Category: CERT

When you write a book, you get the chance to include a dedication. Every one of the first books in our Neighborhood Disaster Survival Series is dedicated not to mothers or fathers or each other, but to our friends and colleagues at CERT, the Community Emergency Response Team training offered through FEMA and our city!

Twenty years ago CERT was the impetus that moved us from helping big enterprises with disaster recovery to helping improve emergency preparedness for neighborhoods.

Over the years, our own southern California neighborhood has benefitted from adding nearly 4 dozen CERT graduates from our city’s training program. We’ve also welcomed a few new neighbors who brought their training with them from other cities.

Of course, in any neighborhood, people come and go. In a senior community like ours the “going” may be more frequent that the “coming.” Whatever, even after the nearly total shutdown of our emergency group activities because of Covid, here in our small neighborhood we still count 21 active CERTs.

As of this month, our current neighborhood CERT total went up to 24!

Time to celebrate!

The images above show our three new “heroes” and the meeting that featured them. People were interested to hear how the training had gone. Here are some of the questions that came up:

• “What did you like best?”
• “What was the biggest surprise about the course?”
• “Were you worried about anything before you started?”
• “What was the hardest part?”
• “Was it really free?”
• “Why did you take the course in the first place?”
• “Have you added any new gear to the stuff you got from the training?”

We use these questions whenever we get the chance. CERT graduates like to talk about their experiences – and folks considering the course want to hear about CERT “from the horse’s mouth.”

(No matter how much written material we provide, it’s the fact-to-face interaction that makes the difference!)

And although Joe and I took the training years ago, we too are interested because it’s changed. For example, while medical, fire suppression, and search & rescue are still key components of the course, a whole section on “Terrorism & Disaster Psychology” has been added since we took it.

In any case, as far as our neighborhood is concerned, the more CERT graduates we have among us, the safer and the smarter we feel.

How do we get more neighbors involved in emergency preparedness?

Here’s the way it has worked best for us.

First, we have kept our city CERT leader on speed dial. (Or speed email, whatever.)

Joe and I were in Class 3. A couple of years later, by the time we got to Class 7, our neighborhood graduate group had grown to a half dozen. (Our city is now on class 88, and has trained well over 2,000 people.)

The advantages of having a “core” neighborhood group are clear. Graduates share the same vocab.  They have learned the same basic info. Perhaps most important, they have been exposed to the “Incident Commander” concept. That is, if you are first on the scene, you step up to take charge. Being a leader comes from the CERT training . . . and it is essential.

The core group becomes the engine behind building a community group. And we’ve added Mandarin speakers to our core group!

Next, we focused our promotion activities on the value to individual community members, not just the benefits to the city.

Some CERT trainees finish the class and never join in any further neighborhood or community activities. That’s fine. Their families get the benefit.

Most CERT graduates, however, are enthusiastic about what they have learned. They  realize what an impact they could have in an emergency! These folks often express their commitment to “being of service” to the community, and CERT fits that mindset.

Core group members with a service mentality find it easy to work together to develop a plan, and programs, for their neighbors. We have counted on them year after year.  

Then we planned regular neighborhood activities around scheduled CERT classes.

We’ve used a number of ways to let people know about CERT. Just like we did last week, we take advantage of every chance we get to celebrate course graduates!

Leading up to that, though, takes repeated reminders, stories, and show-and-tells. And once we’ve welcomed new CERT graduates, we continue to involve them in these activities.

I just checked. In our Neighborhood Disaster Survival Guides, we share over 25 of the different activities we have developed to engage neighbors and meet a neighborhood’s particular needs and interests! (We’ve shared a lot more ideas via these Advisories, too. Look for “What are you interested in?” in the sidebar, click the down arrow, and choose “CERT.”)

As long as our city is offering classes, we have a reason to talk about CERT, emergency preparedness and response. It is an ongoing effort.

What about those neighbors who may not take a CERT class but still want to be part of the team?

In our neighborhood we have busy neighbors who want to be a part of the preparedness activities but make it clear: “I don’t want to take the course but I will be here to help out when you need me.”

This is a problem.

When the emergency hits, these folks will have no idea of how to help and there will be no time for training!

So, we have used material from the CERT course as a framework on which to build a bare-bones custom neighborhood group with a place for everyone who wants to be a member. Interested neighbors agree to participate as volunteers in whatever category makes sense for them. We provide as much training and as many supplies as we can. For example, they get walkie-talkies and fluorescent emergency vests. (We don’t give official CERT gear to people who haven’t taken the full training.)

In addition, our team regularly offers “general education” for everyone on emergency preparedness. People may not want to be part of a group, but they seem to appreciate in-depth climate reports, suggestions for home safety, and hearing about new threats.

Whatever you can do to improve neighbors’ awareness of potential emergencies, and to get them to take steps to prepare, the safer you all will be.

CERT is the best foundation for effective community action that we have found.

Find out about CERT in your town or city!  Simply type into a browser [Your city CERT]. You can also head to the FEMA website for more information: https://www.ready.gov/cert/.

