All Hazard

Often times you will hear Emergency Management in your communities talk about "All Hazard Planning", what you may not hear is the words "Risk Based".  While the planning process lays out who does what in a disaster, we do want begin planning for the most likely and build our planning effort towards less likely events.

So as you and your family, friends look at what to prepare for start with this nice info-graph from Homeownersinsurance.org. 

Also take some time to chat with your insurance agent about your coverage. 

Back to the info-graph, find your state, look at the hazards for that state and start from their. 
I live in Washington State and it list forest fire, but I live in the city of Seattle so that is not a high concern for my family (but what about smoke?, What if you are on vacation on the other side of the mountain during fire season?) All good questions, that should inform your preparedness.


As a bonus here is FEMA's State and Local Guide (SLG) 101 Guide for All-Hazard Emergency Operations Planning

Happy Sunday
Disaster_Dave

You've lost that preparedness feeling (sung to the tune of "You've lost that loving feeling")

Why do we constantly talk about preparedness?  I know some people may tire of it, but its necessary.  Why? 

Well we do not have it as part of our memory and or we think it can't happen to us.  Lets look at two examples; one of a group who survived not because they had a back pack by the front door (a good idea though) but because they recognized the danger as it had been passed down and another group that didn't follow their traditions. 

In 2004 the Tsunami in the Indian ocean killed over 230,000 people in multiple places, but one island had zero deaths or casualties.  The Andaman Islands inhabited by the Mokens (Sea Gypsy's). When rescuers arrived they found them safely atop a hill!  Their culture had passed down stories that when the great water receded it would flood the land.  

And in 2009 the earthquake that hit L'Aquila that killed 309 people and pretty much destroyed every home.  This is a case where the scientist were convicted of sending a message that..."interfered with the local “earthquake culture”, a set of entrenched habits and reactions such as, for example, that of spending the night outdoors after the occurrence of medium shocks."

So what does your culture or habits in our modern wired always on society tell you to survive and thrive after a disaster? I'm not sure, but surveys seem to say we aren't prepared for the hazards we face.  A 2009 survey showed 57% reported making some plans, but only 44% had a household plan where to go and and what to do (think like a Moken).

So we keep repeating the message and asking you to prepare for the worst while hoping for the best.

And now you probably want to hear the song here

Disaster Dave

Its times like this that things look different

For those of us in the Seattle area it has been a long two weeks, with the slide in Oso Washington touching all of us in some way.  But once we step back from the response and take a day off and look at our beautiful area, I tend to take the beauty at face value, but under the beautiful hillside is...    Don't get me wrong your local public servants in emergency management take this personally, we spend our time trying to educate you and our elected officials to the dangers in our beautiful state.
The things that make our state and region beautiful are some of the same things that can in the least make life hard or even kill you.  A fellow emergency manager, Eric Holdeman wrote a great piece this week on why you won't listen entitled Living with Risk: but don't you love the views . You should read it and decide which one you are.
I know there hasn't been a major earthquake here in your life time, but your life time is not the measuring stick of when a quake will strike, but it could end your life.  Sorry I digress.

Lets just assume you fall into one of the categories in Eric's article and be done with it.  So if you  are determined to live on the side of a hill, or a few feet from the ocean, or in a high rise, at least do a few things to up the odds in case you are wrong.

Look for things you can do to minimize danger.
You live on or under a hillside:

• Pay attention to the weather - more rain = more chance of a slide
• Get involved in the community make sure the politicians are aware that you are aware
• Seek a professional on putting plants that will hold the ground and drink water
• do some internet research on your home area

You live on the ocean/sound:

• Have an emergency radio turned on and turned up loud
• Learn about Tsunamis and what your danger level is
• Pay attention to King Tides tables

 You live on a river:

• Have an emergency radio turned on and turned up loud
• Learn about the threat to your home
• Search for your county name flood warning and save that site

Because it can happen here
prayers for those lost in Oso and their families
disaster_dave 

It's an hour after a disaster; do you know where your children are?

