Emotional Hurricane Preparedness Kits

After a Hurricane It’s Hard To Go Home

The long drawn out experience of Hurricane Katrina is a definite example of the truth that it is hard often impossible after a major disaster for families to ever ‘go home’ back to what they have know in the past. In a short period of time the entire lifestyle is blown to shreds. It’s hard to believe that shear gusts of wind can destroy the lives and customs of so many generations. Those natural occurrences of massive and mighty winds coupled with torrential rain can have a permanent affect on the region and local communities.

It is noble and commendable beyond words that citizens will make gallant efforts and strives to reclaim a community that is devastated by a disaster. Yet no matter how hard the individuals try to reclaim the life they had prior to a disaster, it will never be the same.

Families who live in such high possibility of a hurricane disaster suffer a low grade to acute anticipative stress. Often every hurricane season the fear and anxiety rises as to the possibility of a hurricane disaster.

It’s important that if you select to live in such a higher disaster risk community that you also take care of your emotional needs, particularly those surrounding the potential of a hurricane disaster. Often emotional hurricane survival depends on how well you have done your hurricane preparedness.

In many articles I have written about the physical emergency preparedness. That is vital to your physical well being. There is also the emotional emergency disaster preparedness that individuals, families and households must also deal with. The more you are able to deal effectively with the emotional issues of hurricane preparedness the more likely that you will also a better disaster recovery experience.

I personally believe that every one needs to have an emotional emergency preparedness kit as well as the physical low cost emergency survival kits. These emotional emergency preparedness kits are different for each person. Only you can really design and establish your own emotional emergency preparedness necessities.

Such an emotional disaster kit may include some of the following sort of items:

o Photos of your family

o Small but meaningful items like baby bracelets from the hospital or birthing center you have saved form your children.

o Recordings of your loved one’s voices. These can become priceless years later when they are no longer alive and with us.

o Spiritual support items if so inclined like a favorite rosary, Bible, Koran, prayer shawl or head covering.

o A holiday keepsake item if that is important to you

o A copy of a hand written letter form loved ones. Often there is great comfort in reviewing the greeting cards or letters that some one significant in our lives that we can refer to later in our life. Just seeing their handwriting and the way the affectionately referred to you can be extremely important and comforting

o Drawings that your children or grandchildren have given you.

o Hair clippings of you children’s first hair cut perhaps.

o A loved one’s memento that tells you that you are very special. For you really are special to many.

o You may also wan to take with you a favorite pet item if that is helpful also. Remember pets are also for many members of our households and it is special to remember items form bygone times around pets as well.

All of theses and many more are just some of the items that are emotional comforts to us, especially during times of difficulties and challenges. So as you prepare your emergency kit and review your emergency preparedness checklist to include your emotional emergency preparedness kit as well this kit will certainly help in the hurricane recovery process.

I’ve included a copy of an article about trying to go back to your community after Hurricane Katrina. I hope it gives you a clearer understanding of how challenged it can be for some communities and families after a disaster.

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 – Be Prepared – Help Others!

Terrie

Parish still struggling to rebuild from Katrina

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hu4uOyj0HC53UWOu1XAJGGHogR6wD9160ERO0

By BECKY BOHRER – 3 hours ago

CHALMETTE, La. (AP) — Nearly three years after Hurricane Katrina, shifting demographics and the loss of community touchstones have rendered tight-knit St. Bernard Parish almost unrecognizable to those who cherished life here before the storm.

By one estimate, less than half the 67,000 pre-storm population is back in this New Orleans suburb, and residents are now poorer and more reliant on services from the cash-strapped parish government, St. Bernard President Craig Taffaro said.

There is no hospital, shopping options are limited, and teachers are in short supply. Many returnees cling to the life they once knew at remnant neighborhood hangouts.

Broken streets, concrete slabs where houses stood and abandoned strip malls are the veneer. The unseen wrath of Katrina is its theft of the soul of St. Bernard.

Taffaro believes the clock is ticking on St. Bernard's future. His priorities: speeding up the pace of rebuilding homes, schools and other infrastructure, and taking the politically risky step of proposing a smaller habitation footprint.

"I want St. Bernard to be the hardworking, determined community it always was," he said.

Isolated in the Mississippi River delta between the Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans, St. Bernard always seemed a world to itself. Its residents liked it that way.

Canary Islanders who settled fishing communities in the 1700s, white flight to the suburbs of New Orleans in the 1950s and '60s and deep-rooted black communities created a blue-collar independence set amid oil refineries, alligator-infested swamps and the site of the Battle of New Orleans.

Generations of families lived within blocks of each other. They had what they needed — shopping, ball games on Friday nights, friends and crawfish boils.

Since Katrina, things have changed.

Henry Rodriguez Jr., longtime parish leader defeated by Taffaro last fall, remembers when he could walk into a store and know almost everyone in it.

"That's not true today," he said as he drove his pickup along streets so warped and broken that doing the speed limit can be risky.

Some residents, black and white, complain about Hispanic workers in the area now, many talk about crime, and it's hard to find anyone who says rebuilding hasn't been agonizingly slow.

"This whole entire thing is a joke," said George Tustin, who left Indiana to settle in Meraux because of St. Bernard's reputation as a good place for families.

At least $1 billion in federally funded infrastructure repair is being done. Taffaro said parish leaders have made strides in penetrating the recovery bureaucracy to get work moving on sewerage, fire stations, schools and post offices.