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

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Since you’re a reader here at Emergency Plan Guide, I’m sure you remember the fire season of 2018: the “deadliest and most destructive wildfire season on record in California.” You may even remember some of the statistics: nearly 8 thousand separate fires, nearly 2 million acres burned. And 100 people confirmed dead – with a possible 50 more never found.

But so much has gone on since then that you may have forgotten about the single worst fire of that worst year. The Camp Fire roared through the Northern California town of Paradise on November 8, in one day destroying 95% of homes and businesses and leaving 85 dead in its wake. Paradise was a test for Emergency Responders. And many failed.

Yes, you may have forgotten. But if you read the book I just finished, you will NEVER forget Paradise.

“Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire”
by Lizzie Johnson

How to describe this book’s impact on me? It was so compelling I read all day the day I got it. So intense I couldn’t sleep that night. Some images remain in my mind: walls of flame 200 feet high; children only vaguely visible in a school bus filling with smoke; propane tanks exploding like bombs; floating embers as big as dinner plates . . .as big as dinner plates!

People who were heroes. And people who made bad decisions. . . a lot of bad decisions.

Paradise is a must-read for people who can’t afford to make bad emergency management decisions. Here are some questions to identify who those people are and force them to think about the decisions they might make under similar circumstances.

Are you one of the people who could be tested by disaster?

Do you live at the wildland-urban interface?

There are more of you every year, and you are a target. At Emergency Plan Guide we’ve written more than once about the dangers of wildfire, and how to be smart about defending your property from it. We’ve even written about new technology for the professionals who fight these fires. But technology only gives you more options. Judgment is still the real difference between success and failure. And in a case like Paradise, between life and death.

As I write this, over half the states of the U.S. are in drought. There’s no longer such a thing as “fire season.” Rather, it’s fires year-round.

Everyone at the wildland-interface needs to know how to build, how to defend, how to evacuate when fire threatens. As you read how people struggled in Paradise, your own choices may become clearer.

Do you deal with particular sub-sets of your community, such as seniors? Children? People with disabilities?

Johnson’s research included digging deeply into the living conditions and also the mindset of the people who lived and worked in Paradise. You get to know these folks and their community. It was like many others. But it had some unique characteristics that played into the choices emergency professionals made.

One was a higher-than-average population of older people – 25% compared to the American average of around 15%. This meant more people in Paradise had health and mental limitations, and physical disabilities. When it came to evacuation . . .

• They didn’t know the fire was coming. Few had signed up to receive emergency alerts. They were busy with life, not watching the news.
• In Paradise and even here in my community, older people have lived through other disasters in their lives. They tend to figure they will get through this one, too. In fact, many simply refuse to consider evacuation.

Seniors stand to fail the test of responding to emergencies more often than other groups. What about the seniors in your life?

Are you connected to a health-care facility?

Some of the most powerful stories in Johnson’s book describe what happens as clinics and hospitals are threatened and overrun by the fire. Talk about heroes! But talk about impossible situations: not enough wheelchairs, much less ambulances. Patients too large or too ill to walk or even fit into a car. Ultimately, no power.

How confident are you in your facility’s evacuation and overall emergency response plans? Or in the plans of the facilities where you have family members?

City leaders, including professional emergency managers, struggle to balance politics with safety. In Paradise, they lost.

Paradise describes a history of town development, where decisions were made by various councils about paving, widening, and narrowing streets. About water supply. Code enforcement. Hiring. Economic considerations often won out over safety. And everything came into play during the fire.

One of the most difficult decisions was when and how to call for evacuation. For me, reading the details of those decisions was agonizing.

If you are a professional emergency manager, a First Responder, or simply a concerned citizen, you’ll find yourself wanting to make a checklist of things to look into for your own community. I did. My list contains over 35 items.

First Responders showed up. But things didn’t work as planned.

Johnson describes helicopter pilots unable to fly because violent downdrafts threatened to smash them into the mountainsides. Police officers directed traffic without understanding where they were sending people. Communications between different departments didn’t always work.

Some Incident Commanders were up to the job. Others weren’t sure, and waffled.

Paradise can be a mini-study in how mutual aid works – and sometimes doesn’t.

And last. But perhaps first in importance: what can you expect from your utilities?

The Camp Fire was determined to have been caused by PG&E, the largest utility not only in California but in the nation. PG&E pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter, admitting that a spark from a 91-year-old transmission line started the fire. (Interestingly, the utility had previously warned that power might be shut off. Later, though, they claimed that conditions that day did not meet the company’s criteria for emergency shut-off.)

Does your utility do “Safety Shut-offs?” Under what conditions? What do you know about the history, maintenance and current condition of your utility’s grid? What plans do they have for back-up in an emergency? The same questions apply for your communications providers.  

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These are only some of the urgent questions that filled my mind as I followed the increasingly desperate stories of individual Paradise residents. As each profile developed, I kept wondering – “Is THIS person going to end up being one of the 85 dead?”

I urge you to read Paradise yourself, as a citizen, community leader, or emergency response professional. You will be captured and inspired by Lizzie Johnson’s moving narrative. You will also be tested as to your own level of preparedness and readiness to respond. Please don’t wait.

