What are the 5-Fs in Hurricane Preparedness?

And the 5-F's of hurricane preparedness are....

In the afterschool.com forum I wrote that there were 4 Fs in disaster / hurricane preparedness when it comes to evacuation meeting locations. I was wrong. The 5^th and most important is Fluids. You’ll have to read the post to see what the other 4 are! (grin)

I became aware of my family emergency preparedness plans when the Kennedy –Castro Cuban Missile Conflict occurred. My mom worked for the Navy Department at the Pentagon and I can remember my mom and grandma getting supplies for an emergency. I was very young, but I remember asking if they had bought peanut butter (my favorite food).

When we were cleaning out mom’s house after her death we found a box with a think sealed bag of water that they had kept as well as a tin of matches, bandages and iodine pills as her leftover reminder to always be disaster prepared!.

After that situation, my family always had an emergency preparedness necessities / supplies on hand. Reflecting back I guess that incident had a significant influence on me to the point that I am now a Critical Incident Thanatologist.

I am impressed with your emergency preparedness supplies list. I would encourage every household to have their own emergency preparedness kit as well as disaster kits for the pets as well.

This can be an excellent learning exercise for children. It is a lesson that might help to save their life or make it better one day in a disaster. This exercise should not be scary for kids. In fact it can be a reassuring and fun treasure hunt sort of experience.

They can help develop their own emergency preparedness checklist, and disaster kits from supplies often already found at the house as well as items from the discount / dollar stores. Also each child should know who and how to contact the disaster contact person is for the family. Also each family should have selected at least 2 different locations beyond the home where they will meet if a disaster requires evacuation. Every child should know where those locations are. I generally suggest a large convenient store with gas station, truck stop or other public place that has the 4-Fs (fuel, food, fone (phone) + one more F – fluids. In an emergency, water and other fluids is vital to your health and well being. , flush (toilet). This can be a major resource when there are little supplies.

The reason for two different sites is so that if one direction is closed then there is a possibility of a different available site. They should NOT be in the same direction.

Additionally, there should be a disaster contact person in a different REGION of the country that has agreed to be a contact / resource person for the family. Often the local telephone lines are jammed or down. Many times there is easier access to a long distance phone than a local one. This person can collect information and can be the family information sharing resource center for immediate and extended family and loved ones.

Third for children but frankly for everyone, print up and laminate small name, email address and telephone numbers of the child, parent / guardian, contact person as well as the location of the emergency gathering sites. Place them under the sole of the shoes of your children and hopefully yourself (be a living teaching model) as well. In a crisis the ability to recollect telephone numbers can quickly vanish for children and adults. Children in a traumatic situation often can not recall the most basic information. Many emergency shelters will as standard policy ask to look inside a child’s shoes to see if there is an identification card. Hurricane Karina taught us much about that issue unfortunately. The information is out of sight but is available when necessary. Place in every pair of shoes; you never know what pair of shoes you and your children may be wearing when a disaster occurs.

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