KEEP DISASTER PLANS FOCUSED, REALISTIC

It is hard to be anything but in favor of disaster preparedness. Cape Girardeau has been a leader in disaster preparedness, and in recognition of this effort it has been chosen as one of the first cities in the nation to become a part of Project Impact. And because of its recognized leadership, Cape Girardeau is eligible to seek a $500,000 federal grant that includes a 25 percent match from the city, mostly through in-kind services.

Last week, city representatives met with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials to talk about emergency-preparedness needs in the community, the costs of those potential projects and how to set priorities.

Most of the items suggested by Walter Denton of the city's administrative staff, who is coordinating Project Impact locally, were those that would affect much of the city's population. In this category were retrofitting of emergency shelters and school buildings to withstand earthquakes, as well as earthquake protection for the city's water-storage tanks.

Another item on list might, at first blush, appear to affect only airport users. This suggestion was for an emergency generator for Cape Girardeau Regional Airport. However, in the event of a disaster, it would be critical to have air-transport services to bring in emergency supplies and personnel.

Still another item was to use emergency-preparedness funding to buy out commercial structures in flood-prone areas. The city already has completed buyout programs for residential structures. Taking commercial structures out of flood areas would further reduce the cost of paying for damages, either through FEMA or private insurance, in the event of future floods.

One idea of the list was more puzzling. The suggestion was for construction of a earthquake-resistant demonstration home -- at a cost of some $300,000 -- with the building to be used as office space for the state's emergency management agency and Southeast Missouri State University's Center for Earthquake Studies.

This seems like a project that would have little overall benefit for the population at large. It would, in effect, be a way of using federal dollars to pay for a project that might best be funded by private construction companies interested in promoting earthquake-proof houses.

Many area residents will recall the boom in bomb shelters in the 1950s as the Cold War generated a perceived threat. No one is really sure if any of the shelters that were built, sometimes in back yards and sometimes at considerable public expense, would have actually served their purpose. It can only be hoped that Project Impact keeps its focus on projects that clearly provide protection to Cape Girardeau's citizens in the event of natural disasters -- any of which are more likely to occur than an atomic-bomb attack.