Click on the image to order now from Amazon.

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

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OK, so you have been working for a while on being prepared for disasters. You’ve made it this far, and think you’re in pretty good shape, ready for whatever rain may fall! 

Maybe you even qualify as an expert?!

Last year Joe and I took an emergency preparedness quiz at a meeting sponsored by the Great American Shake-out. Sure enough, although we’ve been “Activists” for years, we were missing several key items!

That inspired me to put this quiz together for all the Emergency Plan Guide readers. (I’ve updated it for 2020, too.) The questions were gathered from a variety of sources. See how well you do! Score yourself at the end!

Emergency Preparedness Quiz

1-Is your house ready to take a hit from a disaster? Check if YES.

• No heavy/dangerous items over the bed, couch or desk (or wherever you spend a lot of time).
• Bookcases, TV, speakers, computers, printers, mirrors — bolted to table or to wall. Need a stud finder to finish this job?
• Water heater and other appliances secured.
• Outside of home squared away to protect against sudden fire (trash cleared away) or wind.
• Home adequately insured for standard risks also local risks (flood, earthquake, etc.).

2-Does your family know how to respond to a natural or weather-related disaster? Check if YES.

• Everybody knows and has practiced: Drop-Cover-Hold On (earthquake), Drop-Roll (fire). Grandma, too.
• Family members know and have practiced 2 ways to get out of house: doors, windows, second floor. Can you get down the escape ladder?
• Everyone knows where fire extinguishers are, and how to use them. How many fire extinguishers do you need, anyway? And are they all workable?
• Adults know where water and gas shut-offs are, and when to shut them off. Tools attached near shut-off valves.
• You have a back-up plan for pets if you’re not home. Decal on front door or window alerts emergency workers that you have a pet.
• Everyone in the family has memorized out-of-town contact phone number.
• Everyone who has a phone has a battery back-up (Power bank), knows how and to whom to text.

3-Are survival kits (72-hour kits) packed and ready to go?

• Do all evacuation and survival kits have masks so you can operate within COVID guidelines?
• A survival kit in the house for every family member, customized to size, skill, medical needs, etc.?
• A kit for every pet?
• A kit in each car?
• A kit at work for every worker?

4-What about handling the immediate aftermath of a disaster?

• Every room has emergency lighting – lantern and/or flashlight.
• All first aid kits are fully stocked with up-to-date items.
• We have at least one emergency radio (solar, hand crank, battery) tuned to local emergency station, with extra batteries.
• Everyone has sturdy shoes for safely getting around, clothing/gloves to protect against cold or broken items. Pets have protective booties/jackets, too.
• Supply of warm clothing, blankets.
• Everyone knows ways to report in that they’re OK.

5-Are you prepared at work for the immediate aftermath of a disaster?

• Every room has emergency lighting – lantern and/or flashlight.
• First aid kits are fully stocked with up-to-date items.
• Emergency radio tuned to local emergency station, with extra batteries.
• Everyone has sturdy shoes for safely managing stairs, getting out. (Particularly important for female employees whose footwear may be stylish but impractical. Stash an extra pair of tennis shoes in the bottom drawer of the desk.)
• Partners check on each other’s situation. People with disabilities have designated partners who know how to help them evacuate.
• People responsible for shut-down or evacuation procedures step into action.
• Everyone knows how to report in assuming phones are out.

6-How about an extended recovery at home after a disaster?

• Supply of food that doesn’t need cooking. Can-opener. Utensils.
• If camp stove, supply of food that uses hot water or heating. Fuel for stove. Fire igniter. Pot. (Have you practiced setting up and starting the stove? A challenge under the best of conditions!)
• Condiments: salt, pepper, ketchup, mustard, chilies, soy sauce, sugar, honey, other.
• Water supply. Clean water supplies, a way to filter and/or disinfect other water.
• Pet’s food, water and hygiene supplies.
• Personal hygiene supplies: temporary toilet, toilet paper, wipes, paper towels, Clorox. Trash bags.
• Personal supplies: lotion, bug repellent, sun screen, soap, sanitary supplies, condoms, deodorant, toothpaste, etc.
• Medicines and prescriptions for at least 2 weeks.
• Clothing for cold, rain; ponchos, umbrellas.
• Tools appropriate for making repairs: saw, hammer, nails, tape, plastic sheets, tarp, crow bar, ax, shovel, emergency lighting.
• If someone can handle them and manage fuel: generator, chain saw.
• Emergency two-way communications: walkie-talkies, ham radios.
• Entertainment: books, games, cards, paper and pens.

(When it comes to extended recovery at work, that’s another quiz. It will be based on the type of work place, key functions of the business, number of employees, etc. Emergency Preparedness for Small Business can give you nearly all the guidance you’ll need to answer THAT quiz!)

7-And here’s a bonus emergency preparedness quiz item:

• I’ve completed CERT training. (I know, CERT training is being postponed until we can get back to meeting face to face. But at least, you can put it on your to-do list!)

And your score on this Emergency Preparedness Quiz?

