Plans stretch 'preparedness' to the limit

0 Comments | USA TODAY, December, 2005 | by Anita Manning

Don't ditch the duct tape. It's still on the list of "tools and supplies" considered essential for emergency preparedness by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

But if a flu pandemic emerges, families might need much more than that to stay safe.

The pandemic preparedness plan developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that a severe flu pandemic could cause 90 million people to fall ill and 9.9 million to require hospitalization, nearly 1.5 million of them in intensive care units.

If that happens, there won't be enough hospital beds in the country to handle cases, says Grattan Woodson, a doctor at the Druid Oaks Health Center in Decatur, Ga. "The ICU beds in the hospital I work in now are completely full," he says. "No...