Emergency Preparedness is a good thing no matter what the age!

Disaster preparedness then and now—we still need it.

I just saw a late 1940s - 1950s school education movie about what to do if an atom bomb explored in the community you lived in. It was called “Duck and Cover”. Pretty simple stuff but frankly they were training the students and families with the Civil Patrol policies as to what to do in the event of an emergency.

I don’t know of any school that is teaching students now in the US about what to do to be ‘emergency prepared’ for any form of disaster. The disaster preparedness information that was given in the movie was very simple and frankly not that accurate especially in today’s standards. HOWEVER it was important to practice the training regularly and train all age levels

Given what we have in our world and local society, it would be very beneficial to have disaster preparedness drills and informational movies like this again for both natural and human made disaster occurrences. It is unfortunate that we now live in such a society and world. You would have thought we would have learned better now in how to get along in our global backyards.

I wrote a blog posting stating that the children can help prepare their own personal low cost emergency survival kits and learn what is necessary to do in the event of an emergency or disaster situation. The parent who wrote back was so concerned about scaring children needlessly and that fright was not a good tool to use to train children.

I agree that we don’t want to needlessly frighten children but I also believe that disaster training is extremely important no matter what the age group from the youngest to the oldest adult. The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts have been training young people for 100 years and they have not frightened kids but instead have made them able to help themselves and their community in times of challenge and disaster.

So OK the 1940-50’s movies were a bit corny but got the message across. Think we need to offer as many emergency preparedness tips as possible. Every child should know where the family emergency preparedness checklist is located as well as where the emergency preparedness kits are stored. At least twice a year everyone should have a drill or practice to know what to do in the event of an emergency. It should include home, school, work and general outings. Being prepared is a small price for safety in the time of a critical incident.

COMMENTS WELCOMED!

Please share your thoughts, emergency preparedness tips and stories here on this blog.

All I ask is that everyone be respectful and sensitive of each other and that identifying information about a person who is not the author be limited to protect their privacy.

Be Safe

Terrie

www.trainforahurricane.com