Area residents urged to develop emergency plan

Friday, Oct. 19, 2001 | 4:20 a.m.

Individuals can best protect themselves from a terrorist attack by remaining aware of their surroundings.

"Observe what's going on around you and be vigilant," Lt. Martin Lehtinen, Metro Police's emergency-management coordinator, said. "If someone leaves a package behind, that's not right. A place that has large crowds is vulnerable. It boils down to knowing what is going on around you."

Residents are advised to develop a household emergency plan that includes extra food, water, medicine, flashlights, radios and batteries.

Clark County Emergency Manager Bob Andrews said individuals should know where family members are at all times.

"Have a list of telephone numbers, including relatives who are not in the same community to let them know you are OK," Andrews said.

Unless ordered to evacuate, individuals in their homes during a nearby chemical attack are advised to close all doors and windows and turn off their heating or air conditioning units.

Andrews and other emergency managers said, however, that it is unnecessary to purchase gas masks.

"That's false security because in about every situation it won't help," Andrews said. "Gas masks are designed to protect someone when they have advance information. With bioterrorism you don't have advance information, so a gas mask is useless."

Gas masks also are not designed for residential use or for infants, Las Vegas Emergency Manager Timothy McAndrew said. They also have different filtering systems depending on the chemical.

"For it to be effective, you would need to have it on right now," McAndrew said.

Residents are advised not to take antibiotics for biological agents such as anthrax unless it's necessary, according to Sunny Lucia, Clark County Health District bioterrorism preparedness trainer. Individuals who ignore that warning could wind up building a resistance to antibiotics.

"You also could be masking another medical problem by taking antibiotics indiscriminately," Lucia said.

She said she saw no problem giving the antibiotic Cipro to about 3,000 people on Capitol Hill last week, even though only 31 were exposed to anthrax. Because there was a credible risk of exposure, health officials did the right thing by dispersing the medication to as many people as possible who might have been exposed, she said.

But she also said that those individuals who have not tested positive for exposure should be taken off the antibiotic as soon as health officials determine that it is safe to do so.