What if your disaster gets out classed (or people forget)

What happens if you are in the process of recovering from your disaster and a larger (more sexy) disaster occurs?

I was in the Philippines recently deployed as a volunteer response team member  for ShelterBox.  I was assigned a mission to do follow up from the Bohol 7.1 earthquake, which got upstaged by Typhoon Yolanda. The Philippines largest Earthquake in 23 years upstaged by the strongest Typhoon ever.
Many of the people of Bohol that I talked with felt that after only three weeks the aid agencies left for the bigger (sexier) disaster. 

In defense of the aid agencies the death toll was 200 vs 6000+ dead and they didn't leave, they moved appropriate (in most cases) assets to the bigger event.

So how do you keep the focus on your disaster? Maybe you can't; but you can prepare to do what you can.

Have a plan before it happens, have the players ready to begin recovery as soon as something happens.
Have the political players in the loop early to keep the focus on your event.
Have your Public Affairs folks working to keep getting the message out, covering the local response angle.

Try this test. Write down places and events that are disasters right now.  Then go to one of the international aid groups and see where they are? What are they doing? Did you realize that happened? Was on going? People were suffering?

Now imagine that is your disaster and most people have forgotten about it?

DisasterDave

Life goes on around you

Destroyed home in Loon, Bohol

I returned from the Philippines last Saturday and have been thinking about what to share,
and there are a couple of things of interest for this blog. 

My past disaster experiences have been in the immediate aftermath of the event.  But for this deployment we are two months on from the event and in a different case 3 months on. 

When I arrived in Cebu it was apparent that this was not a disaster area.  I left and went to Bohol Island with my partner to do follow up on the 7.1 Earthquake in October(3 months on).  We checked into our hotel in the main city, no cracks, no damage to see.  

But 1.5 hours up the road it was a different story. Buildings down, bridges down, large landslides, it was a mess.  As we worked through the disaster area verifying there were still people in need, I kept seeing people along the main road digging a trench by hand.  Finally I asked someone what part of the recovery that was; oddly enough it was a project to bring high speed Internet to Loon (city we worked in) that had started before the quake.  

This popped up again when I was working in the port to clear our containers through customs and the port.  They were back to business as usual; we were still in disaster mode.  All around us life was getting back to normal.

So what happens when you are still working on your disaster and life 10-40 miles away is normal? Some things to think about:

• Don’t let them forget you are still working on recovery, don’t rub their face in it, but do let them know things aren’t back to normal

• Do ask for help; I did at the port I told the people helping me I was bring in aid for their countrymen, it did move things along (I still had to pay, but it moved along).

• Report out on what has been done and what is left to do. (If you are following ShelterBox you will see we do that on a regular basis.  We plan to be working in the Philippines until April on this disaster, we need to remind people it happened and 6,000 + people lost heir lives and millions lost homes and businesses).

That’s all for now

It’s not over till you say it is

Disasterdave

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

Know Thy Neighbor

It has been awhile since I posted in this blog, I thought maybe I had talked it out; but after the Philippines double disaster (Earthquake followed by a super Typhoon) I started to think more about total disaster.  What would I really do if things were completely destroyed to the point that we could not get a functioning city back in weeks.  

A lot of the stories coming out of the Philippines are about neighbor helping neighbor, it made me think would that happen here?  And then I saw this article and thought "maybe not"  "Seattle is one of the loneliest cities".  

If we won't even talk to each other in the market/bar/public transit, how will you fare in a disaster, having to introduce yourself to your neighbor you have lived next to for years to ask for help.  Do you know if your neighbor(s) have health concerns? In firmed? Have latch key kids? 
Do your neighbors know about you?  
A book that explores that questions is Heat Wave by Eric Klinenberg where he delves into the high rate of deaths in a massive heatwave in Chicago in 1995 that killed over 700 people. Many died alone because they didn't have family or know anyone who would check on them.  A sad story of people alone.  So again I ask do you know your neighbors? Would someone check on you in a heatwave or power outage?

And just one more story Being sociable could save your life in a disaster

Make it a point this holiday season to meet your neighbors (its a great excuse) they may look at you like you want something, but give it a shot, say hi, lend a hand. Don't do nothing, what if your neighbor is a doctor or better yet  prepper.

Happy Holiday

Thanks for reading

Disaster Dave

You can't prepare for everything?

 

That's the bad news; the good news is you don't have to.  I recently visited an area that suffered a strike by a tornado to do a damage assessment for ShelterBox and thought to myself how do I equate what happened here to my home (Seattle)?

In the strictest sense I can't; we don't have tornadoes, so thats one thing I don't need to prepare for. I don't need a safe room in my home or a tornado shelter. But what do I need? Are there things from a tornado area that could apply to me and my family? And what doesn't?

Well first having a plan. Ask yourself the "what ifs"? Where to start? Start small, don't go for the end of the world scenario, you'll freeze.
So for me in Seattle an easy start is a wind storm that knocks out power; something we are susceptible too.  So if the power goes out in the winter how long can we stay in our place?

Well for us a good bit, we have a gas fire place and gas stove.  So will my gas fire place light without electricity?  Yup, I turned off the power to my place and tried to turn it on and TADA, it worked. Same with the stove and oven.  So that's two check marks Heat & Cooking.  But what don't I have?  Well my hot water is electric, so that's a problem. 
Solutions = Shower at work? The YMCA?
What about the food in my refrigerator?  Yes that will be a problem if the power is out more than a few hours.  Well our wind storms are in the winter, so I can go outside with a cooler for a while, but eventually that will fail.

So today while its sunny, pick one disaster and talk it through with your family.
Make a Plan.

The picture is one I took in Oklahoma of the remains of someones home.

 Disaster_Dave

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