There are 41 questions in this quiz, plus the bonus. They don’t have equal importance, so there’s no real way to rate yourself based on the number of boxes you checked off.  Still, just in reading the quiz you should have a FEEL for whether you are:

• Rookie – 10-15 check marks: A good start but still have a ways to go
• Solid – 15-30 check marks: Comfortable with your progress; won’t feel (too) guilty if something happens
• Expert – Anything above 30, plus the bonus! Heck, you should be teaching this stuff!

If you’re not actively “teaching this stuff,” you can use this emergency preparedness quiz to help yourself and other people you care about get started on their own preparations.

How to get started?

Start slowly — but get started!

Did some of these items jump out at you as being really important?

Start with just one or two. Work on a new one every week.

If you are part of a neighborhood group, maybe pick a couple of items to work on every month. (Our new Mini-Series was designed PERFECTLY for groups! Schedule one topic per week or per month, get people together — in person or via zoom — to discuss and share.)

Every small preparedness action you take will add to your family’s and your community’s resilience. Since your neighbors are most likely to be the people who end up rescuing you in a disaster, this step-by-step method has a double pay-off!

Let us know how it goes, and what YOU would add to the quiz to make it even more useful. We are all in this together!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

 

It’s a rare business that doesn’t host a meeting once in a while. While businesses are shut down as a result of the pandemic, this list may not apply! But as soon as you get back to face-to-face meetings, it will. So hang on to it!

Your meeting might be for marketing or educational purposes, or maybe to celebrate a holiday or having reached a company milestone.

Whatever the purpose, if you are the meeting planner, you have a long to-do list to be sure everything goes as planned. Even the simplest meeting needs decisions made about date and time, venue, food, invitations, theme and decorations, sign-in procedures, advertising and publicity, entertainment, audio-visual, vendors, etc.  

Our question for today:

Does your meeting to-do list include planning for emergencies?

If you’ve been reading here for a while, you know that we are constantly on the lookout for good emergency preparedness resources. And we look not just for ideas for family planning, but also for small business and, in particular, for neighborhood teams.

This Advisory will be useful for all three groups. But it is particularly vital for businesses, because . . .

If something goes badly wrong at your business meeting, and you could have prepared for it, you will be blamed. And you may be sued.

Please note: we are not attorneys, and this Advisory is not meant to give legal advice. Please consult with qualified professionals for detailed recommendations for your business and your meeting.

As you get ready to meet with those professionals, being ready with questions will save time and money. Here are some questions to start with.

1 – Is there a law that we must have a disaster preparedness plan for every meeting?

At Emergency Plan Guide we have never found a legal requirement on emergency preparedness for meeting planners. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t one!  Your professional advisers may have found it. Ask.

But at the same time we have read enough horror stories to know that people sue no matter what! 

They may claim that you should have let them know in advance that it was a dangerous neighborhood, that the venue was open to access from outside, that there was no internet security, that a storm was threatened, that medical aid was not immediately available, etc., etc. They will claim you were negligent.

2 – How do we protect ourselves if there is no clear-cut law?

Recent well-known lawsuits seem to have revolved around the legal concept of “Duty of Care.” The Legal Dictionary at Law.com defines Duty of Care this way: “a requirement that a person act toward others and the public with the watchfulness, attention, caution and prudence that a reasonable person in the circumstances would use. “

There’s a second legal term we also see connected with this same topic: “Standard of Care.” It is closely tied to “Duty of Care.” 

Basically, this is the “standard” that a reasonable person with the same qualifications would follow in a similar circumstance. As you might imagine, a professional would have a higher standard than a non-professional.

Here’s the challenge. Law.com adds:  “The problem is that the “standard” is often a subjective issue upon which reasonable people can differ.”

Not too helpful! 

Still, we already know that it just makes sense to prepare for emergencies to the best level you can.

3 – So what does a reasonable person do when planning a meeting?

These are my recommendations. They are similar to preparing for emergencies in your own home or business.

I see these as basic steps:

• Evaluate your OWN level of preparedness. Who from your company will be there, what skills do they have, how ready will they be to respond to an emergency? What gaps do you find?
• Identify risks for this particular event: geographic location and specific room or building, threats from weather and/or people (attendees or outsiders), security issues, availability of emergency medical personnel, cyber-security policies, firearms policies, alcohol policies, etc.
• For each risk, confer with your business partners and then decide on who will respond and how. Make it clear who is responsible for what. Will any of the partners need to budget for additional personnel or equipment? List whom to call and all names and numbers. Decide who will interact with the news media or other officials, etc.
• Confirm appropriate insurance coverages, yours and your meeting business partners.  
• Write down and update your plan. Document your planning meetings. Share your decisions as appropriate in your marketing materials, since attendees deserve to know you have considered their safety in your planning. Document how everything went at the meeting.

This written document shows that you were attentive, prudent and thorough. This can be your very best protection against claims of negligence.

