IRON COUNTY – The Southwest Utah Public Health Department is encouraging the five counties it serves to have plans in place in case of disasters, including any situation where there are a large number of fatalities, and Iron County and its municipalities are working together on a plan for those situations.

Dr. David Blodgett, SWUPHD director, said that kind of situation is a hard topic to deal with or think about, but counties and municipalities need to have the discussions, and recent events like the H1N1 pandemic and the earthquake in Haiti are a wake-up call.

He said though there are countless disasters that could potentially affect the area, and it is impossible to plan for everything, at least having a basic plan in place will be beneficial for any situation.

This area of the state is ahead of other areas, as Beaver, Kane, Garfield, and Washington Counties are also discussing the issue and creating a plan.

The creation of a plan was brought up at the Iron County Coordinating Council meeting in January by Iron County Administrator Reed Erickson, and it was decided there would be a work meeting with representatives from the county and each municipality. That meeting took place Jan. 26 and included Erickson, Blodgett, and representatives from Cedar City, Kanarraville, Brian Head, Parowan, Enoch and Southern Utah Mortuary.

The group referred to a draft of Washington County’s plan, which Blodgett said was about 90 percent completed.

There was some discussion about how the Washington County plan referred very specifically to a pandemic situation, and Blodgett said that was because in most disaster situations outside help would be available, but in a pandemic it would not be only one area affected, and outside help would be limited or nonexistent.

Cedar City Manager Ron Chandler asked whether that type of planning was something they wanted to handle in the individual municipalities or whether it should be a county plan.

“That’s the fundamental question, is who has what responsibility,” Erickson said.

Chandler said he likes the idea of having someone from the county over it, because if it is a widespread disaster or pandemic, it would be a lot less complicated. Rather than having multiple groups calling the mortuaries and trying to get the resources, there would just be one.

Brian Head Town Manager Bryce Haderlie said he would like to see the county take the lead and the cities adopt the plan as appendices to their individual emergency management plans.

Blodgett said he would like to see a draft of a plan created for Iron County that would outline some triggers, steps and procedures. For example, at what point they would need to move from just utilizing the mortuaries should be included. The plan should include everything from the time the individuals die to storage of the bodies to burial, he said.

Jim Graff, funeral director, said Southern Utah Mortuary could probably handle about 25 deaths at one time, and Swindlehurst Mortuary could probably handle about half that with their facilities, but that would need to be checked on.

Blodgett said the deceased are required to be embalmed, cremated, buried or refrigerated within 48 hours.

He said mass fatality plans nationwide range from mass graves to cremation to refrigeration, and most of the five counties are discussing using refrigerated trucks. They would preserve the bodies that way until they could get past the disaster, properly prepare the bodies and have funerals, he said.

“You want plans that preserve as much dignity as possible,” he said.

The group agreed to get back together with a draft after Erickson had talked with someone from Valley View Medical Center, a deputy coroner, County Emergency Management Coordinator Charlie Morris, and other parties that would be involved.

Graff said they would need to also have an inventory of the resources available and figure out what other resources were needed. The plan should also discuss the differences in dealing with mass fatalities from a disaster versus an infectious disease.

Blodgett said encouraging the counties to have mass fatality plans in place is just one piece in the preparedness puzzle, and there are also plans in place or in the works for delivering medications, distributing vaccines, and much more.

As of Sunday, the SWUPHD’s website was featuring earthquake preparedness information. Visit www.swuhealth.com for more information on preparedness.