New Ideas in preparedness from New York

 Recently in a New York online magazine I came across this article:
 http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2013/01/practical-suggestions-disaster-preparedness-new-yorkers/4436/

The article is about a small survey of people to see what they thought should be done, some of the ideas are the things we talk about in Emergency Management, but the interesting suggestions to me were the ones YOU can do.

• Secure out/indoor pulley systems to deliver food, water and medicine to residents living in the top floors of tall buildings in lower Manhattan.
• Offer emergency training in Russian in Coney Island.
• Install rainwater harvest systems in Red Hook.
• Establish bike "brigades" that can deliver supplies to areas where roads have been washed out during and after an emergency. (Portland, Oregon, is already researching how best to incorporate cargo bikes into its disaster preparedness plans.)
• Distribute solar-powered water heaters after an emergency.
• Educate youth about extreme weather events and vulnerability.
• Create "buddy" programs to account for everyone in an apartment building during and after an emergency.

Having a block & Tackle to move things to higher floors is a very good idea for moving water since water weighs in at 8 pounds per gallon.
And of course building unity within your building or neighborhood is a must, so we can check on each other and make sure everyone is okay.

Lets continue to take responsibility and prepare where we can.

Thanks
DisasterDave

This one is for practitioners

Its 2013, and we (the royal we) have been preaching, "get prepared" for a decade or longer. 3 Days- 3 Ways or RESOLVE TO BE READY IN 2013 and other preparedness messages.

I don't know if its me or not but they aren't getting it. We have called upon the ghost of Katrina, Joplin and other disasters to no avail.  So maybe its time to try something different!

Many of you are enlightened and know that the research is showing that scary pictures don't work. Lets try reason and explanations.  Lets try explaining what is/could happen when a disaster strikes.

Lets start with simple things-

·      Electricity, we throw a switch it comes on, if not we get a flashlight, everyone has a flashlight. Hey step one completed in the electricity column. 

·      What else doesn't work without electricity- gas pumps (imagine long lines, what a waste of time) always keep your car above 3/4 (or a half) - Check-mark

·      Food will spoil, don't buy a survival kit (unless you want one) every time you shop buy one extra can of Stew & crackers. Check-mark

Lets really think about how we can help people become more prepared without building a kit and work up to plans with some easy common methods.  How about a text per week that are preloaded on your reverse dial system with a tip every week.

Or an email.  We have to keep trying but as Albert Einstein said " doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity”.

I don't have all the answers and we are running out of Federal Money for research, so lets (the royal we again) try some new things, if you see results, write about it and get it out to the field; lets up our preparedness quota too.