More resources on emergency preparedness for meeting planners

A while ago I attended a 2-hour training session sponsored by Meetings Today. The title was: Risk Management – Best Practices for Meetings and Events. The presenter, Brenda Rivers, also put out a 30-minute podcast on the Duty of Care. You may be able to find the podcast here: https://www.meetingstoday.com/magazines/article-details/articleid/32549/title/duty-of-care-keeping-safe

Meetings Today has also published a comprehensive template for meeting planners. If you have any responsibility for planning meetings, you may wish to download it for future reference. Here’s the link: https://www.meetingstoday.com/newsevents/industrynews/industrynewsdetails/articleid/31923/title/emergency-response-plan-template-for-planners

If you consider yourself to be a professional meeting planner, or just an enthusiastic meeting planner, please find out more about this topic!

Best of luck,

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

P.S. Joe and I consider ourselves “enthusiastic meeting planners.”  Together, we have been responsible for literally hundreds of meetings for professional associations, Rotary International, neighborhood outreach for energy efficiency, and, of course, our local emergency response group. You can find one of our neighborhood group meeting planning Advisories here, recently updated.

And if you’re serious about putting on a successful meeting, check out this book from Alex Genadinik. There are a number of books available about planning events, of course, including those on starting a business as an event planner. I recommend this one because of Genadinik’s marketing emphasis.

I was running late – to my own community meeting!

But we’d done some good planning, and by the time I got to the community room, a handful of volunteers were already digging into the oh-so-carefully-packed box of supplies. Name tags went out onto one table along with colored pens; handouts went onto another.  Two people were pinning photos from past events all across the back of the room. And refreshments had magically appeared on a table in the corner. (“Make people walk past the photo display to get to the cookies.”)

I saw immediately that our guest speakers had arrived before me, too!

But my back-up host had directed them to the electrical set-up, the microphone and projector were humming, and as neighbors started arriving, fire extinguishers in hand, everyone was standing about just casually chatting!

What a relief!  All I had to do was grab that microphone, take a deep breath, and gather my thoughts for the introductions! Here I am, a few minutes later, double-teaming with our fire captain.

What was behind this special community meeting on fire extinguishers?

Pretty simple. We’ve had two fires recently in our neighborhood. In one, the whole house was engaged before the fire department arrived. (No person injured, but two pets died.)  In the other, smoke filled the kitchen but an observant neighbor noticed, grabbed a fire extinguisher, ran across the street and stopped the fire before any real damage was done.

The obvious lesson:

“If you can catch a fire right away, and you use the right equipment, you can put it out yourself.”

After the most recent fire, we took a poll of neighbors.

1. “Do you have a fire extinguisher?”
2. “Are you confident you could put out a fire in your house with your extinguisher?”
3. “Have you ever even USED an extinguisher?”

Too many “no” answers! 

So we contacted our local fire department for help.

Not only were they willing to come do a special community meeting on home fire extinguishers, but they offered a magnificent surprise – a chance for us to actually practice putting out a fire.

But not a real fire.

We had the chance to train using a laser-driven fire extinguisher simulator!

First, we went over the basics of fire extinguishers.

In fact, we had invited everyone to BYOE — BRING YOUR OWN EXTINGUISHER – and it made a big difference! 

Many people had never even taken their extinguishers out of the box! Hardly any knew what sort of fire their extinguisher was good for. And I don’t think any had searched out the date of manufacture.

Imagine if you will a room full of people, many clutching red and white fire extinguishers in their laps, as our fire captain went over the basics using a power point presentation. There were MANY interruptions, much squinting to read the fine print, and MANY questions before it was over. (Remember, this meeting took place in a senior retirement community.)

• Classifications tell you what kind of fire this extinguisher will put out – A, B, C, D and K.  In our group, nearly all were A, B, C.
• What’s actually INSIDE the extinguisher? Again, for our audience, probably dry chemical that comes out as a powder to smother the fire.
• How long is the extinguisher good for? “Check the date.” (This became an embarrassment and pretty humorous as people found the dates and called them out. The oldest extinguisher in the room dated to . . . 1987!)  The recommendation from our fire department – “Check ‘em often and replace after 5 years to be sure it will work when you need it.”
• Where and how to store it? (Designated place, clearly visible. Turn it upside down and hit it with your hand to loosen the powder.)
• Other comments – Only attempt to put out a fire you can control. Have an escape route. Call 911. and many more . . .

Then it was time for the SIMULATOR training!

The head of our local CERT training stepped up to demonstrate the equipment. The digital “flame” on the screen was very bright, very realistic! The green dot from the laser was easily visible.

Before she was completely finished, people were already lining up to try it! (What a relief. As meeting planner you just never know what kind of reaction you’ll get!)

PASS – not so easy to remember when you have an extinguisher in your hands and the clock is ticking.

Our fire captain had gone through the steps to extinguish a fire.

And our CERT trainer had gone over them again, demonstrating two or three times just how the equipment works.

Still, when people came up to try, sometimes they forgot! They dropped the pin. The extinguisher was quite heavy and some couldn’t hold it and squeeze at the same time. A couple squeezed before they aimed!

Everyone was terribly engaged. Some were anxious. All were watching VERY closely.

