If an F-5 tornado leveled half of Lawrence and created the kind of destruction seen with Hurricane Katrina, are there plans and resources in place to deal with it?

• Chat transcript with Paula Phillips

“Yes,” Paula Phillips, Douglas County’s emergency preparedness director, said Thursday during an online chat at ljworld.com.

“One of the first actions taken will be to request that the County Commission declare a disaster,” Phillips said during the 40-minute chat.

“This gives us access to state assets and resources. If half of the community were indeed leveled, we would need the assistance of the state and surrounding jurisdictions in the response and recovery efforts. We have existing mutual aid agreements to make such requests for assistance.”

However, Phillips said the biggest day-to-day disaster threat to the county was from spills of hazardous waste being transported through the city.

The entire chat transcript appears at www.ljworld.com.