But the task is enormous. On Aug. 29, 2005, flooding from Katrina came from almost every direction. A survey showed virtually every building in St. Bernard was damaged. As in neighboring New Orleans, trucks rumbled through neighborhoods for weeks removing debris, and cultural and government chaos followed.

One of the biggest challenges, as in other areas lashed by Katrina across the Gulf Coast, is housing.

Red X's brand thousands of houses that parish leaders want demolished. The state plans to transfer to local control thousands more bought from homeowners who didn't want to return. Some might be renovated and attract new residents. Others may be torn down. Taffaro said he envisions neighborhoods with more green space and homesites with larger yards.

Few expect St. Bernard to reach its pre-storm population soon. A major obstacle is the lack of a hospital, though efforts are under way to build one. Parish estimates put the population at 32,000. Chief administrative officer Dave Peralta says he'd be happy to have 45,000 by 2013.

"Will we have as many schools? No. But certainly things will be a lot better and more progressive," he said.

Jeff Pohlmann hopes so. He's been doing a one-hour commute from north of Lake Pontchartrain to St. Bernard to work in his restaurant, Today's Ketch Seafood. "I hate the commute," said Pohlmann, who used to live nearby and worries about the next hurricane despite government assurances that levees are secure.

Pohlmann puts up with the drive because he feels a deep connection to Chalmette.

There are signs the St. Bernard he remembers is there. Some neighborhoods are ghostly quiet at night, but in others children play pick-up games in their driveways. Store clerks presenting your bill still tack "baby" onto their thank you in an unmistakable St. Bernard drawl. Softball leagues are back, and schools are re-establishing community hubs.

Still, Taffaro fears more serious day-to-day struggles could be overwhelming. He knows moving forward will take digging deep into St. Bernard's emotional reserve, and getting over a sense of being forgotten.

Just up the road from St. Bernard is New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward, where presidential candidates, volunteers, TV home repair shows and celebrities such as actor Brad Pitt have heaped attention. Such concern, St. Bernardians say, seems to stop at the parish line.

So they take out their frustrations by singing karaoke or shooting darts at hangouts like the Dog House, one of 15 bars, casinos and grills the local tourism bureau lists as nightlife. Others replant roots at the festivals that are quintessential St. Bernard.

A spring crawfish festival drew families and friends, many out of touch since Katrina.

Anthony Mendoza said he doesn't regret returning. He has a new neighbor, his only one, a woman from Florida. He's running on faith now.

"This is home," he said.

Hurricane Preparedness and getting your pet ready

What does $5, hurricanes and peace of mind have in common?

OK today was not the best day to take my VERY house bound in-door cat out in the 100F summer weather in a cat carrier in a car without air conditioning to go get a rabies shot. My cat seems to grow 500 additional legs when trying to get her into the cat carrier. Oh did I mention I have my leg in a cast and walking with a cane? The trip was certainly not my favorite thing to do on a hot Saturday afternoon! So why all the effort to vaccinate a house cat? Simple -- my cat Sugar is important to me and I love her and I want her safe even in facing the potential of a hurricane danger.

Our local Animal Service Center it turns out by luck of the draw scheduled the hottest day so far this year to have its rabies vaccination program. I’m so thankful that they have such a program even if it was blistering hot. I don’t care how hot it is. It is well worth it. I just wish they had also offered the microchip at the same time as as the rabies shot so more animals would be identified if something should occur and the pet and family get separated. .

For $5 anyone could get their pet vaccinated. Its my understanding that after the first annual vaccine the pet is then vaccinated every 3 years. It’s important that every pet be kept up to date on their vaccinations for their protection as well as that of the general community.

Some folks think that if their cat is an ‘indoor cat’ that they really don’t need to have the rabies vaccine. I can understand their reason for thinking that way but they are very wrong in that sort of logic!

There is another important reason to have ALL pets vaccinated. Should an emergency occur in your community requiring emergency evacuation, animal shelters will only accept up-to-date vaccinated animals into the shelter for safety reasons.

Many communities will have several vaccination events early this summer. Call your local Humane Society, Health Department or pet stores to see when the rabies clinics will be made available in your community. Often this is the cheapest way to get your pet protected. It’s quick, easy and you and your pet are safe guarded.

Please make sure your pets are vaccinated for all the necessary diseases. If you have a dog, the vaccinations may also include kennel cough vaccine

Can you imagine what it would be like if you were facing down a hurricane and went to a shelter only to be told that your pet is not acceptable since YOU did not get your pet protected with the necessary vaccines? There would most likely not be time find a vet and to get the rabies shot and get back to the shelter without major problems, stress and strain. The worse case is you would have to then make hasty unplanned decisions about the housing for your pet. Your choices would be very limited to say the least. The results could be deadly for your pet! That is not the way to treat your best animal companion in the midst of an evacuation emergency.

Yes it was a terribly hot today and neither Sug nor I enjoyed the heat and the efforts to get to her protected. Yet after the trip and a cat washing since she left an intestinal protest in the cat carrier (she really hates to ride) it was well worth all the trouble. When Sug at long last came back and sat in my lap as a sign of her forgiveness, I was glad and thankful for the opportunity to know that she was as safe as I can make it for her.

She is powerless to get the necessary vaccinations and the emergency preparedness necessities to keep her safe should a disaster occur. It is up to me, her ‘human mommy’, to do all I can, within reason and to the best of my ability to keep her safe. That is the least I can do to show her I can!

Remember that emergency preparedness is not just for humans but also for your pet as well. It is very important that you have a written emergency preparedness plan for each of your pets, as well as have low cost emergency survival kits for each of your pets with all your emergency preparedness necessities that your pet will need when faced with a disaster.