More than half the people in the audience tried the simulator. And everyone succeeded in putting out their fire. (A few did need a couple of tries.)

More important, as our CERT trainer observed, every one walked away with new-found confidence.

As the community meeting on fire extinguishers broke up, several people told me they wanted to learn more about our city’s CERT training and others wanted to join our local neighborhood response team. (We have no requirement for CERT training.)

As we gathered up all the stray handouts and took down the displays, we were very satisfied at the outcome.

Could any meeting be more successful?!

Why yes, because that very evening I got several thank-you emails with many positive comments.

At 9 a.m. the following day our office manager wanted copies of anything that was left over “because people have already been coming in asking about it.” A bystander in the office volunteered, “I’m going to buy a new extinguisher for myself, and two for my daughter.”

Then the manager added, “I have never seen people come out of a meeting with so much excitement. They were talking and waving.  They were laughing. They were energized!”

I think you can agree, somewhere along the line this training will pay off. I hope you can add a similar meeting to YOUR group’s schedule!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

P.S. I’ll be adding this to my next collection of published Meeting Ideas! Let me know if you want to be on the pre-publication list!

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After 20 years of training and writing about disaster preparedness, and with well over 500 articles now under my belt, I discover that some topics keep coming up again and again – in the news media, in questions people ask, and on the various internet sites and in specialty magazines that report on “survival trends.” Thanks to Google Analytics, we can also track which articles are most often viewed on our site, too. Here are our top survival resources!

Here are the 5 most popular topics on our site, with links that will take you immediately to more information.

Are you in the mainstream? Are these among YOUR favorite subjects? Check them out!

1. Emergency Radios and Radio Communications

If there is one topic that stands out, this is it.  In fact, radios and radio communications are twice as popular as anything else we report on!

A radio for your personal survival kit.

Are you ready to buy an emergency radio for yourself or a family member?  Check out our Updated Reviews of Emergency Radios with comments about solar, hand-crank, etc. We’ve added new info about some nifty, palm-sized radios that fit perfectly in a pack, glove box, etc. Most of the radios we discuss are found on Amazon, where prices are as good as they get, and buyer comments are very helpful in selecting the best fit for your needs.

Two-way radio communications for groups.

Interested in how to use walkie-talkie radios effectively for your group, whether it’s your family or a neighborhood response team? Then you need a way to not only listen, but also to speak.

We have used many different models, and review walkie-talkies here.  EmergencyPlanGuide.org also has a number of Advisories on walkie-talkie use:

• Walkie-Talkies for Emergency Neighborhood Communications

If you are serious about building a neighborhood group, each of the books in our Survival Series has a complete discussion and a diagram showing one way to use radio communications, how to assign channels for your different divisions and specialty teams, etc.

 2. Emergency/Survival Kits

We know that some people simply don’t have time to actually build their own kit, so we start with a review of Popular Ready-Made Kits to be found on Amazon.  The purpose of the review is not to recommend any one kit in particular, but to highlight different things to look for as you shop. (Again, please be aware that if you buy something from Amazon through one of our links, we may receive a commission from Amazon. The commission does not influence the price you pay.)

Because every person and family is unique, we recommend strongly that you build your own basic kit, and we have written a booklet to guide you through the various decisions that need to be made.  Once you have the basic kit, add items that fit your climate, your skill and your interest level.

We have also discovered that most people continue to improve their kit by adding specialty items. Some of the most interesting additions:

• Geiger Counter
• Water purification tablets
• Survival Kit Missing Item

 3. Special Preparations for City Dwellers

Much of the “prepper” literature deals with developing skills that allow you to survive by living off the land. For urban or suburban dwellers, particularly people living in apartments or condos, these survival skills need to be adjusted to the realities of the city.

Some of the top survival resources for city dwellers:

• Apartment Survival and Security
• Apartment Living 
• Urban survival tools

4. Emergency Water Supplies

We probably spend more of our time on water than on anything else (even though, as reported above, website visitors seem to prefer reading about radios!). How to store water for an emergency, where to find more water when the emergency hits, and how to protect yourself from contaminated water – these are ongoing challenges that need to be overcome if we are to survive.

A few of the most comprehensive articles focused on water:

• Water, water everywhere
• Collapsible water Bottles
• Lifestraw Personal Water Filter
• Storing water in plastic bottles
• Emergency water supply – Your swimming pool

And finally, one topic unique to EmergencyPlanGuide.org  . . .

5. Counting on Neighbors for Survival

We know that the first people to be there to help in an emergency are the people already there – the neighbor at home next door, or the co-worker at the next desk or in the next room.

With that being the case, we think that the more we all know, the better chance we’ll all have to survive, at least until professional help arrives.

We also know that professional help – police and fire – will be overwhelmed in the aftermath of a widespread disaster, so it may be hours or even days before they do arrive. A strong neighborhood team, ready to take action, just seems to make great sense.

Our 20-year commitment to neighborhood emergency preparedness has been focused primarily on building a neighborhood response team. It has been a labor of love – and yes, a LOT of labor!

The website has many stories about what it’s taken to build the group. You can find many of these stories by heading to the list of categories in the sidebar and clicking on “CERT” or “Neighborhood.”

