through a long procedure that could heighten someone's chances of becoming infected with a disease.
With drive-up service, ?We wouldn't have to go ahead and open all these distribution sites throughout the county,? Leeming said.
?A pandemic will occur, there's no doubt about that, because they do,? he said. There have been flu pandemics in 1957 and 1968, ?just a little bit worse than a normal flu season.? What everyone fears, of course, is something like the 1918 pandemic, which killed more than 40 million people worldwide.
There are some natural disasters that could seriously affect Mohave County, even though they take place miles away, such as a massive California earthquake, with victims flowing into surrounding states, much like what happened with Hurricane Katrina.
Steward spoke of placing staging areas at the border, where victims could be interviewed. ?As people came into the county, we would try to determine what their needs were,? such as a simple meal or a tank of gas, medical attention or a temporary place to stay.
County officials hope to benefit from lessons learned on 9-11 when various agencies in New York City had trouble communicating with each other. ?We have a communications van that we were able to acquire from the state,? Steward said, ?that allows us to drive it out to the scene of an incident and it has equipment ... that allows us to patch through the different frequencies from the different agencies that are out there on the scene.
?So if you have people show up that are on different bandwidths ... you can ... have them talk to each other, which otherwise they would not be able to do that,? he said.
Mohave County has custody of the van, but shares it with Yavapai and La Paz counties, Steward said.
Something people who live along the Colorado River fear is massive flooding, due to a breach in Hoover or Davis dams.
?We do extensive planning for evacuations along the Colorado River, if there should be a problem with the dams,? Steward said.
?It's highly, highly unlikely that we would have a problem with the dams,? he said. ?They're a very hard target for terrorists to attack and very hard for them to do any damage to.
?If we did have a problem, it would be catastrophic and so we try to plan for the events that are most likely to happen, but we also plan for those events that are really highly unlikely, but if they happen, would have a catastrophic impact,? Steward said.
http://www.mohavedailynews.com/articles/2006/09/05/news/top_story/top1.txt