Author: Volunteer

An Ounce of Prevention Equals More Than a Pound of Cure.

Heartbreaking is a strong word but it isn’t adequate to describe the collective grief we all feel when viewing the devastation in the aftermath of the massive tornado that swept through the outskirts of Oklahoma City recently. Your heart goes out to the young mother who asks, “Why didn’t we have better protection for our schoolchildren?” Why indeed.

Survivors?

Where were the voices of prevention before the storm? There’s a reason this area of the Midwest is called “Tornado Alley!”

Why indeed weren’t there underground or interior shelters in the schools and pre-schools? It’s a very interesting question and a curious commentary on the workings of the human mind.

Tornadoes versus earthquakes and floods.

I recall vividly a visit I made to some relatives living in Baxter Springs, Kansas, a few short weeks after a tornado tore through the area and took the lives of a few residents, including some of my remote American Indian relatives. My own experience of getting tossed out of my upper bunk bed in 1953 (or was it 1954?) by an earthquake in the Tehachapi Mountains in Southern California had burned into my brain the need to take precautions against the natural risks.

Yet my relatives’ attitude about the tornadoes could only be described as nonchalant. At the same time, I had to wonder about their reluctance to even visit California because of their fear of earthquakes!

These same people chose to live with the yearly risk of tornadoes . . . the natural disaster risk they’ve become accustomed to. Their fatalistic attitude (“. . . if it’s God’s will,” etc.) seemed to work for them with tornadoes, but not with earthquakes.

I guess it’s a lot like buying insurance.

Would we agree that “responsible people” purchase insurance against recognized risk? Many responsible people who live in flood prone areas do seem to take out flood insurance . . . but not all. And the fact that less than 20% of California residents have earthquake insurance – despite the near 100% probability of a major earthquake over 6.7 on the Richter scale in the next 20-30 years – seems a bit incongruent.

The good news, however, is that 40% say they have taken at least some actions to prepare themselves and, in the case of CERT organizations, have expanded their efforts to include their neighborhoods and businesses. Hopefully, we are having some impact on these wider preparations as well.

Joe Krueger

Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

Are you a homeowner, property owner, remodeler or home builder, or home energy specialist? Take three and one-half minutes to watch this video showing retrofit steps for protecting a home against damage from earthquake and winter storms.

Click image to see 3 minute video on home remodel

The video was posted on YouTube by the Canadian Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) in partnership with Desjardins Insurance.

Most of the steps are simple and would apply to ALL homes, no matter where they are located. As an owner, you could consider having these changes made to your home or rental properties.  As a member of the construction industry, you might want to recommend these changes to customers.

Some of the work you could do yourself, like installing a fire extinguisher. (The video recommends “at least one in every home.” We think you probably need more than one: in the kitchen, for sure, but in the garage, too, or in the laundry room area.)

You would need a licensed professional’s help for some of the other items, like installing a generator or snow melting system along the roof edge.

Even if you aren’t in an area prone to earthquakes, a number of the suggestions in the video will apply, enhancing your home’s security and safety as well as your ability to function in a number of emergency situations. In some cases, making these improvements might even give you a discount on home insurance costs.

If this video is of interest to you, you may also want to review these more detailed home improvement advisories. Whatever you can do to protect your home will help you sleep better at night. Plus, it may help with the resale value!

• Improving Building Safety – Interior
• Improving Building Safety – Chimneys
• Improving Building Safety – Windows

What other improvements do you think people should consider? Drop your suggestions into the comments box below!

Thanks.

Virginia Nicols
Emergency Plan Guide Team

A Frenzy of Recent Activity!

If you track the news like I do, you will have seen, over just the past couple of months, literally hundreds of cities announcing “Emergency Preparedness Training” meetings. Some of these meetings are sponsored by the local fire department. Some are held in conjunction with the local college. Some are aimed at children; a few have senior citizens as their target audience. Occasionally even an elected official takes the time to make an appearance.

All this activity seems to have been accelerated by our experiencing one disaster after another over the past few years. Lately, they seem to be happening even more frequently: storms, hurricanes, flooding, explosions, bombings . . . the list goes on.

Will these meetings make any difference?

From the standpoint of community preparedness, I welcome all this attention.

From the standpoint of being a trained Community Emergency Response Team member, I realize that a bunch of one-time meetings are just a start. Just a start! It takes weeks and months for people to change their level of general awareness. It takes them weeks and months and sometimes years to get around to taking even the most elementary precautions or preparations.

Which brings me to the point of this article . . .

Our ten-year track record!

Ready and willing to help

Here in our local community, our CERT team has been actively building a plan, recruiting, training, assembling supplies, working with the local authorities – for nearly 10 years now.

