BATON ROUGE -- A national health organization reports that Louisiana is more prepared for emergencies than it was a year ago.

The Trust for America's Health gave Louisiana eight marks out of 10, up from six last year.

State health secretary Roxane Townsend says the state's made great strides since hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck in 2005. Both storms damaged the health care system and emergency response.

Louisiana scored below 22 states in the "Ready or Not?" report made public yesterday. Twelve other states and the District of Columbia also were judged ready in eight categories out of 10.

The trust says Louisiana, where Katrina destroyed the state public health lab, fell short in lab capacity and in having enough medical volunteers.

Looking at a different set of standards last year, the trust rated Louisiana deficient in the number of labs for bioterrorism preparedness; the number of lab scientists who could test for anthrax or plague; year-round lab-based influenza survellance, and enough nurses.

Only seven states -- Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia -- were given adequate marks in all 10 areas. The worst score, six out of 10, went to Mississippi, Arkansas, Iowa, Nevada, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)