Keep a copy of the vaccination records in a water proof plastic storage bag with your pet's emergency preparedness kit so that you will not need to hunt down the proof of vaccination later on in the hectic moments before a hasty evacuation. For a hurricane reference guide check out my Emergency Get & Go Disaster Guide For Pets. for more information and tips.

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 – Be Prepared – Help Others!

Terrie

www.trainforahurricane.com

Hurricane Preparedness and those who respond

Gold hearts and red tape

I just finished reading an article (see below) about 3 women in Dunkerton who have been helping those affected the tornadoes in the mid-west. It seems from the article that the got busy after the disaster and prepared hot meals and got supplies of food, water and clothing collected to help neighbors in need. They have accomplished a great service. It is frankly incredible to see the amount of help they have been able t offer in such a short amount of time under challenging conditions.

In the midst of helping they were told to stop giving out food to the needy etc by local emergency response agency. It seems very harsh that aid agencies are battling over a disaster turf. Yet the reality is that this sort of situation is very common ask anyone that was in NYC after 9-11!

Unfortunately egos, publicity and donation opportunities are all part of the turf issue. It’s a shame.

When we look at the issues from one perspective we see private citizens helping neighbors in need. I applaud that a billion percent. We need to be doing more of this in our communities.

Yet I can also see the other side as well. When a disaster occurs there are armies of persons most with good and generous hearts that are willing to help but have at times gotten over their heads in complex and complicated disaster situations. Disasters brings out the best and the worst in people and people have been hurt.

I agree that delivering hot meals for those in need is fantastic yet I can also see that these women were possibly not protected from the potential of legal lawsuits. What IF a meal had for some strange unforeseen reason had say peanut oil in it and the person who received it is allergic to peanuts. Say the recipient has a reaction to the peanut oil and tehn later the person (if they are alive after the reaction) or their loved ones go and sue the women who gave the meal out of a compassionate heart.

I’m no lawyer so I have no idea of the legal issues that may be able to protect or harm these women of compassion and mercy, but I know just walking into a lawyer’s office can cost big bucks. In our legal age of law suits it is a shame tht such compassion could be twisted.

Another issue that is not seen on the surface but a very real concern is the possibility that some sick-evil minded folks like to do MORE harm in a disaster situation. Remember the Tylenol pain pills that were tampered with and resulted in some people dying? To my knowledge no one was ever caught or convicted, and innocent lives were taken. Disaster specialists try to insure that disaster victims are not inflicted more pain by sick and evil minded people in times of distress.

Then there is the greedy onslaught of ‘disaster helpers’. These ‘disaster helpers’ are only out to help themselves to the money of desperate families in need of everything from tree removal from a roof to emergency electric issues, etc. These so-called ‘helpers’ are scam artist of the purest form who demands huge upfront money and then never show up for the work to be done and there is no recourse for the disaster victims. There have been cases of disaster necessities enticements to get the confidence of the disaster victim and family. These emergencies necessities like water, ice or food are suppose to be with no strings attached. Yet later the ‘do-gooders’ sock it to the victims’ with sky high bills for every little thing they do INCLUDING the initial enticements.

Oh lets not also forget that there are those who are collecting for the widows of the unknown soldiers campaigns. Many a kind-hearted person will quickly open up their checkbook and donate erroneously to shysters stating it is widows of someone who has died that no one can identify to know if they were even ever married!. In disasters this happens more times than you can ever imagine!

Emergency aid agencies and organizations have cross swords with these unscrupulous types in every disaster that has ever hits anywhere. So I can see that they want to protect the disaster victims as well as protect their own self interests as well when it comes to spontaneous aid services.

As with everything in life, there has got to be a balance. Balance in a disaster venue is most vital - more so than even in ordinary life where it is important. One way to do this is for local organizations such as the Lion’s Club and faith centers to train their own members so when a disaster occurs in a region, these local groups can go out under some form of helper protection as well as to protect the disaster victims who are already hurting beyond general endurance.

One of the best ways for individuals not to become the compounded disaster victims is to take responsibility for their own lives and that of their loved ones. This means taking responsibility for your own life by getting prepared with your own emergency preparedness necessities to help sustain your self. By having low cost emergency survival kits fortified by disaster preparedness information, individuals, families and businesses will be much better prepared to take care of their own needs and the neighbor next door with the tree on the roof. They can do al this while not becoming a victim of the emergency aid distribution disaster that can sometimes occur ( remember Hurricane Katrina). I want to say up front that the not for profit aid organizations such as the Salvation Army are less red tape political nightmares than the government bureaucratic agencies are at times Yet all have guidelines in place for specific reasons and many of those reasons when really examined are very sound reasons.

There is one strong suggestion I will make that I hope is heard loud and clear. No mater how stressed the disaster venue officials are there MUST be sensitive selection of vocabulary -- especially within official leadership. Calling a generous ad hoc group of civilian support a “rogue outfit’ was a very poor choice of words. In a disaster event, feelings are raw on all insides and poor sense of appreciation. Understanding of intentions and description of actions can be inciting at worst and misunderstood at the least. See the below article for what I mean. In the case of the chairperson of the Black Hawk County Board Of Supervisors the consequences of such poor actions and words has caused more damage, pain and victimization on top of the initial disaster.

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 – Be Prepared – Help Others!

Terrie

www.trainforahurricane.com

Thursday, June 5, 2008 1:32 PM CDT

Dunkerton moms clash with emergency officials

By MATTHEW WILDE, Courier Staff Writer

http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2008/06/06/news/top_story/10384330.txt

DUNKERTON --- Three Dunkerton moms just wanted to help friends and neighbors cope with the aftermath of last month's destructive and deadly tornado.

