From Hurricane Preparedness to Firestorms, People woefully unprepared.

When will we learn our emergency preparedness lessons?

I sat eyes fixed on the TV as I watched the flames destroy the homes of so many. I read of 265,000 people forced to flee their homes in mandatory evacuations. Instead of sea of water and pelting rain, we are seeing blistering winds and ember ash pelting down on unsuspecting homes miles away from ground zero and even more homes catch file.

In a way a firestorm acts just the opposite of a hurricane. In a hurricane the winds come off the ocean and head for the hills. It is a wet situation that drowns everyone and everything insight. The opposite is true for the firestorms. They come from the hills and blow towards the sea. They are dry and burn everything and any person in it way.

Two very different sort of disasters but still the same sort of disaster reality due to lack of preparation.

Consider these points:

1. Some homes are missed while others are destroyed by nature’s furry.
2. Families must rush to get to safety.
3. Another stadium is now open for thousands of people to shelter and ride out the storm.
4. The roads are clogged with people trying to escape.
5. The storm is violent and unpredictable.
6. People going to bed thinking they were safe only to be awakened in the middle of the night / early morning told to run for your life.
7. Cell phone lines are jammed and communication difficult
8. ATM money machines are empty
9. Even 6 to10+ hours away from the fires there is not a motel or hotel vacancy.
10. People scramble to take their pets with them and have no supplies for them when they leave.
11. Many are without their medications and are in distress
12. Emergency response is not adequate the vast extend of the fire
13. Few have emergency preparedness plans
14. Electricity is out for hundreds of miles.
15. People have ignored emergency preparedness tips
16. Few people have disaster preparedness information
17. Less than 4% have even low cost emergency survival kits that they could have made at home for each member of their family and pets.
18. Many will be stranded in their cars with no car emergency preparedness kit to rely on.
19. Many people running out of fuel for their cars and are stuck on the highway causing severe traffic jams and congestion
20. Many thought that that a disaster would never happen to them. WRONG!

I am amazed at how many people did not learn the lessons as a result of Hurricane Katrina. I would have hoped that more people would have been better prepared. What will it take to get people to open their eyes and see that there are a number of dangers that need to be prepared for. OK so you live in Alaska and you don’t get firestorms and hurricanes. You still are venerable to your own particular local disasters.

Everyone needs to be prepared if not for a hurricane or a firestorm then for a possibility of a disruption of general life due to an accident like a propane gas truck exploding or a terrorist attack. I realize that we don’t want to even consider for a moment that this could happen to any of us. We what to think everything is safe ands sound in our personal world. I hope and pray that your world will always be safe and secure. For most people it is not going to be that way.

Imagine how many who are now stuck in a smoky, over crowed athletic stadium could be having a more comfortable and secured even I the same location situation if they had put in even a couple of hours of emergency preparedness and collected the emergency preparedness necessities to get them through the current difficulties.

If you are reading this blog you, then I am most likely preaching to the choir. The only way to help prepare society for disasters is to start to teach disaster preparedness to children in school. If we do not do that then we will never have emergency preparedness in our communities and homes.

I have been asked repeatedly if telling children abut potential disasters or having them prepared will frighten them. The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts have been teaching emergency preparedness for one hundred years this very year. Millions of children have learned to be disaster prepared. It has served them well throughout life. Disaster preparedness information help to reduce fear and instill skills and knowledge that can help them before, during and after a disaster has occurred. ALL our children deserve to have those kinds of skills and knowledge.

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