MOST ANGELENOS UNPREPARED FOR A TERROR ATTACK BLACKS, LATINOS MORE READY THAN OTHERS, RAND STUDY FINDS.

Byline: Cortney Fielding and Josh Kleinbaum Staff Writers

Harry Fischer is certain a terrorist attack will hit Los Angeles soon. Still, the 57-year-old Reseda man hasn't done anything to prepare for it.

``I guess it's just never on my things-to-do list,'' he said.

A new study released Monday by the Rand Corp. found that less than a third of Los Angeles residents are adequately prepared for the days after a terrorist attack.

Although 60 percent of respondents surveyed said they believed a strike would hit the city within the next year, only 37 percent said they had taken basic precautions - stocking bottled water and canned foods or developing emergency response plans with family members.

The survey found, however, that African-Americans and Latinos were more ready than others groups of citizens, bucking the national trend, researchers said.

In Los Angeles, 37 percent of Latinos and 31 percent of African-Americans said they had gathered emergency supplies, compared with 21 percent of whites and 19 percent of Asians. About 28 percent of blacks said they had discussed emergency plans with family, compared with 17 percent of Asian-Americans, 16 percent of Latinos and 14 percent of whites.

The results suggest minority groups might distrust the government, said researcher David Eisenman, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and an associate natural scientist at Rand.

``People don't think they get emergency services if they're black and Latino as fast as if they're white,'' he said. ``There's certainly a history to show that services are distributed differently across these kind of neighborhoods.''

Many members of these groups might have experienced disasters first-hand in other countries, where they didn't get any help from the government, including the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, Eisenman said.

``They're feeling alone, and that's an experience that doesn't go away,'' he said.

Twan Howard, 31, of Valencia, who is black, keeps two cases of water and a small emergency kit with one day's food supply. But his girlfriend's Cuban family is much more prepared, he said.

``Her mom is fanatically prepared if the world ends,'' Howard said. ``The way they live, they keep that stuff stockpiled anyway. Us Americans, we're used to running water.''

The study, prepared by Rand, UCLA and the county of Los Angeles, analyzed more than 1,000 responses compiled during a Los Angeles health survey during 2002 and 2003.

The results suggest people don't see themselves as personally vulnerable, Eisenman said. Although residents recognize Los Angeles as a prime target for terrorist activity, people don't connect that risk to themselves.

Fischer, who is white, said he would be more concerned if he thought his neighborhood was a likely terrorist target. ``Now, if I lived close to LAX, that would be different,'' he said.

Still, many L.A. residents do take emergency preparedness - for both terrorist attacks or natural disasters like earthquakes - seriously.

``I have a first-aid kit,'' said Tricia Knox, 36, who is white and lives in North Hollywood. ``I put first aid, ace bandages, extra antibiotics, all that stuff. I keep blankets, water and food. Whether it's for a hard month or a real emergency, it's good to have that stuff.''

Cortney Fielding

cortney.fielding(at)dailynews.com