They delivered hot meals, gathered supplies and helped storm victims find storage for belongings. Recognition for their efforts was the last thing on the minds of Jenifer Cooper, Lisa Wells and Breann Comer, the women say.

The trio are being noticed all right, but for a different reason. County and disaster relief officials say the women are hampering official relief efforts, and their form of vigilante volunteerism isn't needed. During the past week, a controversy has erupted in the community, pitting the Dunkerton moms and people grateful for their service against county and emergency officials.

John Miller, chairman of the Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors, said the ladies didn't coordinate their efforts with the city, county and Red Cross. He said volunteers trained to handle hot food should be delivering meals to keep people safe. Plus, Miller wants to avoid duplication of services that have occurred. He said that wastes time, which only hinders the relief effort.

Wells, a 42-year-old mother of two and stepmother of two, said the three got involved because the city and other agencies didn't do enough initially --- though she said that has since changed --- to help people without power or who lost homes due to the tornado. She said many residents in the Woodland Estates mobile home park just north of town, where she and Cooper live, and outlying areas were without nutritious hot meals and supplies initially.

The moms think neighbors need to jump right in and help when a disaster strikes. That's why they called the Red Cross and Northeast Iowa Food Bank for food and then helped collect items such as clothes, rakes, diapers and other necessities.

For several days after the disaster, Wells said a Red Cross emergency response vehicle came to Woodland Estates with hot food. Red Cross workers would dish up meals and the Dunkerton Moms, along with others, would deliver the food to tornado victims and cleanup crews.

Wells said they offered to help because locals knew where to go, which would speed up the process. Black Hawk County supervisors, she said, didn't see it that way.

"All I know is they tried shutting us down," Wells said, referring to county officials telling them to stop. "I said 'you'll have to come out and arrest us.' To get that call really shot down our morale."

The volunteers stopped delivering hot food earlier this week.

Miller said the intentions of the women are sincere. However, he said they went about the relief effort in the wrong way.

The supervisor, himself a former Federal Emergency Management Agency regional official, said they should have worked with Dunkerton and Black Hawk County's Emergency Management Agency and the Red Cross. Miller believes the relief effort from the city and county was more than adequate.

Many problems arose from the uncoordinated relief efforts, Miller said.

He cited a few examples:

--- It has caused confusion on where people should call to volunteer, donate goods or get items. Relief supplies are available at the Dunkerton Community Center and Cooper's residence at 322 Woodland Drive.

--- Clothes and other donations should go through St. Vincent de Paul and Goodwill. But some are sending them to the Dunkerton Moms.

--- The county and the Dunkerton Moms both called transportation companies, arranging for semi trailers to store personal belongings.

"We have two concerns: not coordinating and delivering meals that could pose health concerns. We checked with the Red Cross; they and EMA would have done it (delivered all meals) if people contacted them," Miller said.

"We don't know who has been served and who hasn't," he added. "From my perspective they're a rogue outfit."

To Cooper, a 35-year-old mother of three, and her friends, helping with the relief effort are anything but rogue. They were only trying to help.

When the group offered to deliver hot meals, which she says were supplied by the Red Cross, to hundreds of cleanup workers at 20 sites, they thought they were doing a good thing. Since the local volunteers know the area, Cooper said they were able to deliver meals in five to 10 minutes in most cases. The food never got cold, she said.

Cooper said she did ride in a Red Cross vehicle to deliver meals as well, and it took 3 1/2 hours.

But there times as well when they said the Red Cross dropped off meals and the moms delivered them.

"They would dish out the meals and we would deliver," Cooper said, adding the county threatened action against them if they didn't stop.

"This is not about three moms, it's about 20 families that lost their houses," she continued. "It's shouldn't be a political tug of war. When politics get involved, people suffer."

The Dunkerton Moms have been critical of Dunkerton and the county's response to the disaster. Other volunteers in Dunkerton, like Cathy Rigdon, said both entities have done a wonderful job helping tornado victims and are upset the ladies would bash them.

She said city and county officials care about the tornado victims and have been constantly trying to help.

Red Cross spokeswoman Maryann Sinkler , who's based in Des Moines but is working out of Cedar Falls during the disaster, doesn't think the Dunkerton Moms were delivering Red Cross meals. She said it's against policy to have anyone that's not a Red Cross-trained volunteer handle and deliver hot food.

"That's not something we would do," Sinkler said. "I'm not sure why (Cooper and Wells) are saying that."

Delyle Russell, of 7035 N. Pilot Grove Road, said he doesn't care how hot food arrived to feed hungry volunteers at his acreage after the tornado wiped out buildings and trees; he's just glad it did.

Russell assumed the food was from the Red Cross. He thanked the Dunkerton Moms for their help.

"I can't testify where it came from, just thank God we got the food," he said. "It was a blessing."

Contact Matthew Wilde at (319) 291-1579 or matt.wilde@wcfcourier.com.

Hurricane preparedness and 'storage manners'

Emergency preparedness & how to be a ‘storage guest or host’!

Last night where I live, we had a tornado warning. I knew what to do; I reviewed my emergency preparedness checklist. Knew where my cat and dog were (since I have on children in the house), and had placed my ‘everyday special items’ in my ‘disaster safe place’ along side my in-home disaster kits. My pillows and blankets and other emergency preparedness necessities were there as well. The car was ready with a full tank of gas, my GPS charged in case there was need for evacuation.

