If a pandemic flu were to strike Douglas County today, tomorrow or next week, nobody would be ready for it.

Local health and disaster response agencies are still making plans for dealing with that specific type of emergency.

“We’ll manage because we’ve been talking about it for several years,” said Emergency Management director Paula Phillips. “We may not have all the details worked out because nobody has experienced this.”

The state of Kansas has a pandemic flu response plan, and Douglas County for years has been continuously updating its plans for various and general emergencies. During the past year, however, concern has increased about the potential for a pandemic caused by a bird flu that would infect humans.

The state is getting ready to send out new planning standards for county emergency response based on a national plan that includes dealing with biological incidents such as bird flu, Phillips said.

The Douglas County Health Department, Lawrence Memorial Hospital and Kansas University all have plans in development. All are following guidelines and answering questions passed on from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. New guidelines were just recently issued.

The health department must submit its plan to KDHE for review by the end of June. Once completed, it will become a part of the county’s overall disaster response plan.

A committee at LMH has been working on a plan for about six months, said Tom Damewood, the hospital’s director of environmental services and chairman of its emergency preparedness committee. The planning isn’t easy, he said. Just as at other businesses, hospital employees will be sick.

“That’s going to affect the hospitals because not only are we going to see an increase in people coming in the doors but we’re also going to have staff that will be out sick as well,” Damewood said.

There could be a shortage of pharmaceuticals and other supplies, Damewood said.

“If we get hit particularly hard, there are going to be some shortages, so how do plan around that?” he said. “Is vaccine available? How do you distribute it?”

KU’s committee of about 20 people has been working on its pandemic plan since the beginning of the year, said Lynn Bretz, director of university relations.

“It’s a fairly complex exercise,” Bretz, who is on the committee, said. “The whole idea is that what we are doing would mate easily with what the city, county, state and federal governments are doing. We address a number of scenarios.”

Those scenarios include developing or examining protocols for closing campus, public events, student housing and public transportation. Also being examined are plans for taking care of international students and others who rely on student housing and food services and maintaining research labs, Bretz said.

Despite the planning, if a flu pandemic strikes, especially the deadly bird flu, life will not be the same, Phillips said. People will need to stay home when they are sick. If there is ample warning for a bird flu, people will need to stock up on supplies.

“The reality is that if it happens, people will not be getting all of the prompt care that they are used to on a day-to-day basis,” Phillips said.