Last week was no exception to our regular efforts. We held one of our annual training exercises. It involved Block Captains “discovering” emergencies located around the neighborhood, then taking the appropriate action and recording what they did.

Afterwards, we all got together with cookies and discussed what people had done, and what they might have done better.

While the “emergencies” were ones we might reasonably expect – a train wreck on the tracks next to one row of homes, an earthquake, a live shooter event, a wild fire requiring evacuation – the responses were also what one might reasonably expect.

The important thing – no one really had to think about what to do! After years of talking and writing articles and inviting neighbors in for coffee and a slide show…after a hundred meetings with as few as three people to more like 60 people in the group, it’s all paying off.

Now that’s progress!

We have written page after page of recommendations and suggestions about how to prepare for a disaster. Some of our tips include simple changes in behavior – like keeping a flashlight and shoes next to the bed, or making sure you have extra canned food stored in the back of the cupboard.

Other recommendations involve taking on what I would call home improvement or repair: attaching bookcases to the wall, strapping the water heater, or reinforcing the chimney.

Lately, we’ve spent a lot of time discussing how to assemble various emergency supplies, including water (number one), food (number two) and emergency communications (or is this number two for you?). You can be assured we’ll continue with this theme!

In any case, many of these recommendations involve spending money. Yes, making a deliberate investment in something you really don’t want to have to use!

How can you justify spending money on emergency preparedness?

I’m sure you can come up with several reasons, of course, but the main one is:

You don’t want your family to ask, “Why didn’t you do something to protect us?”

There’s another reason, though, that you may not have considered. And here it is, as a rule of thumb:

Every dollar spent on preparedness saves $4 in recovery costs, according to a widely cited report by the National Institute of Building Sciences’ Multihazard Mitigation Council.

Think “recovery” when you build.

• If you are building a home near the beach, for example, elevate it above the flood line! If you already live in a low-lying area, keep materials like sandbags, plywood, plastic sheeting and lumber handy for emergencies.

• If you live in a hurricane-prone region, invest $3,000 in an underground shelter. (You may even be able to have part of the cost borne by the government.) Make sure your home has an extra strength frame and roof.

• Here in earthquake country, we recommend earthquake bracing for mobile homes, bolting sill plates to the foundation, and anchoring light worktables to the floor and heavy computer equipment to the table.

Everyone has to make decisions about what to spend on preparedness for natural disasters. A $4 savings for a $1 investment is a pretty good return. But if that seems too much for you, consider what a life is worth!

We often get discouraged trying to get people to take preparedness seriously. “It’ll never happen to me,” they say with a smirk. “Too much trouble; I don’t have time!” say others, shaking their heads. “Don’t know how to start,” they complain.

I was glad to hear of some young people who DO have the time and energy to Get Prepared! Here are five youth programs going on right around us!  Do you know about them?

FEMA for Kids

In Middlesex county, New Jersey, FEMA is implementing FEMA for Kids. While it’s designed to come into a community after a disaster, it is directed to children, using them as conduits to their parents with tips and advice on disaster preparedness for the future.

BSA Merit Badge in Emergency Preparedness

Boy Scouts of America

The merit badge in Disaster Preparedness (required for Eagle Scout) helps a Scout learn what is “helpful and needed before, during and after an emergency.” Over 50,000 scouts earn this badge every year. Official materials say that Scouts are “are often called upon to help because they know first aid and they know about the discipline and planning needed to react to an emergency situation.”

Girl Scouts of the USA

In 2009, then Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Girls Scouts of the USA unveiled a Girl Scout preparedness patch, aimed at advancing community preparedness nationwide. Napolitano is a former Girl Scout who says she knows what it means to “Be Prepared!”

Camp Fire USA

Prepare Today – Lead Tomorrow is a teen program developed by Camp Fire USA. Its goals are to engage teens in intensive community preparedness learning experiences, and create opportunities for them to participate in community preparedness efforts.

FEMA Corps

In 2012, the White House announced FEMA Corps, part of the AmeriCorps program. Some 1,600 people ages 18-24 will join teams to learn skills and get community experience in the field of emergency management.

We all know what an impact kids can have on families and communities. It is thanks in large part to kids that parents stop smoking, start using seat belts, recycle … the list goes on. Find out what your kids are learning at school or elsewhere about Emergency Preparedness. Enjoy their enthusiasm as you conduct your own preparedness efforts. Figure out ways to include the local Boy Scout or Girls Scout troop as a resource in your CERT expo, you neighborhood block party, or your family garage sale.

They will probably be able to teach you something valuable!