One thing that struck me after finishing my per-established and practiced disaster preparedness routine was that I’m currently housing some personal belongings for a dear friend who is in transition. First and foremost I want to protect people’s privacy and then their belongings if they have entrusted cherished items with me. Fortunately since it was a tornado watch, I had some extra time and I went in to the storage area to make sure that I tried to take the things that I THOUGHT were important for safe keeping that belonged to my friend. I had to quickly complete this task and frankly I didn’t like going through someone else’s possessions. It was challenging to try to scan boxes for indications of relevancy and importance.

As I was collecting up the pictures and what I thought were important documents, there were a few other things that I knew a bit of the history on, most things I didn’t have a clue. I tried to scan my brain to remember if a particular item had seemed especially significant when I visited their home in the past. My mind was more focused on a quick in and out and NOT into was this Aunt Lucy’s cookie box! What I did know was that many of the items stored were important otherwise they would not be here for storage since there is limited space.

This morning my friend and I were on the phone and I stated what I had done last night since I had moved some items around and what items I had secured. During our conversation, I told of my experience last night and I asked if I had identified the important items that needed to be safeguarded. I was surprised at some of the answers. Some I had guessed correctly, others were not that important. The pictures and documents were the important things, Aunt Lucy's cookie box was a nice thought and gesture but could be lived without.

I also realized that if a tornado had occurred last night and I was evacuated, injured or dead and thus not available after the disaster to tell my friend where those belonging were, it would have been even more disturbing for someone I cherish as a friend to face so many additional difficulties. I don’t ever want to do something like that to a person who is important in my life.

Also since disasters are not limited to my neighborhood, and my friend is also in locations that are susceptible to disasters (as most of us are more often than not) I would not know what to do with those belongings or who to contact should God forbid something happen to my friend.

Many of us who have an extra couple of square feet in our homes have at some time or another taken in belongings for someone else. It can be anything from a package left by postal delivery service or trunks and refrigerators when someone is in the process of moving. We generally don't think of the 'what if..." I know I haven't in the past.

I am personally so appreciative that there have been some fantastic friends who have shared their storage shed and attic space with me when I was in a transition of a move. Yet so often we don’t think of what could happen and quickly in a disaster. By having written instructions and having the item(s) marked with big and easy to quickly to see identifiers as to what should be taken in an emergency can make all parties better prepared to protect special possessions. Also it is important as the ‘storage host’ to know how to deal with property left in your care should the worst happen.

If you are fortunate to be a recipient of ‘storage hospitality’ then make it as easy as possible for the ‘storage host’ by telling them what is important, who is an alternative contact person and how to get in contact with them should something occur and you are not able to be contacted immediately.

A ‘storage host’ has a lot on their mind when faced with a disaster either pending or afterwards. Help them out as much as possible; don’t expect them to care for all your belongings. Identify the one most important box (perhaps of photos, legal documents ,etc) and boldly identify that one item as a safe keeping box. If it is possible and appropriate ask if that one reasonable size box can be stored with the storage host’s emergency take and go item as well. This will make thing much easier when faced with a pending disaster and help ensure that your items of greatest importance has a better chance of being emergency secured as well.

No on likes to think of a disaster occurring to them but emergency preparedness is a year long and everyday responsibility not just in hurricane season. All it takes to realize that all sorts of disasters occur is to look at the news on the internet or TV and see what devastation has occurred to others. The only way to try avoid that sort of situation is to be as emergency prepared as best as possible. None of us are powerful enough to prevent the calamity of many natural disasters but we can do all we can in a reasonable and responsible manner to control the resulting affects of disasters in our personal lives.

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 – Be Prepared – Help Others!

Terrie

www.trainforahurricane.com

Hurricanes & Monuments

Hurricane Preparedness Support is The BEST Way To Be Remembered By The World!

I’ve just started to receive a daily inspirational quote e-mail from Dax Moy called: “Terrie’s Daily Quote”. It’s 4:57 AM and the words are so profound as the first rays of a new day very slowly start to form beyond the sunrise. In his email to me to day all the way from the United Kingdom he writes:

What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others” – Pericles

Hi Terrie

Have you ever stopped to think abut the mark you’re leaving as you travel through life?

It’s so easy not to when we get caught up in our day to day trails and tribulations and worry about how to pay the bills and put food on the table isn’t it?

After all there’s no denying, these things ARE important aren’t they… we’ve all got to eat right?

But just as important, if not more so, is the mark you make during your life and the legacy you leave behind to tell the world that you existed and make it better for those who follow.

What mark are you leaving right now Terrie?

Is it the one you want to be remembered for?

If not, remember, the best place to start a journey is here, the best time is now.

All it takes for you to leave behind something great… is to start!

Start today by being the person you really WANT to be.

Truth, Joy and Love

Dax

That is a really profound letter to say the least and one that is giving me pause this morning. So how does this very profound letter have anything to do with hurricane preparedness? Well it has a lot to do with it.

In my last email and really throughout this entire blog I have been talking about some form or another of hurricane preparation. Often we think of it as what we do for ourselves. It’s important to think about our own needs and how we can best help ourselves.

Yet live is much more than just focusing on me and my our own personal issues. It is also about what we do to contribute to the lives and world of others.

Today, make the world a better place by helping someone else. Most of us know at least one person who lives in a disaster prone area. I bet many of us know a person or two in a hurricane area of the Atlantic seaboard, the Gulf Coast, even the Pacific coast. Perhaps it is not even someone in North or South America but one that lives on a different continent and calls hurricanes ‘cyclones’ or tropical storms etc. What ever the name, it is still a disaster event that can kill and result in devastation for miles and miles and even from country to country.