We have even compiled much of this information into two in-depth resources:

• Emergency Preparedness Meeting Ideas
• Survival Series (One for Apartment Dwellers, one for Mobile Home Communities, and one for Single Family Neighborhoods.  Each has suggestions for building a neighborhood team on the foundation of CERT training)

I hope you’ll find this list of top survival resources helpful, and a reminder of areas in your own planning that may not be as secure as you’d like. Also, if you would like to see more on any aspect of emergency preparedness or disaster recovery, please just let me know!

Virginia and Joe
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

We mean it! Let us know in the comments what topics YOU like to read more about!

By now we’ve all heard the concept of “muscle memory.” That is, if you practice something enough, when called upon your body will remember what to do even if your brain is sidetracked.

Professionals train constantly. They develop all kinds of muscle memory, and every day we hear stories how that training has paid off.

Volunteers, on the other hand, are a different story. When it comes to preparedness training for volunteers within the neighborhood, we have a challenge.

Here is the training challenge as I see it.

• Even in a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training session with the guidance of professional instructors we can TALK about what to do in an emergency medical situation. We can SHOW people how clear airways, check for breathing, and test circulation. We can PRACTICE once or twice with professional supervision.
  
  Then we go home! And we are lucky to get a refresher course on those particular procedures within the next month or even 6 months!

• In our local neighborhood group meetings we don’t have professionally-trained leaders. We depend on our own volunteer members to come up with good ways to prepare and to respond. When we’re lucky, we attract a guest speaker with special credentials.
  
  Then we go home! And we may never hear from that speaker again!

A current LinkedIn discussion group sees the challenge, too.

I participate in a LinkedIn group for emergency managers. There’s a discussion taking place right now about providing enough on-going training for people at different levels of expertise.

In particular, the discussion is focusing on the very audience I mentioned above – the concerned and committed volunteer who may be part of a local community but not part of a formal program.

How can we give these people the chance to develop that all-important “muscle memory?”

Here’s some of what I’ve learned about meeting the training challenge.

Online resources. There are a number of online resources, courses and online videos. We have used many of them in our group. The challenge is having to first find and then sort through them all, site by site and video by video, to find one that fits your group’s level of interest, its budget and is of a quality you’re comfortable with. As we know, there is no easy way to “rate” the quality of ANYTHING online!

Local resources. In our community we occasionally have the opportunity to attend a face-to-face course offered by the Red Cross or a health care organization. Some of these are free; most charge a fee. Some communities are more fortunate in that they have regular such programs offered through a university. (Here are two examples, the first at Columbia and the second at the University of Kansas.  https://ncdp.columbia.edu/practice/training-education/online-face-to-face-training/ and http://rtcil.org/emergencypreparedness/onlinetrainings)

Books. By now, you realize I’ve tried to capture some training ideas in the books I’ve written.  The advantage of books is that they are inexpensive, available everywhere, and eminently portable. The disadvantage – reading about an idea in a book doesn’t train muscle memory! Some dedicated member of the group has to turn the idea into an actual training exercise. (That’s what I try to assist with in Emergency Preparedness Meeting Ideas.)

Training that can actually involve muscle memory is by far the most desirable. For volunteers, it’s still very tough to come by.

But when it comes to emergency preparedness, ANY training is better than none!

You can get started now with some of the resources mentioned above. One thing for sure: There will be no time for training once the disaster hits!

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Day 24 of Summer Vacation: A time for some shorter and lighter Advisories as a welcome change-of-pace!

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The recent California earthquakes have had several positive results here where we live, in Southern California.

I already mentioned how our neighborhood emergency response group volunteers jumped into action after the 7.1 quake on July 6. There they were, out in the dark with their walkie-talkies, talking to people, passing along info to our mobile radio command post.

What happened the next day, though, was actually more exciting. Everywhere you could hear the second positive result from the earthquake: ordinary citizens talking and talking about the quakes and how to be more prepared next time!

• “How should I be storing water? Do you have a water barrel? What about plastic bottles?”
• “What’s the chance of a broken gas line? Should we turn off the gas?”
• “What if I am trapped in my house?”

And hooray! Positive result #3 — Two more neighbors decided to join the team!

I am busy assembling the “recruiting” kits – some basic info and instructions, plus the two most important items for team members: a fluorescent vest and a battery-operated walkie-talkie.

If you are figuring out what your next move ought to be for summer – consider getting a couple of walkie-talkies!

They are fun for families camping, hiking or heading to a county fair. Small kids and teens like them. They are essential if you have wandering children or lagging-behind grandparents! And if you are interested in building a neighborhood emergency response team, you’ll want to practice with those walkie-talkies before you decide which ones to buy.

I’ve written reviews of the top 5 or 6 models every year. If you are really interested in more detail, please check out that page. There’s a whole lot of info there to absorb before you make a big buying decision.

Here’s a recommendation for you.