In November 2013 FEMA in partnership with Department of Health & Human Service and the Red Cross and several other organizations released Post Disaster Reunification of Children: A Nationwide Approach.

This document listed lots of roles (responsibility's) for  local, State, Federal governments and Non Profit partners in caring for and reuniting children with their families after a disaster.  They did not assign any "roles" to the parents.  The intent of the document is to make sure everything is done to accomplish that, but it starts with you the parent. You don't have to read it, but if you wish you can find it at the hyperlink above. 
Having had unaccompanied minors show up at a shelter is not a good feeling, it is a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach.  So what can you do so the government doesn't have to do anything or at least make their job easier.

1. Have a family disaster plan. I have written about this before and it is where everything starts. As the report points out, not only have a plan but "child reunification cards" a simple card with contact info (including an out of area contact) and places to meet.
2. Talk to your child care facility and/or schools. What are their plans? Ask to see them? Make sure ALL of your contact info is on file with the school/child care facility. 

3. Know your children's friends family's (an extension of know your neighbors). 

4. What is your local emergency managements plan for reunification? Remember the "roles" I talked about? Ask some questions.
 
5. Do you have a medical care waiver signed at your son's school or child care facility?
Read up on HIPAA and FERPA so you are informed, both of these are designed to protect privacy but are often misquoted and/or misunderstood.  

6. Always heed warnings from local emergency managers or  the weatherman. Make sure everyone leaves home prepared as possible for the day.  This may not seem like part of the plan, but it is!
 
7. And of course please do talk to your children (and spouse, parents, etc) about disasters and the planning you have taken to make sure everyone is safe.
This is one New Years item to take care of soonest.

DisasterDave

What does the Vulnerable Population look like?

“It is important to understand that to be young or old, a woman or a person with a disability or HIV does not, of itself, make a person vulnerable or at increased risk. Rather, it is the interplay of factors that does so...” (The Sphere Project- Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response)

I find I am often in conversations about how to serve people after a disaster and I hear planners talk about vulnerable populations; I wonder through what lens they are quantifying that population?

In most cases it is often new immigrants, people with obvious disabilities and the poor. While those are the usual suspects as the movie line goes, I believe it is important realize being from one of those categories is not what makes you vulnerable, it is the addition (or subtraction) of something.

Our daily lives are fairly comfortable by most means in the first world, but when something happens like Sandy, it quickly can become a 3rd world working area.  With the subtraction of electricity, and easy access to the grocer, doctor and other support systems we depend on, someone who isn't in our plan as a vulnerable Population can quickly become vulnerable. 

As you look at your community whether you are a Emergency Manager, a CERT leader, an MRC member or ant neighborhood program, look deeper than the pre identified "Vulnerable Pop" look at the family with a single parent, look at the older couple down the street who walk their dog, and seem to get along pretty well for their age, look at the new comer who just moved here and doesn't have connections to the community yet. 

Look at the UN definition above and as you view your population through that lens ask yourself " If that person (family) lost one of the following - power for a week, or access to the grocery store, drug store, or clean water or anything we take for granted would they become vulnerable?"  If the answer is yes, you have some more planning and teaching to do.


disaster_dave

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

If you can't work...

I recently read an article about business recovery , unlike other doom and gloom articles it was actually uplifting.  They did the right things and their business survived. So what about you!
I have spent the last few months working with you on preparing your home and family for disaster, which is all well and good.  What about your workplace?  Whether you are the owner, manager or employee you have some responsibility.  If you are the owner or manager you are responsible to make sure there is a plan and it is exercised. Yes you did a fire drill to make the local fire folks (and your insurer) happy but what else have you done to protect your business.

