WHY DO WE WAIT?

Why do we wait? The question all of us in Emergency management think about. Your turn; what can we do to get you to prepare Before disaster strikes?  Tell me what you want to know? What guidance do you need?

st-bernard-disaster-ready-model-after-06-earthquake

This will be a backwards Blog, your turn, email me at dave@disasterdave.com

Disaster_dave

Do you have an evacuation plan? Written Down

About two years ago I wrote an emergency plan for the residents of the building we live in; I wanted to make sure they had something to start from since in a big disaster I will be busy.  After reading this article, I think I need to see if anyone has moved forward.
 Evacuation Plan

Have you written a simple evacuation plan for your family?  Of course you will be there to lead the evacuation you have in your mind, but what if you aren't home?Things to think about?

• When to evacuate? And When not to?
• Where should you go? What if its raining? Or snowing?
• What to take? Do you have a go bag by the door?
• Contact list? - Someone to take you in? Hotel? Insurance agent? Other Family?

Don't get bogged down, look out your front & backdoor. Pick a place to meet that is close, but out of danger from the hazard (Fire, flood)
Try not to cross busy roads.
Don't make it immediately in front, you'll be in the Fire Departments way.

Do this today. One page should do it.
PS: if you are in a condo or duplex or Apartment, share with neighbors

 Disaster_Dave

Solar Storm

Imagine something so powerful it can knock out communications and the power grid… and you can’t see it!   I know that is why I have been holding off writing this blog post, it sounds like science fiction.  But in fact it has happened.  In 1989 a Quebec power grid went down causing millions of dollars damage.  A Solar Storm on the sun caused this financial disaster.

On the plus side these solar storms (Sunspots) cause beautiful auroras in the Northern skies.

Even FEMA is thinking about what to do about this hazard.  Why is this important?  A large event could damage our electrical infrastructure badly; and we aren’t talking about replacing fuses.  These are large electrical parts that are not kept around for replacement because they are so costly. 

So what do we as folks on the ground do? Unfortunately I am not sure there is much we can do; the world we live in runs on solid-state electronics; our cars, I-phones, Radio, pretty much everything.  While its true you could protect your I-phone from EMP by taking steps you can find on the Internet.  But if no one else does and the Power grid is down…

You can read and become informed, start with the links in this article.

You can make sure your elected officials know this is important.

Sometimes being aware is the best thing you can do.

disaster-dave

Disasters are never easy

By now you must have figured out that I am not a prepper who focuses on “TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt” (EOTWAWKI), there are plenty of people blogging about that out there.  I try to think practically about the everyday disaster.

 

A very important event happened recently that calls into question how our country can handle a disaster of infrastructure.  The East coast suffered a debilitating storm that brought high winds that uprooted trees, smashed houses and damaged our electrical infrastructure.  In our nations capitol region 90% of the folks who lost power won’t get it back for 7 days says Pepco (the local electric Company). But even worse, Verizon who handles 911 calls was down with no fall back, and no real explanation.  

So now you are thinking, but we pay lots of money in taxes, how could our nations capitol area be so impacted? What if this was really bad; like a terror attack or a bigger quake than they had last year, or a hurricane? 

So, what should you do to not be affected by this type event?

You can plan! Do you have a generator? Do you know how to use it safely?  Do you have a plan for refueling it? (no electricity generally means no gas stations) Do you have water? Do you have an evacuation plan to leave the area ?   

Yes leave!  If you don’t have power for a week, that means no fans, air-conditioning (or heat), you probably can’t cook , your refrigerator will not keep food cold, and a whole host of other problems. Now is a good time to take a vacation, visit the family.  
If you can't leave, look for cooling/warming (seasonal) on the Red Cross website, or local emergency management website. 

But no matter what, seriously, have a plan.  Disasters are hard, but they much less difficult if you have a plan.

disaster_dave

Situational Awareness --- theres an app for that

I have talked about planning, connecting with family and friends and one of the things I haven’t talked about at length is situational awareness.  As our friends at Wikipedia define it “Situation awareness involves being aware of what is happening in the vicinity to understand how information, events, and one's own actions will impact goals and objectives, both immediately and in the near future.”  So it’s being aware.  How?

 It IS more than the 5 o’clock news; below I am going to list some websites and apps that you can use to become more “aware”.  Most are websites and apps (I am addicted to my I pad for awareness, and most of these apps are free) but you can just use the supplied web link to save in a folder in your favorites on your computer, you could name it…Situational awareness!

Site/explanation	Link
Weather Underground- one of the first web based weather sites. Lots of good info here	http://www.wunderground.com/
PDC World Disaster Alerts – List and shows physical disasters worldwide (one of my favorites)	http://pdc.org/iweb/disasteralert.jsp?subg=1
Wind Alert – important if you are someplace cold, or forest fires, or wind surfing	http://m.windalert.com/
Shelter View – Red Cross open shelter list. In case you need one, or a loved one calls from out of town, you can direct them in a disaster	http://app.redcross.org/nss-app/
FEMA – disasters & maps- where are declared areas, links to hurricane maps, flooding, etc	http://www.fema.gov/hazard/index.shtm
Tsunami Evac –shows inundation areas- certainly for per-planning before that beach vacation	Apple Store
The weather Channel – need I say more	http://www.weather.com/
BBC (British Broadcasting Company) its often good for an outside view of our news reporting	http://www.bbc.com/
Twitter- it’s not for teens anymore- Most local Emergency Managers are on twitter for emergency information at the very least. You can learn a lot by searching and picking and listening	https://twitter.com/

So there you have it, a beginners list for building situational awareness. Often times things that affect us begin far away, so it’s best to pay attention beyond the five o’clock news show. And remember by time it makes the 5 o’clock news its already old news.

disaster_dave

Text First

The link below is evidence that the text is king (or queen)! After a disaster do not tie the phone lines up, but use short texts to your family members to ask "R U OKAY?", "Meet @ Jason's".
By learning to text and making sure everyone knows how, you will decrease everyone's stress point in the aftermath of a disaster by being able to communicate quickly and efficiently.


Last point for those of us over 50, honestly if you have never text-ed on your phone ask your kid; allow them to become involved in the family preparedness and be the teacher for once.  In this instance they probably are smarter than you.

http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/onpolitix/alabama_onpolitix/severe-weather-preparedness-plan-highlighted


disaster_dave

Be Ready for any disaster

 So it is that time again, time to talk to you about your disaster kit.  Why? Because its hurricane season, its tornado season and its always earthquake season where I live.  We just finished a two day exercise called Evergreen Earthquake 2012.  Lots of death, injuries and some very surprised people in the Emergency Operation Centers.  Why?  Because they realized that they couldn't get the assets to open a shelter in 1,2,3 days.  That is normal for a major event.  So imagine your house, condo apartment fell down during a Hurricane, Tornado or Earthquake.  Now what?
 I do not want to tell you what you already know, make a plan, figure out what you need and start slowly to put it together.  A nice list in the below article.
http://www.kentucky.com/2011/07/03/1798427/be-ready-for-any-disaster.html

Thanks for preparing, so we in Emergency management don't have to worry about you for a few days in an event.

Disaster_Dave