Home ownership, the standard

Most descriptions of preparing for disaster seem to focus on a single family home and how its residents should prepare. These descriptions include making changes to the building itself, like installing braces or safety glass or reinforcing the chimney or roof. Some families go so far as to fortify their homes or to build totally separate disaster shelters.

Naturally, the family stores large quantities of water and food and perhaps invests in emergency equipment like solar panels or generators. The family also is reminded to include emergency preparations for pets.

But what about renters?

But if you are one of the 35% of all households that live in rented homes and particularly in apartments, options may be different – and limited. You probably have far less square footage to start with. You are not likely to have outside area where emergency items could be securely stored or easily accessed. And you certainly would not be allowed to make any structural changes to make the building any sturdier or safer.

What can apartment dwellers do differently?

1. Be efficient!

Your requirements are every bit as important as those of a family living in a single family home, but you will definitely have to be cleverer in order to store even the basics. The smart apartment dweller will become an expert in high-nutritional-value, low-bulk food and in multi-purpose tools and equipment. Instead of investing in a generator, the apartment dweller may need to invest in storage containers that can be hidden under the bed, stacked 8 feet high in a closet, or converted to use as an end-table.

2. Be creative!

Whereas someone with plenty of space outside can store emergency water in a 55 gallon barrel, you may have to make do with a variety of individual bottles, supplemented with a supply of expandable bottles, to be filled at the last minute. Given your limited ability to store water, you may be putting your filtration equipment to use immediately as you are forced to supplement your original water supply.

3. Make friends!

In an apartment setting, neighbors can make all the difference. A group of people can cooperate in assembling and storing food, tools, and other essentials. (For example, two families could share one stove.) One neighbor may have handyman skills and tools; another might have medical training; a third might be a competent cook. Sharing the burdens and responsibilities may serve the entire community better than each person trying to fend for him or herself.

For a whole lot of ideas about organizing your neighbors, check out Emergency Preparedness for Apartment Communities. It discusses getting your own preparedness act together and then helping neighbors get prepared, too.

Where will your driver be when the disaster hits?

Delivering services to homebound seniors

At a meeting last week at the local American Red Cross, we were discussing a new program aimed at preparing the senior community for disaster.

Most of the people in the room represented companies that deliver services to homebound seniors. There were folks from Meals-on-Wheels, SeniorServ, and a whole group of home health care providers.

Home health care staff members drive from home to home to assist their elderly clients. In the case of an earthquake disaster, these drivers will likely be on the road in their car or in the home of a client when the earthquake hits. The drivers will NOT be at their own home, and they will NOT be at their employer’s office.

Homes with few if any resources

These senior clients are people who, by definition, are not self-sufficient. They may be disabled or frail. This means that the driver, caught in the home with the client, will be faced with taking care of the client as well as him or herself.

If the driver is on the road when the earthquake hits, what is her responsibility? To continue on to the client’s home when possible? Return to the office? Or head for home to join the family?

Responsibility of the employer

This situation raises several issues for the employer that need to be addressed through training or investment in appropriate emergency supplies and equipment. Based on the group at the American Red Cross meeting, there was no one correct answer. But everyone agreed that these questions DID deserve consideration, and a positive answer.

1. Do your drivers all have an emergency supplies kit in their vehicle?

2. Does the kit contain enough to share with a client?

3. Are your drivers clear about their responsibility to their clients in the case of an emergency?

4. Do you know how you will communicate with your drivers in an emergency?

5. Do you have a plan for communicating with your clients’ families in an emergency?

Are you an employer with drivers?

What emergency preparations have you made to cover your staff and your customers?  What liability do you feel you carry as the employer?  Please share!

What does that sign mean?

Think you’re pretty aware?  I’ll bet you’ve seen many, many danger signs, whether in “real life,” on the pages of a magazine or on a movie or computer screen.

But do you REALLY know what the signs are warning about?

Use the quiz below to refresh your memory. Share the quiz with your family at dinner, with your colleagues at work. Use it to start a discussion of what dangers might be present in your local neighborhood or in your region – dangers you really don’t think about.

Match the description to the sign!

We’re starting with the easiest ones first!  (Answers are below the images.)

And the answers:

1. Trip Hazard
2. Alligators in the neighborhood!
3. Don’t drink the water

OK, now it’s on to the REAL signs . . .

4. Laser Beam
5. Radiation or electromagnetic waves
6. Biohazard, contaminated or infectious materials
7. Blasting – watch for more signage or a guard
8. Health hazard
9. Do not microwave your head (Thanks to Dan Wolfe!)

Of course, the image at the very top of this Advisory indicates POISON.

What other signs do you see regularly that warn of danger in your environment?