TODAY why not inquire of the emergency preparedness level and ability that just one other person is making in their personal life. Inquire if that person has a written out disaster plan? Ask them where they plan to go to stay as an evacuation shelter if a disaster should hit their area. Care enough to ask: “Who is their emergency contact person in a disaster situation that is outside of their local area?” If they have no one specified - offer to be that person who will be their contact person and support if a disaster should hit their area!

If they are on a limited budget give or send them a gift card or certificate so they can go specifically and buy some emergency supplies to start their emergency preparedness kit. If you feel that they may not use the money for that purpose then perhaps tuck away some money in an envelop marked for them so that should a pending emergency arise for them you will have something available to help them out. If you would rather not give money directly to someone then make a donation to the Salvation Army or the Red Cross specifically for disaster relief or disaster relief education.

Many of us are involved in a faith community or civic organization. Why not arrange a 2 hour event that offers information on how to be safe in a disaster situation. A great gift we can give to our faith center or local community is to help raise awareness and empower people to begin to help themselves by preparing.

Most organizations and faith expressions will eagerly welcome your efforts to put on such a workshop or event. It doesn’t even have to be you telling others. Ask your local emergency management services office for a speaker to come out and share ideas on how to prepare. Ask your local Red Cross Chapter or Salvation Army representative to come speak. They will more than gladly help with disaster preparedness information. They will bring all kinds of ways to help inform, inspire and empower everyone in the even to begin to prepare.

A Harris poll from June 2007 found out that 61% of Americans had not “made a specific plan for how you and your family would leave your home if you had to evacuate in case of an emergency situation”. So ASK those you know if they have made a specific plan for emergency evacuation. The poll goes on to say that 68% of those inquired had not ‘put together a disaster supplies kit with water, food, medicine and other supplies”.

What is so sad about this survey is that according to the Mason-Dixon poll most of us have the emergency preparedness necessities and components for an emergency preparedness kit already in our homes! Most of us can create low cost emergency survival kits with much of the items already stuffed away in closets or boxes in the garage. In a disaster situation, time is very precious, and it is costly to have to be running around collecting up supplies when if your disaster kits are packed and ready to go you will have a faster opportunity to evacuate safely and well prepared no matter what the circumstances.

One of the greatest ways to leave a mark on this world and make it a better place is to help make life better for at least one other person. YOU can do that today by you and one other person being hurricane prepared.

START TODAY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN SOMEONE’S LIFE.

Take the emergency preparedness checklist offered for free by this hurricane preparedness blog and Train For A Hurricane and print out 5 copies and give them to your neighbors and friends and ask them each to fix up one disaster kit for their home. Those 5 sheets of paper will be much more important than any 5’ tall monument in some old lonely cemetery years from now.

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 – Be Prepared – Help Others!

Terrie

www.trainforahurricane.com

More information on Day Moy can be found at: www.themagichundred.com

Hurricane Preparedness Choir Song

Let The Hurricane Preparedness Choir Keep On Singing!

We are now into Day 2 of a very long season called 2008 Hurricane Season. All the Hurricane Alerts are booming with articles and press releases on the importance of hurricane preparing. I’ve checked out a number of them that have landed in my email inbox over the course of the past several weeks. Every article is giving important information. Necessary disaster preparedness information if people are going to stay alive when disasters hit and who will recover efficiently and effectively when all seems lost.

Anthony Kimery has written an excellent article on Emergency Preparedness Complacency last Tuesday May 27^th for the HS Today (Homeland Security Today). After reading this article and have not encouraged others to prepare than you need to sign up for the choir!

I’ve enclosed a copy of the article in full for your review. His data is right on and it is vital that people wake up. The fatal mind set of complacency is just that deadly when it comes to disasters. Then again if you are reading this blog YOU are most likely one of the small percentage of the population that is concerned with hurricanes and emergency preparedness issues. If you are not prepared then by all means continue to read this blog, get a copy of my free emergency preparedness checklist available at this blog ( look to your right of this article to sign up and know that your privacy will be secured at all times) and get yourself ready ASAP!

So am I preaching to the emergency response choir? Sure, I am! And if the choir sings loud enough soon or later some of the folks out side the choir will hear the collective voices of concern and some and I say some will hear and respond with an emergency preparedness kit , hurricane reference guide, and emergency preparedness plans completed just like we have done. If you need help with how to do this important disaster preparation task then get a copy of my Train For a Hurricane disaster preparedness information and hurricane reference guide. This resource not only has disaster preparedness information but also a step-by-step workbook to help you get your emergency preparedness plans and disaster kits ready long before a disaster knocks at your door.

So if you have not prepared but have by some chance come across this blog I hope you will listen up to the disaster preparedness choir and start to prepare for any sort of disaster that can come your way. If you are prepared for a hurricane then you are making great strides to be prepared for any sort of disaster that can strike at any time.

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 -- Get Ready – Be Prepared!

Terrie

Dr. Terrie Modesto, PhD, author of Train For A Hurricane is an international expert in dying, death, loss and critical incident individual and community disaster preparation and response with 20+ year’s experience. She has over 60 courses, books and training manuals to her credit and is available for consulting, lectures and interviews.

