Ten-State Mutual Aid Effort for Public Health Emergencies
News Story Aug 24 2004
Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns announced that Nebraska will designate a portion of next year's federal bioterrorism grant to begin an aggressive effort to develop a ten-state alliance to provide mutual aid in the event of an act of bioterrorism or other public health emergency.
"Mutual aid agreements would vastly increase our response capability by pulling our region together to share expertise and resources in the event of an emergency," Gov. Johanns said. "The interest expressed by our neighboring states leads me to believe the time is now to pursue this effort. Nebraska is already attracting national attention for our collaboration in the public health arena, now we'll extend that effort across state lines."
The governor made the announcement after speaking at a four-state meeting being hosted by Nebraska to discuss bioterrorism collaboration. The other states attending are Iowa, Kansas and Missouri. The ten-state alliance would also include North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming.
Article form Government Today