Cookies never suck

The title stems from a conversation I had a couple of years ago with like-minded Emergency Managers from around the world enrolled in the Emergency Management Academy. An endeavor that had me read a large volume of emergency management books over the course of a year, along with being involved in great conversations weekly with my fellow Fellows.

The gist of the conversation was appreciation of the people running the disaster response and recovery.  Not the first responders (who you should thank) but the Emergency Management Team behind the scenes coordinating the response, who almost never get thanked in a public way.  So as you go into your next disaster; regardless of whether it is a tornado, hurricane, quake or mass shooting remember there is a man or woman behind the curtain.  They do everything from coordinating the response, to helping move things along in the recovery phase.  And if they did everything right your disaster experience was probably better than it would have been without their daily planning.

So search out the location of your local Emergency management office, bake some cookies and deliver them to the EOC with your thanks.  You will make some tired emergency managers day, because cookies never suck.

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

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.

How to talk to your kids about disaster

I came across this post and thought I would guest post it for your reading.  Preparing and not explaining to your kids what could happen could cause more problems, consequently explaining above their comprehension level could cause a problem.  

blog/how-to-talk-to-kids-about-natural-disasters/

disaster_dave

Make a Plan Redux

What did you do this weekend while watching the folks in NJ? My wife turned to me and said "Its been awhile since we looked at our plan and stuff, I would feel better if we took some time this weekend and refreshed."  And she was right. So what did we do:

1. Pulled out our food go bag and dusted it off (it was pretty dusty too) checked the dates on the food, went through the bag to refresh in our minds what was in it. Got her go-kit from the car and checked it.  
2. Then we went in the kitchen and took food out of the cabinet and looked at the food in the freezer and figured out how many days of food we have. My wife pointed out a few things she wishes we had in the cabinet.  I told her then we need to make that a permanent food stuff we buy.  I don't want to store food, it goes bad, better to work it through your meal planning.  We talked about keeping the freezer closed, but cooking the meat first and saving the cans for later.  Luckily we have a gas stove, while its not a for sure that there will be gas, depending on the disaster but its better than electricity.  (Note: just as an added note we talked about not heating the air with the burners- my wife is not an emergency manager)
3. Then we talked about our evacuation plan, our out of state contacts, how to get to the airport without the freeways in play. Our in Seattle locations to meet and/or leave messages.
4. Looked at our red packages where we keep cash and important documents we can pull and run with.
5. The last thing we did was check our document on the web.  We both have important documents (DD214, Insurance forms, Copies of passports, mortgage numbers, etc) scanned and placed in a couple of secure online locations.  One is Drop box, the other is a email account with a tough password (not my pet or place I was born) 

So now its your turn, lets learn from what we are watching in NJ and make sure we are ready.  Lead by Example.  Then forward to your non - emergency manegement friends and family.

Disasterdave

Falling into Fall

Well if you live in the Northwest like I do, we have fallen into fall, Monday was sunny and 70, by Weds it was grey and raining.  Don't get me wrong, I like the rain in the Northwest; but falling into fall is followed by slipping through winter.  So lets take a couple of minutes this Sunday to prepare.

Car- Make sure you have a blanket in the trunk, along with a change of warm clothes (Think walking in the snow or pouring rain wearing a dress or suit pants- brrr) Shoes you can walk in the snow or ice in; if you are a bus rider, put those items at work.  A couple bottles of water and maybe a snack.  Something we have in our car is a charger for our phones, Ipad and computer.  Not only if stranded but also if power goes out.

House/Condo/Apt - Deck furniture put away if it might blow into a window or the street. Plants, winterized.
Check your downspout for blockage, then follow the run off pattern to the street and make sure your local drain is uncovered.  If it has a lot of stuff in it, call the city and tell them it might be stopped up.

Indoors- Prepare for power outages. What is your plan for extended power outages if they happen. Do you have a fire place? Generators? (you know to not run them indoors or near air intakes - right)
Friends who might have power?  A list of hotels that take pets nearby?

So even though its not too bad out now, think about the last snow storm (Jan last year for the Northwest) and prepare while it is nice out.

Happy Fall
DisasterDave