Action item:  Test your family and neighbors using this article!  It will be a great conversation starter!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

P.S. Later we’ll take a look at the container placards you see on trucks. You know, the diamond shaped ones!

Guidebook to home defense

We’ve said this before and no doubt we’ll repeat it more than once in the future. But the recent school shooting in Newtown has given new life to the continuing controversy about firearms – especially assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, etc. – for self-protection. If you’ve watched any of the “Doomsday Preppers” TV shows on the NatGeo Channel, you may have been shocked by the extent that some people go to for their imagined need for survival in a major catastrophe. Their arsenals look more like preparation for war.

Here are three things to think about if you are truly worried about having to protect yourself and your property in the event of a major disaster event. The first two are, in our opinion, negative approaches to life.  The third is in keeping with our philosophy of taking positive action.

Assault weapons are a terrible choice.

First, as any combat veteran will tell you, few people have the natural ability to calmly shoot people with a handgun, much less a rapid-firing assault weapon. Such weapons require training and discipline if you ONLY plan to hit a specific target while the adrenalin is flowing fast and heavy. The chances of hitting innocent people or things around and beyond the target are usually very high. There’s a reason mass murders use these weapons . . . they kill and destroy indiscriminately.

Shotguns aren’t a whole lot better.

Second, the best firearm in a self-defense circumstance is usually a shotgun. It has a limited range but a “spread” in the shot pattern that makes it more likely to hit the intended target on the first shot. You don’t have to be a marksman or highly-trained soldier to be effective with it. The bottom line, however, is if you find yourself having to use it, it’s still likely to take someone’s life. And, regardless of the situation, even if there is no legal consequence, that’s something you will have to live with.

Trusted Friends — Absolutely Your Best Protection.

Third, and most important of all in our opinion, your best protection in an emergency will be good neighbors – people you know and can trust immediately, instead of mistrust. We have seen over and over again the natural tendency of people to help one another following a catastrophic event. And, the more your neighbors are trained and prepared to survive themselves, the better equipped they will be to help you and vice versa. Unlike the first two means of self-protection, you can count on having enough friends if you have allowed for them.  And unlike the first two means of self-protection, this is one that saves lives instead of taking them.

Programs like the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training are excellent examples of the best way to prepare yourself and to work along the side your neighbors as an effective team. CERT neighborhoods will not only have a better chance of surviving, but will emerge as a true community with pride in having known what to do in advance . . . and possibly having saved lives and property because of their training.

Practice ahead of time!

Virginia asked me to write this Advisory. It was prompted because of a blog post she read recently. Seems someone was trapped on his way home during Superstorm Sandy. By phone his wife reported the power was out and temperatures were dropping rapidly. He was proud and relieved to remind his wife that they had a back-up generator. The problem? His wife didn’t know how to turn it on!

Uhhh – confused?

This led us to take a look around our place at some of the emergency equipment we have to see what we really haven’t tested. Here’s my report.

Generator – Yes, we have a generator, a compact one, highly rated. It is still in the box and Virginia has never really seen it! (Two months ago our CERT organization set out to test its large new generator, and the starter did not function. So back it went to the store where we had bought it.)

Camp stove – Virginia and I have camped for years, both in tents (a LONG time ago) and in our RV, so we are familiar with propane stoves. The glitch – where are the gas canisters? And is there any trick to attaching them? If there is, we could waste a valuable resource trying to figure it out.

Water barrel – Last year we purchased a 55 gallon water barrel. (We wrote about our water barrel earlier.) It came with a pump to be inserted when the water is needed. OK, we haven’t needed the water yet. So, where is the pump, and how difficult is it to attach to the barrel? We haven’t tested it yet.

Solar panel back-ups for computers and phones – This one we’re good with. But if you have purchased panels yourself, be sure you have the right connectors that go between the panels and your device. Surely you have noticed that every mobile phone has a different plug on the end. Test NOW to be sure you have what it takes to take advantage of your solar back-ups.

Emergency radios – When we wrote the review of the best emergency radios, we tested all of our radios, so we know how to crank them, where the batteries go (if there are batteries), what connectors they require, etc. I recommend that you use your emergency radio daily. (It gets music or news, not just emergency alerts!) That way you’ll know it it’s ready to go.

How to Send a Text –– You may need grandchildren to help you out, here. But learn!

Turn on the Power — Again, something as simple as knowing where the fuse box is, and how to reset the switches, could make a difference. Everyone in your family needs to know this.

I think this list could go on. But the message is, “Test and practice.” Our plan is to set up a schedule to test one thing every week. You could set up the same action item — and include your children in the exercise. You won’t all be home when the emergency hits!

The more trained family members, the safer you’ll all be.

Joe Krueger
Emergency Response Team