OT: Disaster Pre-plans

[tiggr33]

Mods, please consider leaving this post as many might not read this on the community boards where I originally posted.

Doing my part to protect ALL families. This is in part a reply I have on another site. It in no way is to make light of any disaster situation, nor is it limited to todays tornados/super cells in Florida. This information is a base point for pre-plans for any disaster, fire, flood, tornado, hurricane, etc...

I've worked in Disaster Services, albeit in NJ, where we dont get many hurricanes or tornados. HOWEVER each household should have atleast one DISASTER KIT and a DISASTER PLAN that everyone understands, include your children in the plan as well. Your local Red Cross chapter can provide you with planning materials, and some give classes on pre-disater planning.

For those that are not familiar with the NOAA weather radios that they have been mentioning on the news, they are not like a normal radio that you listen to music/talk radio on. They do not make any noise UNLESS there is an weather event. The unit just sits there in silence most of the time. I suggest all homes have atleast one on each floor in an area it can be heard if it goes off. yes, I said all homes, not just those in "tornado alley".

Related, yet, unrelated. To all those that have cel phones. Consider making a entry in your phone book called I.C.E ("i" period "c" period "e") Many EMS workers now turn to cel phones in emergencies and look for an ICE Number. ICE stands for In Case of Emergency. If your cell phone allows for it, also put a note on the entry as to the name of your contact, and provide a secondary contact name and number.

 

[ConcKahuna]

I have to say that with last night's storms, this is very well times. For those of you who haven't heard, a massive line of thunderstorms moved through Central Florida last night. There are currently about 20,000 homes without power, and whole neighborhoods were destroyed by windstorms and tornadoes. 14 people have been confirmed dead, and there are still several HUNDRED people unaccounted for.

Even if you have family who lives in another state, you should always have a disaster plan in place in case something happens to your distant family so that you can contact them.

I also wish to offer my prayers to anyone who is in or has family in the parts of the state where the storms were the worst. I know one of the places hit hardest was The Villages, a town between Orlando and Ocala that is primarily home to retirees.

 

[OrlandoMike]

After the year of the tripple hurricanes I think we are pretty set....

Tarps and tacks to attch them with

Hurricane Shutters

Bleach

First Aid kits

Generator, gasoline, and propane

Portable A/C unit

Tons of bottled water and canned goods

CB and Weather radio

and a ton of other stuff! We keep it all in the garage ready to go!

 

[huizarst]

I also work in Disaster Services with the American Red Cross. What many do not realize is that a disaster impacts a family every eight minutes here in America. Over 90% are residential house fires. Many of us say that we need to do something when we see these large disasters occurring, but since 9/11, the devastating wildfires in the west, hurricane season 2005, and several large floods, many people are still not prepared.

A few weeks ago the Red Cross in cooperation the Council for Excellence in Government (CEG) had launched a Website, What’sYour RQ? This website provides an interactive “Readiness Quotient” survey and corresponding public readiness index to help people, towns, states and regions evaluate their disaster preparedness. The site also offers Red Cross preparedness messaging so participants can immediately learn what steps they should take based on their RQ scores.

Several of my volunteers and staff were surprised at how unprepared they truly were. Take the survey and see how prepared you are. The website is http://www.whatsyourrq.org.

Now is the time to take simple steps that could possibly save you and your loved ones during an emergency. Hope this helps and have a great weekend.

Steven

 

[tiggr33]

Steven that is an excellent site. I admit I'm embarrassed by my score. I can't tell you how many people I have heard say "I never thought it would happen to me". Luckily, I never have experienced a disaster as a victim; however my partner’s parents lost their home to a fire. And I have gone to many fire scenes; it is not something you want to experience as a victim. Fires are devastating.

There are many of us on this board that are involved in disasters at many levels (EMS, Fire, Police, Remediation/Restoration, Disaster Services, etc...). How about we all agree to share our knowledge and help one another, just as Steven and I have started. I suggest that we keep this thread going and all post our hints and suggestions to help prepare everyone just in case they ever need it.

Everyone feel free to ask any question you have about planning and preparing for a disaster, and we will try and answer your questions, and if we cannot, we'll try and point you to a source that can.

Here are my next suggestions.
Do you have fire / smoke alarms? When was the last time you checked the batteries in them? If you do not have them, why not? It takes minutes to install them, and they can found quite easily at many retailers.

 

[TuckandStuiesMom]

It's the strangest stuff that gets to you. We thought we had a good plan in place but a couple years ago, we found a significant problem -- in fact two of them. We were forced to evacuate due to a huge wildfire and we couldn't get my horses to load. Would not go into that trailer for love nor money. It was awful. Ended up getting my family out and then I snuck back and stayed with them -- so I could just let'em loose if things got bad enough. I ended up feeding them and a bunch of other livestock that had been turned loose.

 

[OrlandoMike]

I'm here to tell you, after going through three hurricanes, watching Katrina on TV and living 20 minutes away from where these twisters went through, BE PREPARED TO LIVE A WEEK ON YOUR OWN! That means food, water, shelter, and the basics to live. Don't expect the government to rush in, and even the Red Cross is having a hard time mobilizing down here. Let's face facts kids, when something like this happens its every man for himself for a few days....

(There only called twisters on the gay boards....everywhere else it was a tornado!)

 

[RickinNYC]

I couldn't agree with this more. After the events of 9/11, I was involved and worked with the Office of Emergency Management through NYVOAD (New York - Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster). We were charged with putting together a city wide plan with respect to the proper management of spontaneous convergent volunteers at disaster sites. It was pretty grueling but well worth it. We also were active in putting together a collective plan for households in what one should do to prepare in advance. Here's more info for those that might want to do so:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/oem/html/ready/prepared.shtml