• How will you make sure your employees are safe (you better care, you can't open without them)?
• Do they know how to get in touch with you (besides your office phone)? 
• Do they know how to contact each other for support (offer or ask for)?
• Where are your customer records stored (box in back or in the cloud)?
• Do you have an alternate place to work?
• Do you have adequate insurance for the hazards where you work (the hazards could differ from where you live)?

Even if you aren't the owner/manager you have a responsibility to ask questions, understand your place in the plan.   If you are reading this (and probably other things like this) you might be the person with the most knowledge and in a position to help.

Do one thing today
disaster_dave

Call if you care II

On January 15th I posted a blog with the title above minus the II. On January 16th we began our slide into the worst weather to hit the Seattle area in while. I'm not prophetic, its just dumb luck on part to be so topical.  So now that we have come out the other side with over 200,000 customers having lost power I think I want to amend my blog. 

While the author of the book is studying disasters of great magnitude, even our little snow/ice/wind storm this last week caused a good bit of suffering.  So not only should you call if you care to save someones life, you can also call to provide warmth and comfort to friends, family and neighbors who may be without power.

Caring should not only extend to life saving but also just to plain helping others. So when the next ____ happens even if its not a killer event, be thoughtful and call if you care.

Disaster_ Dave

Are we in store for more weather disasters?

 With so much being written and said about the disaster in the other Washington, its easy to forget about other types of disasters that may affect us (Plus I didn't want to add to the flurry).
In a recent article published by Reuters http://tinyurl.com/weatherbucks, the whole spring weather flurry of disasters was brought into focus. Not only have we had tornadoes, wildfires, droughts and floods this spring but the impact of each of those disasters spawns another disaster.
Tornadoes besides the obvious terrible death toll and the economic impact, there is also an environmental impact of  the debris removal and disposal.
Wildfires create a earth prepared for flooding since there is nothing there to slow the water as it runs down the hillsides in the rain to follow.
Droughts decrease our food crops grown in those areas as well as drying up the aquifer that provides water to those crops, animals and humans.
And as noted in the article the floods (which are still going on today)while not only causing local  flood damage and economic lose will cause the dead zone off the coast to grow as pollutants and fertilizers run down the rivers to Gulf.

How does this relate to preparedness?


Even if you are not directly affected by one of these disasters this spring, you will be. Higher cost of food as the cost rise to produce the food both in the drought areas and seafood will have to be caught farther out in the gulf.
Think about your choices in the store, look for vegetables and meat prices to rise? Stock up with sales when they show up, especially canned foods (they will last longer) 
What would really be a good idea is to have a garden and learn to can and freeze foods.  Even if you live in a apartment/condo (like me) there are pea patches, community gardens to grow your own.
If we become a little more self sufficient every day we become more prepared.


disasterdave

Who will help you 2

Neighbors to help

A story of neighbors helping neighbors from NPR. A great point made about why its important for us to help each other is "The problem isn't that experts are dumb. It's that communities are not the sum of their roads, schools and malls. They are the sum of their relationships." 

So who knows your community?  You?  Or someone from the opposite coast?  As someone who has responded to disasters in other peoples communities, it is the communities that plan together and respond together who recover the quickest.
What are you doing in your neighborhood? Community to prepare?

Disaster Dave

Neighbors as Responders

Happy 4th of July,
 This is a feel good article that reinforces what I said in the beginning, there aren't enough First Responders (Police & Fire).
 http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20110619/NEWS01/106190314

The first person to help you (besides family) is going to be a neighbor!  So take a step and meet your neighbors.
How,we are all so busy.

In Seattle (and around the country) August 2nd is National Night Out.  Designed to get you out to meet your neighbors (and the police).
Invite a few neighbors over for drinks and a snack (they might return the favor).
Don't be so self involved in the elevators or at the grocery store (me too, our crackberrys will wait a few minutes) say hi, connect.
In Emergency Management we have a saying "all disasters begin and end locally". For you, locally is your front yard, your neighborhood.

disasterdave