Local governments race for security
WASHINGTON (AP) – From identifying dangerous microbes to making Mount Rushmore more secure, states and cities are racing to put protections in place against bioterrorism. A first wave of grants is arriving from Washington, spurring efforts to expand labs, enhance the reporting of outbreaks of sickness and guard against farm diseases that a terrorist might exploit.
Governments are preparing for nightmare scenarios they hardly imagined before Sept. 11: They are securing water reservoirs, updating alert systems from regular mail to high-speed intranets and drawing plans to protect monuments and sports stadiums.
Most of the $1.1 billion appropriated by Congress in January is in the pipeline, and the new Bioterrorism Act promises more than $4 billion in additional help – although some officials have found plans tied up in Washington or state capitals.
“It’s kind of like terror itself,” said Lin Wilson, the grant application writer in Allen County, Ind. “You never know when the money’s going to strike.”
Anthrax attacks have killed five Americans.
The country is stockpiling vaccines for smallpox, a devastating but defeated disease that terrorists might try to spring loose again, and experts appointed by the government are to conclude this week whether the public should be widely inoculated against it.
Foot and mouth disease, which can devastate an economy, is another possible terrorist threat.
The federal money is for building up vaccines, improving food inspections, boosting security for water systems and many other uses. Building labs and training medical professionals to respond to bioterror outbreaks are priorities.
“We are seeing measurable progress, but we still don’t have the capacity to care for our communities,” said Javier Gonzalez, the Santa Fe, N.M., commissioner who heads the National Association of Counties, the main lobbyist for local governments.
All but two states have received most of their money that was set aside in January – the bulk of it coming just this month. (Montana, Utah and Washington, D.C., have yet to submit applications.)
It could take months for the money to filter to the local level. Even then, some local authorities lack the people and facilities to make the new programs work.
“It’s not going to happen overnight; in some cases it’s not even going to happen in a year,” said Gonzalez.
Many rural counties have closed hospitals in recent years and remaining health centers are often understaffed, as young professionals shun country doctor careers.
In January, 90 percent of county governments were found unprepared for biological or chemical attacks in a survey.
“A significant number of local health departments have no high speed access to the Internet, no way of sharing of data, no way of learning what’s going on around the country,” said Tom Milne, who runs the National Association of County-City Health Officials.
In some states, geography is a problem.
During the anthrax scare last fall, officials in Nevada were unhappy with the long drive to take samples from Las Vegas to the state’s only lab in Reno.
“There were a lot of miles and a lot of time lost in transporting samples,” Gov. Kenny Guinn said, announcing plans for a second lab.
America’s decentralized health care also makes it hard to track illness outbreaks quickly.
Illinois doctors reporting outbreaks have to phone in or mail a form to the state, “basically 1920s technology for monitoring disease,” said Dr. John Lumpkin, the state’s public health chief.
South Dakota officials are wiring local health centers to an intranet based on one that is used to teach schoolchildren in remote communities, and have outfitted a semitrailer with a lab.
In Idaho, a pilot program compiles data on emergency room patients’ ages, complaints, diagnoses and zip codes and analyzes the information to spot outbreaks.
Some Western states have enhanced not just medical labs but veterinary labs to track foot and mouth and other livestock diseases that a terrorist might try to exploit.
“Any animal disease can easily ruin the farm economy in this country,” said Deb Bowman, who runs homeland security in South Dakota.
Farm animals scatter quickly in transport.
For example, animals from farms around Torrington, Wyo., were found in more than 30 states within 24 hours of sale.
“If those animals had been infected with something, that would have shut down at least the beef part of our nation’s food supply,” said Kelly Hamilton of Wyoming’s livestock board.
Scientists say unleashing livestock diseases – including some that are communicable to humans – would not take much sophistication.
“The critters could be a source of terrorism,” said Dr. Rice Leach, Kentucky’s top health official. “Someone could infect our milk, eggs, chickens and maybe, or maybe not, get it on the humans.”
Prairie states are enforcing once-ignored laws on storing harvested wheat – farmers often leave out in the open the overflow they can’t fit into silos.
That makes the crops vulnerable to wheat smut, a fungus known to have been cultivated as an “agro-terror” weapon by Saddam Hussein.
States along national borders have their own concerns.
In New Mexico, officials will use some of the federal money for training Mexican counterparts in disease identification in case an outbreak starts across the border.
Authorities are also keeping an eye on gathering places that might be targets for an airborne anthrax attack or the like.
South Dakota has taken steps to secure Mount Rushmore, although Bowman won’t give details.
In Maryland, officials are planning to simulate an attack on a Baltimore Ravens football game.
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On the Net:
Breakdown of bioterrorism preparedness grants: http://www.hhs.gov
ews/press/2002pres/20020606b.html