# 1892
Today we get an excellent article about a series of seminars being held across the state of Alabama for nurses, social workers, paramedics, and law enforcement personnel on the pandemic threat.
I've printed excerpts from the article, but it really is worth reading in its entirety. It is surprisingly blunt.
PANDEMIC: Not matter of if, but when
Seminar informs local authorities about emergency preparations
Saturday, April 19, 2008
By SUSAN DAKER
Staff Reporter
About 168 people could die each day for eight straight weeks if a flu pandemic -- similar to that of the infamous Spanish Flu in 1918 -- struck Alabama, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health.
"It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when," was the echo of some of the speakers at the state agency's flu pandemic emergency preparedness meeting this week in Mobile. The daylong seminar, held on the Brookley Complex alongside Mobile Bay, is part of a series of 11 conferences across the state aimed at providing instructions for pandemic readiness and continuing education courses for nurses, social workers, paramedics, and law enforcement.
<snip>
Officials will open local emergency operations centers and the governor and other high-ranking state officials will likely stand by in the bunker in Clanton, Ala., said David Coggins, a regional coordinator for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency.
<snip>
Lt. Joseph McClellan of the Alabama Department of Homeland Security said that law enforcement agencies and other first responders have to prepare to lose about half their work force because they will either be sick or caring for dying relatives.
It's unclear if crime will increase, but it certainly won't decline, he said
<snip>
Security will need to be provided for mass burial sites, hospitals and pharmacies as fear and chaos could take hold of the community, McClellan said. Officers will have to reprioritize their calls; burglaries and robberies may not be on the top of the list.
While looking over various agencies' plans, McClellan said he's found that too many call for support from Alabama State Troopers.
<snip>
Elmer Sellers, the assistant administrator for University of South Alabama Medical Center, said in the event of the pandemic barricades will go up at the facility's entrances to keep people who don't need to be there from entering the hospital and exposing themselves to germs.
<snip>
While there will be a need for mass burial that doesn't mean people's religious and cultural beliefs shouldn't be taken into account, Joseph Ellington III told the crowd.
"Individual burials may not be possible," Ellington said. "This will cause stress and intensify grief."
Religious leaders will need to prepare for such occasions, especially if ministers are too sick to tend to their congregations.
