Linger near the front desk at St. Louis Park's City Hall and you'll see the receptionist swab the counter with cleaner to kill any flu viruses left by the dozens of people who stop by each day.
But the precautions cities are taking now against H1N1 are nothing compared to what they'll do if a full-blown health emergency is declared.
Some city offices could be almost deserted, with people working from home on computers. Meetings would be discouraged, and workers at desks within eyesight of one another still might be encouraged to communicate by phone or e-mail.
If people had to meet, the meeting room door would be propped open so no one has to touch it. And there would be rules: Stand at least 3 feet apart. Don't shake hands. Wash your hands when you leave.
Afterward, someone would disinfect tables and other surfaces that might have been touched.
Those are some of the scenarios included in pandemic flu emergency and preparedness plans being developed in communities around the Twin Cities. Some are updating plans that were written in 2006 and 2007, when avian flu was a worry. Others are adapting emergency plans that were designed to cope with a tornado or flood.
"What are you planning for? That's the hard part," said Mark Windschitl, assistant fire chief in St. Louis Park. "We're planning for something we've never faced."
No one knows what turn the H1N1 flu could take. Emergency planners point to the Spanish flu of 1918, when the relatively mild illness of spring and summer was followed by deadly second and third waves as the disease mutated and started to kill otherwise healthy young people.