WEDNESDAY. SEPTEMBER4, 2002
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 5A
KU braces for possible terror attack
By Lindsay Hanson Kansan staff writer
The University of Kansas and Douglas County officials are working together to be prepared for a bioterrorist attack.
Health care providers at Watkins Memorial Health Center are devising a plan to coordinate with Douglas County emergency management officials in the event of an attack, said Myra Strother, chief of medical staff at Watkins.
The Douglas County plan would protect citizens in the time frame before federal officials can arrive at the scene of an attack, said John Mullens, assistant director of security and emergency planning at the KU Public Safety Office.
"Realistically, how soon would the feds respond?" Mullens said. "We'll call them and they'll take over—well, yeah, in three days—but the what are you going to do in the meantime?"
Douglas County officials and Watkins staff members will convene in October to respond to a mock attack in a table-top simulation, Mullens said.
The cost of the planning is being subsidized by Douglas
County's $111,000 grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under the Public Health Preparedness and Response for Bioterrorism Program. The CDC has allocated almost $1 billion for the program, which is available in different amounts to local health departments in all 50 states.
Mullens said the mock attack would serve primarily to acquaint public health officials with law enforcement officers.
He said a bioterrorist attack would require cooperation from all area emergency response agencies and that the two departments had rarely worked together in the past.
"But we haven't worked together on field decontamination."
Douglas County officials are taking inventory on the county's ability to handle a bioterrorist attack in the following five areas:
Mullens said officials had used "Prairie Plague," the statewide mock-attack run that focused on smallpox in June, as a model for the local plan.
Preparedness questions
In the drill, officials will learn how soon to call federal authori-
Preparedness planning and readiness Are officials in the county acquainted with a specific plan of action to employ in case an attack occurs?
occur? Increased surveillance and epidemiology — Can officials detect an attack quickly and investigate it thoroughly?
"Law enforcement spends a few minutes here and a few minutes there working with health people on an occasional meningitis case," Mullens said.
Statewide Health Alert Network — Are all public health officials in the state saying a paper to connect them with the latest news?
public quickly and calmly?
Risk communication — Can officials get word to the press and the public quickly and calmly?
Source: Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department
public quickly and calmly
Education and training — Have agents in all areas undergone sufficient training to prepare?
ties about an attack, how to identify the disease in question and how to localize part of the national stockpile of vaccines. Mullens said.
KU, Haskell Indian Nations University, Baker University, the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department and fire and police departments in Douglas County will all contribute to the plan, said Kim Ens, the disease control program coordinator at the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department.
Strother said KU already had a basic emergency plan for fires.
tornadoes and student rampages.
"Before, there wasn't a good, cohesive response plan," she said. "Now we're trying to coordinate just like everybody else."
The question remains whether Douglas County is ready for an attack.
"That's the goal," said Kay Kent, Health Department director.
"I think we'll be ready if anything should happen."
Ihanson@kansan.com. This story was edited by Jessica Hood.
Contact Hanson at
Graves honors schools despite budget cuts
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — Three weeks after he reduced state aid to education. Gov. Bill Graves yesterday designated September as "Support Public Schools Month."
About 300 students, teachers and staff were on hand at Topeka's Landon Middle School as Graves signed a proclamation honoring school personnel throughout the state.
He mentioned the state's budget problems in both the proclamation and his remarks, saying it was important to honor school district staffs because they are being asked to provide a good education with less money.
"The event today is acknowledging people and the contributions of so many, such a diverse group of people, to make the schools work effectively." Graves said after the ceremony. "It is not in any way to designed to diminish or try to gloss over the fiscal reality that everyone faces."
In August, Graves ordered $41 million in cuts in the state's current budget, bringing total spending down to about $4.42 billion — approximately 1 percent below total spending the fiscal year that ended June 30.
Of the total reduction, $17.4 million was cut from aid to public schools. Though it represented the largest cut Graves imposed in dollars, it amounted to only 0.75 percent of the $2.3 billion in state aid to the 303 school districts. The reduction dropped per-pupil spending from $3,890 to $3,863.
"We did our very best to minimize our reductions in support for public education, at the expense of virtually every other function that state government is involved in," Graves said.
State Board of Education member Bill Wagnon, of Topeka, attended yesterday's event and said it was appropriate for Graves to issue the proclamation.
"Part of the difficulty that we face is in reminding people that schools are important and their needs are great, and our kids deserve everything we can do for them," Wagnon said.
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