CARSON CITY -- Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, warned Wednesday that Nevada is not prepared to handle an outbreak of avian flu and many people could die because of a lack of protective masks.

"I have a lot of pictures of the flu of 1918," and in those old photos "a lot of people are wearing masks, but only after a half million died," Coffin said during a meeting of the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee.

Then he asked Dr. Dale Carrison, director of emergency medicine at University Medical Center and chairman of the state Homeland Security Commission: "Are you afraid, doctor?"

But Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, refused to allow Carrison and Emergency Management Division officials to respond to Coffin's question. Raggio said the Interim Finance Committee's agenda had too many items to allow for a long discussion about a possible flu pandemic.

Carrison and other state homeland security officials had been called to Wednesday's meeting after Coffin and other legislators complained during a September meeting that the state was not prepared to handle a mass evacuation such as the one seen in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.

Carrison said Wednesday he was more concerned about the typical strains of the flu than the "bird flu" outbreak that started in Asia. The avian flu prompted President Bush to seek unprecedented amounts of vaccine.

Carrison said one step that could be taken is to have patients who are waiting for treatment wear surgical-type masks.

"We need to start at the hospital levels," Carrison said.

Coffin said respiratory masks are the first line of defense for most people. But, he added, he has found that Nevada has fewer than 25,000 masks of sufficient quality to block the flu virus. Normal surgical masks are not sufficient to prevent the spread of avian flu, Coffin said.

Coffin added that his grandfather, a 33-year-old healthy man, died of the Spanish flu in 1918. That flu pandemic killed 20 million to 40 million people worldwide, including 675,000 Americans, from 1918 through 1919, according to history Web sites. Ten times as many Americans died of the flu than were killed in combat in World War I.

"It's shocking, scary to me," Coffin said.

The time could come that people with masks and gloves will survive, and those without them will die, he said.

Carrison said Coffin was right about the importance of masks and gloves, but even emergency medical crews have a "cavalier attitude" about wearing them.

"We need to start at home," Carrison said, explaining that people need to get into the habit of frequently washing their hands and covering their mouths when coughing or sneezing.

He noted the regularity of coughing and squeezing among airline passengers. Some ill passengers in Asian countries are prevented from flying. But if Americans with coughs were prevented from getting on airplanes, those people would file lawsuits, Carrison predicted.

Carrison said the state is in the midst of conducting a statewide vulnerability assessment of how to handle potential catastrophes and still is working on a single communications system network for all police and emergency response crews.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, asked why the state and local governments have spent $93 million in federal homeland security funds without such assessments and networks in place.

"I looked at it, a wish list of everything everybody could come up with," Giunchigliani said, noting some purchases were for night-vision goggles. "I would rather not waste more of taxpayers' money on somebody's wish list."

Nevada's Homeland Security Administrator Giles Vanderhoof defended the purchases, saying, "First responders were given equipment to protect their lives and the lives of the people they protect."

Vanderhoof said the federal government imposes "strict criteria" on how money may be spent.

Contacted at his office, Dr. Bradford Lee, the state health officer, noted that there have been no cases of the avian flu in the United States.

"We can be asked a whole bunch of 'what if' questions that we can't answer about a situation that has not occurred yet," Lee said. "We should prepare, but we should prepare within reason."