Emergency Preparedness Complacency Worries Readiness Authorities

by Anthony L. Kimery

Tuesday, 27 May 2008

http://hstoday.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3531&Itemid=149 'The weakest part of our homeland security is the citizen' The intro to the immensely popular BBC sci-fi television series, “Torchwood,” ends with the prescient phrase, “the Twenty-First Century is when it all changes. And you’ve gotta be ready.” And indeed we do. To wit: Although the threat of Armageddon seemed over as the Cold War literally came crashing down, within a decade it’d become clear that that notion was a gross misunderstanding. No sooner had the 21st Century began had it become evident that the risk of nuclear conflict was closer than it’d ever been. Concurrent with that realization was the more chilling realization that a virulent manmade or natural pathogen could push humanity to the brink of extinction – certainly back into the Stone Age. Meanwhile, advancements in the understanding of earth sciences disclosed that contemporaneous unprecedented cataclysmic natural events could provoke destruction on a scale that also could put humanity at risk, as could certain cosmological events which not long ago a great many scientists had dismissed as sci-fi fantasies. Yet, despite the small-scale terrorist attack and the disastrous regional hurricane that struck the US, governments at all levels remain unprepared for dealing with catastrophic and mass casualty events. Globally, many more governments are even less prepared for such disasters. HSToday.us revealed in a two-part series that federal and state governments aren’t paying nearly enough attention to the steady deterioration of emergency medical care across the nation – the very medical care that will be needed in the event of a mass casualty catastrophe. But if governments are lax in their preparedness, and equally as remiss in stressing the imperative that citizens be prepared, how can the citizenry be expected to be geared up? It should be no surprise then that preparedness authorities are increasingly alarmed about the public's across the board complacency toward preparedness, not just for catastrophic disasters, but even the most common of disasters - like hurricanes in the south. “This creeping complacency, as many of us call it, among the public at large is quite disturbing,” said a senior federal emergency preparedness official HSToday.us frequently consults. No doubt. Studies have shown that less than one-third of all Americans have not taken special steps to prepare for an emergency. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that “Americans are too busy, too distracted, or too frightened to plan carefully for a natural disaster, disease outbreak, or local catastrophe.” This, CDC said, has led to “a crisis of complacency.” A Harris poll conducted last June found only 14 percent of respondents said they are "very prepared,” and only 44 percent who are somewhat prepared. “While majorities of Americans say they are prepared, this does not seem to be the case,” the Harris Poll said, adding, “when asked if they had done certain action items, majorities say they have not.” Sixty-one percent had not “made a specific plan for how you and your family would leave your home if you had to evacuate in case of an emergency situation,” and 68 percent had not “put together a disaster supplies kit with water, food, medicine, and other supplies.” “Even after Sept. 11, 2001, even after Hurricane Katrina, a Red Cross survey last year found that 93 percent of Americans aren't prepared for a major calamity — a natural disaster, a pandemic or a terrorist attack. This is troubling, because the more prepared a population is, the more effective the response to and recovery from a catastrophe will be,” wrote John D. Solomon - who is writing a book about emergency preparedness – in a Washington Post op-ed last week. “Disaster is bearing down on all sides of late. A ravaging cyclone in Burma. A killer earthquake in China. Even the United States hasn't escaped unscathed, with tornadoes ripping across the heartland and Southeast and floods rising in the mid-Atlantic,” Solomon noted. Yet, “most Americans have been watching the devastation in Asia from relative safety and, if I had to guess, with a certain sense of complacency, a feeling that disaster on that scale isn't likely to happen to them. But it could. And if it did, our country might face the same sort of crisis as our Asian cousins. A major reason: The American public isn't prepared.” As HSToday reported in, “The Ice Storm Cometh,” most Oklahomans and local governments were caught off guard by the vast ice sheet that descended on the state last winter, plunging more than half of its residents into darkness, some for many weeks. No surprise there. Last summer the Harris Poll found 40 percent of those surveyed said they were not prepared for an extended power outage. Personal preparedness for an avian influenza pandemic also has subsided following the surge of governmental emphasis on preparedness a few years ago. All along, though, the public at large generally has ignored individual pandemic preparations. A typical attitude was expressed in a comment I found on Amazon.com toward a very practical book written for the public on how to take practical precautions to prepare for a pandemic. The commenter decried the book as an “extremely alarmist manual [that] does not offer practical suggestions, but a ritualistic rule of worry that will instill doomsday panic in anyone who tries to follow it. Shame on a practicing physician for coming up with such nonsense.” Of course, authorities know that it's this sort of attitude that's nonsense. “The prudent thing to do is to prepare - even though you don't know for sure what will happen - because the consequences of not being prepared are far worse than the effort involved in getting ready to handle what might (or might not, we admit) be coming soon. Sooner or later there will be a pandemic - those who are ready will fare far better than those who are not,” another commenter rightfully pointed out. "There is continued need for pandemic preparation in local communities," said Dr. John T. Carlo, Medical Director of Dallas County Health and Human Services. Cautioning against public complacency, he stressed that "ordinary citizens must educate themselves and stockpile necessary items at home." "The weakest part of our homeland security is the citizen," 9/11 Commission chairman Thomas H. Kean told Solomon. "Addressing that is very, very, very important. Ultimately, it's as likely that a terrorist attack here will be stopped by the CIA or FBI as by someone who sees something suspicious and, instead of just going home for dinner, decides to tell his or her local police." “… I've … learned that my family's safety and the ability of my community and my nation to respond to major disasters might depend on my fellow citizens' preparedness,” Solomon wrote. “It may sound a little dramatic, but if even 93 Americans — let alone 93 percent of us — aren't informed and engaged, then none of us fully is.” "It keeps me awake at night," said John R. Gibb, New York State’s emergency management director who has openly acknowledged concern over the public's complacency toward preparedness. “There is a culture of complacency when we need to have a culture of preparedness," agreed Lorin Mock, emergency preparedness chief for the Jacksonville, Florida Fire and Rescue Department referring to locals’ lack of concern, or belief, that Jacksonville could be slammed by a hurricane. "We have to be worried and concerned about it," Mock told the Jacksonville Times-Union. "Literally everyone has to prepare and have a plan." Yet, although hurricane season is almost here and national weather experts predict it could be a violent one, authorities in Florida say the majority of residents surveyed haven’t bothered to put together a hurricane plan. Preparedness “needs to be a national imperative," said Joseph F. Bruno, New York City's emergency management commissioner. “The general public needs to take a more active role in emergency preparedness,” wrote Gina Baxter, a registered nurse with an emergency room background who is a member of the Fairfax, Virginia Medical Reserve Corps, in response to Soloman’s op-ed. In 2003, Dennis S. O’Leary, president of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), said much of the country had already lapsed into a "comfortable complacency." Indeed. The JCAHO report published that same year, “Health Care at the Crossroads Strategies for Creating and Sustaining Community-wide Emergency Preparedness Systems,” stated “it does not take long for complacency to settle in” following a disaster. “Eighteen months after the September 11, 2001 attacks and the subsequent, insidious, selected and deliberate dispersion of anthrax spores, there are clear signs that the focus of American attention has long since moved on. The sense of urgency to prepare has now become a wait-and-see sense.” The report concluded: “The United States was complacent before September 11. Notwithstanding the occasional Orange alerts since then, the American mindset again appears to be steadily returning to comfortable complacency. That is a prescription for great danger, if not disaster.” Speaking at the 22nd Annual Florida Governor's Hurricane Conference a few weeks ago, Gov. Charlie Crist said, "without our citizens, there's just no way we can help everybody. We were very fortunate last year ... but we can't count on that … Each and every individual citizen has a responsibility.” Talking about preparedness during last year’s hurricane season, FEMA’s Paulison again raised the issue of complacency: "We need to make sure that those who are in those hurricane zones have prepared themselves for this upcoming season." But, as the 2007 study, “Public Complacency under Repeated Emergency Threats: Some Empirical Evidence,” in the “Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory,” found, despite Florida having been struck by four major hurricanes consecutively in the summer of 2004, results of surveys indicates that the public showed signs of complacency under repeated emergency threat warnings. The authors concluded that there is a need to manage or reduce such tendency because a complacent public is less prepared for emergencies. Importantly, the study stated that governments play vital leadership roles in developing effective communication strategies to reduce public complacency and to enhance public preparedness in response to disasters. “Everyone is part of the emergency management process. We must continue to develop a culture of preparedness in America in which every American takes personal responsibility for his or her own emergency preparedness,” FEMA Director David Paulison said last week. But it’s not just the public. The 2003 report, “The Rural Implications of Emergency Preparedness Planning,” found that “rural health care providers express [this] same complacency,” and that “hospital administrators in particular express additional ambivalence about investing time and resources into emergency preparedness, when they face so many other pressures in finance, staffing, quality and regulatory compliance.” Similarly, two years ago the Montgomery [Maryland] County’s Advance Practice Center for Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response reported that emergency preparedness had been hampered by “complacency of the population regarding disasters and preparedness accompanied by the feeling that there are more pressing issues …” Increasingly, federal and state authorities are expressing concern over public complacency toward preparedness. But perhaps in this day and age, as the cliche phrase goes, they should be doing a better job of explaining the consequences of not being prepared?

