CLEVELAND -- It's been many years since the last pandemic flu outbreak in the U.S.

The Ohio Department of Health is trying to get your attention with its chilling radio and television ads warning what a severe flu outbreak would look like. Health officials want the public to be prepared if the pandemic flu takes over like it has in the past.

Some people wonder if the ads are too scary to bring the point across.

The TV public service announcement uses an empty football stadium, a classroom with no students and a graveyard to illustrate past pandemics. An ominous voice warns: "It will happen again."

Health Department spokesman Bret Atkins allows that the ads are "certainly edgy."

State officials aren't saying the threat of widespread flu has become more serious. But they're concerned about dwindling federal grant money to keep Ohio prepared for a pandemic.

"The virus that would trigger pandemic we have no immunity for and we have no vaccine for you have to wait until the virus mutates then you can begin to create the vaccine for it and that would take months," Atkins said.

The state wants residents to keep a supply of food and water and take other steps on their own to be ready for a public health emergency.

Ads having been running for two years but health officials said they didn't think the public noticed.

For more information check out ohiopandemicflu.gov.