Don’t count on FEMA (AGAIN)

Be hurricane recovery prepared!

The article below is just another reason why each person should take their safety and well being into their won hands and become hurricane prepared including emergency evacuation plans, initial, intermediate and even a plan for long-term recovery. It is not enough to plan for a hurricane, it is so important to plan on how you will recover from a hurricane as well. Being safe through a hurricane is great and is so necessary. The issue that also arises when a hurricane strikes is that most folks are not hurricane recovery prepared.

Do you have everything that is necessary to jump start the process you will have to go through to get your life back on track once a hurricane has hit your area or that of a loved one? If you have a copy of letters of reference for everything form work to housing etc, then you will be miles ahead in the process. In a disaster situation, those letters don’t have to have last week’s date at the top, but it will be mighty impressive to a hiring official or rental office to see that you were able to think well enough ahead to have some letters of recommendation available immediately. Most disaster victims will be using scrapes of paper to scribble down local information.

Instead of being a disaster victim -- be a disaster recovery master!

If you have clearly printed information available – who do you think will be the one they will most likely call first? If you answered the one that is well organized and the materials are legible and professional in presentation, that you are right on the money. The chances of getting a job faster is greater wit those few simple well thought out preparations.

It is vital that you develop not only a disaster plan but also a disaster recovery plan that will have already made up business cards with an out-of-state / region emergency contact number as well as a cell phone number. By having both phone numbers available you will have a better chance of being reached to let you know that a company is interested in your employment services or rental potential. Keep the business cards in a plastic zippered shut bag and the letters of recommendation in a sealed zippered bag and you will have it made.

Also have a good supply of generalized resumes ready to hand out in order to get a jump on all the job applications that will be necessary should your company that you work for or won is destroyed or will have a major delay in re-opening. These are just a few suggestions in the hundred of things that you need to know about to get your self back on the path to a disaster recovered life.

For more information on how to be disaster recovery ready, check out my newest book Train For A Hurricane (www.trainfora hurricane.com). There is a whole section dedicated to helping the reader prepare for hurricane recovery and even a hurricane recovery plan workbook to help you quickly have vital information to get you to the head of the line for employment, and housing to name just a few.

Please don’t think of waiting for FEMA or well intentioned aid-agencies to help you out. By the time that help arrives if it really does arrive in full measure, valuable and life restoring hours, days and possibly even weeks will have passed by. Remember there is a golden week and a silver month in the establishment of the disaster recovery process. Make sure you use your golden week and silver month of disaster recovery to the maximum. YOUR future depends on it!

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

FEMA Hurricane Trailers May Be In Short Supply

http://cbs4.com/hurricanes/FEMA.Trailers.Toxic.2.655777.html

Reporting
Stephen Stock

PORT ST. LUCIE (CBS4) ― The CBS4 I-Team has learned of new, potentially wide-ranging problems with FEMA trailers and the formaldehyde fumes in them. We've reported how they've been banned by FEMA already, but I-Team has learned that could create a major housing shortage should a storm hit here this summer.

Even as old used campers continue to roll into FEMA's staging grounds near Fort Pierce, there is now concern in Washington and here in Florida that there won't be enough housing for storm victims should a major hurricane strike this summer.

"When the next storm hits, are we going to have the necessary temporary housing if a storm were to hit Florida?" asks US Rep. Tim Mahoney (D) of Florida.

In fact, Mahoney and Alcee Hastings wrote a letter to FEMA Director David Paulison last August expressing that concern, and asking for details on a plan to handle a housing shortage in the event of a storm. Six months later, neither Congressman has officially heard back.

"We're still waiting to her back from FEMA," said Mahoney.

After our interview, Mahoney says he contacted Paulison, who assured him that there were 7,400 mobile homes on standby in Arkansas and Alabama. We confirmed that, but those are mobile homes, not campers, and because of flood plain rules here in Florida, mobile homes can't be used in the same way for storm victims as the campers were used.

"We have been asking for months for this, and they still haven't produced a plan," said U.S. Senator Bill Nelson.

The bottom line according to Florida Senator Bill Nelson--FEMA is not ready and does not have a plan.

"We could be in a world of hurt because FEMA is supposed to have an alternative plan for housing and they don't have one," said Nelson.

In fact back during the hurricane season of 2004 here in Florida FEMA gave out 14 thousand of these trailers to storm victims.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)