Get a yellow bag today in Portsmouth? It was part of the plan.

PORTSMOUTH

In the worst case, health officials would be responding to an aerial release of anthrax over the city.

They might not know the specifics of what happened or who was exposed by the terrorist attack, said Donna Ruth, emergency planner for the Portsmouth Health Department.

That could mean getting a dose of antibiotics to everyone in Portsmouth.

Early today, the health department was prepared to put its response plan to the test in four neighborhoods.

Residents who found yellow bags with empty pill bottles on their door today were part of a door-to-door antibiotic delivery drill.

Citizen teams were set to make the deliveries, joined by police and ham radio operators in an exercise that gauged the department’s communication capabilities and the time needed to deliver the medicine to an estimated 1,500 homes.

The neighborhoods – West Park View, Truxtun, Long Point and Hunters Point – were selected partly because they are spread across the city, Ruth said.

The emergency planner wanted a mix of communities represented by civic leaders who could readily recruit volunteers for the pre-dawn exercise.

Laura Lundqvist, who heads crime watch in West Park View, figured she needed nine people to reach about 300 homes. She didn’t expect any takers given the 4 a.m. start – but everyone she asked agreed to help.

They are concerned about neighborhood security, she said, and “this just hit home.”

The homeland security exercise cost about $4,000, including equipment that can be reused, and was paid for with federal money under a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention program.

The program aims to help major cities and metropolitan areas boost their ability to respond to a biological attack. The main goal is to develop a plan to get medicine distributed to residents within 48 hours.

Planners are looking at new strategies of dispensing medicine in a crisis where “everyone’s getting infected simultaneously,” said Bob Mauskapf, director of emergency operations, planning and logistics for the Virginia Department of Health.

That might mean making deliveries from school buses along designated routes, distributing antibiotics to major employers or working with the postal service, he said.

Virginia has required health departments since 2003 to do an annual exercise or project that tests their plans for large-scale dispensing of medicine, Mauskapf said. The exercises are often based on a real event, such as setting up flu vaccine clinics and measuring the time it takes to treat people.

Such rehearsals are beneficial, Ruth said. “It just helps the staff become familiar with processes they don’t use every day.”

Janie Bryant, (757) 446-2453, janie.bryant@pilotonline.com