In the meanwhile, here’s information about my favorite model – and the one we use for our local neighborhood group. Simple, straightforward, flexible.   These use AAA batteries or rechargeables; you can also recharge by plugging into the wall. A pair costs less that a dinner out – and will make your summer a whole lot more memorable! (Click on the image to get details and prices at Amazon.)

If you manage to get a pair of walkie-talkies as a result of the earthquakes and of reading this Advisory, that would be the best positive result of all!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

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Day 10 of Summer Vacation: A time for some shorter and lighter Advisories as a welcome change-of-pace!

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Have you ever googled “emergency preparedness?” 

After a row of stuff for sale — survival kits, freeze dried food, first aid kits — you’ll hit the first of page after page of agencies ready to give you comprehensive and usually trustworthy advice.

Now go back and google “emergency preparedness forums.”

This is where people, not agencies, hang out!  The words associated with preparedness change immediately. You’ll see references to urban survivalists, bush craft, self-protection, weapons, primitive technology – passionate entries from writers getting ready for when the SHTF or we reach TEOTWAWKI. (See below if you need a reminder about what these stand for!)

s a writer about the topic, I get deep into just about everything: self-defense, camping skills, CERT, emergency communications, dealing with authorities, preventing fires, etc.

One of my favorite topics, though, is how to build stronger neighborhood groups. (Not too common a theme in other sites, actually!) I’ve been part of my own neighborhood group for over 17 years. What I hear from members of my neighborhood group is not that they are paranoid. They are not even particularly afraid.

Rather, they actively “want to help others.” Normally, you won’t read too much about that, either!

How people responded to the earthquakes in Ridgecrest has been an inspiration.

Watching TV coverage about the California earthquakes over the past few days certainly reinforced that message. In Ridgecrest,

• Did you see how often people mentioned neighbors coming by to see if they needed help?
• How neighbors were offering to do repairs for free?
• How neighbors pitched in to help clean up?

The actions of these neighbors, victims all, encourages me to keep organizing, keep learning, and keep writing.

Oh, and here’s the quote from George R.R.Martin, author of A Game of Thrones, that got me started on this whole post, and inspired the image at the top of this page:

 “When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives.” 

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

• SHTF = (when the) sh*t hits the fan
• TEOTWAWKI = the end of the world as we know it

Day 7 of Summer Vacation: A time for some shorter Advisories as a welcome change-of-pace!

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A “robust sequence” of earthquakes.

That quote above is from the eminent seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones. If you’ve watched the news about the earthquakes in California, you’ve seen her.

Here’s a quick report from our community in Southern California.

We’re in Orange County, along the coast in Southern California, about 160 miles from the earthquake epicenter at Ridgecrest, which is more in the center part of the state.

But even here, we felt both of the largest quakes – the 6.4 on July 4^th, and the 7.1 yesterday on July 5^th. No comparison – that second quake was MUCH bigger! 

When it started, I was seated right here at my computer. The chair seemed to be moving left and right. Then it was definitely moving left and right! That died down, and then things started shaking. The whole house started bumping, rattling, creaking, clunking, blinds banging and banging against the windows! Happily, our lights stayed on. I moved away from the computer and monitor and my bookshelves, but nothing fell.

In the end, things gradually returned to normal. Today, the only damage I could find in my house were three new hairline cracks, perfectly aligned about 4 feet apart, from one side to the other of the tile kitchen floor.

Our neighborhood emergency response team got into action.

We are always preparing for earthquakes in California. Here in our community, several people quickly made phone calls, and we were also able to connect via email, but our main communications took place via walkie-talkies. Within about 5 minutes, neighbors were checking on neighbors and reporting in. Two of our team members monitored the news (using ham radio, too) and shared what they were learning. That info was passed along via the walkie-talkies. Within about 20 minutes, everyone had reported in to our “Command” channel: “People in the streets, no damage.”

What happened in Ridgecrest was far worse, and is a reminder about being prepared.

We should be prepared for any emergency with basic supplies:

1. Sturdy shoes
2. Flashlights and lanterns!
3. First Aid kit
4. Water
5. Non-perishable food (in non-breakable containers)
6. Blankets

In earthquake country, you want to stash these items throughout your house.

An earthquake isn’t like a storm, where you probably have some warning to grab your survival kit and head to shelter. In a quake you will still be at home afterwards, and so you want to be able to get to your supplies even if parts of the home are damaged.

And talk over a plan for contacting family members after an emergency. Be sure to include an out-of-area contact number.

Now, in my case, our out-of-state contact person, my brother – was somewhere on a boat headed to Alaska! So we need to set up a secondary contact right away.

What comes next?

We’ll be operating for a while based on what we learned last night about earthquakes in California. For us, the good news is our neighborhood volunteers were prepared and DID WHAT THEY HAD TRAINED TO DO.  

If you are interested in building a neighborhood emergency response group, or strengthening the one you have, we have resources that can help! Check out our website: https://EmergencyPlanGuide.org! and if you have specific questions, please be in touch directly. We have some real experience — even more today than before — and we’d love to share.

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

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Day 6 of Summer Vacation: A time for some shorter and lighter Advisories as a welcome change-of-pace! (Or at least, that was the plan!)

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