2008 Hurricane Season & Tropical Storm Arthur

OK today is the first day of the official 2008 Hurricane Season and already we have Tropical Storm Arthur moving slowing westward over the Yucatan peninsula. The coastal regions of small country of Belize and the east coast of Yucatan peninsula from Cabo Catoche southward are under tropical storm warnings. Some people say hey the winds are only 40 mph so what is the big deal? In some of the isolated areas there could upwards of 15” of rain and as a result could be flash flooding and mud slides in mountainous terrain that might be life-threatening for some residents.That's the big deal.

It doesn’t take a major category 4-5 hurricane to have potentially life-threatening and devastating property damage. Two tropical storms to form before the official start of hurricane season may need to be a wake-up call to everyone. What if 15" of rain poured down on YOUR area in a short period of time? How would your home and life fare? Would you be prepared?

Ask your self these questions:

§ What would I do if that much rain hit my hometown?

§ Where would I go in the midst of a torrential rainstorm>

§ Would my home flood?

§ What would I take with me that is of importance?

§ What would I need to have in order to make a new start if everything was lost – including my job?

§ How would I feel faced with such a devastating possibility?

§ Who would be there to help me pick up the pieces of my life and start over?

These are just a scant few questions of the thousands of questions and issues that a disaster victim faces when a disaster is pending or has done its dastardly deed. How well could you answer them?

If you don’t know how YOU would do if that were to happen to you -- then TODAY is the day YOU need to start to prepare just in case a disaster should hit your area. Remember that most people will over the course of their lifetime be affected by at least one disaster event. It may be a small one or a major one. Which ever case it is you and your loved ones need to be prepared.

As you may have already seen on the side bar, there is a free copy of my article on how to get disaster prepared. Please check it out and help yourself and all those you love get ready for a disaster so you are well prepared should an emergency occur.

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 -- Get Ready – Be Prepared!

Terrie

Dr. Terrie Modesto, PhD, author of Train For A Hurricane is an international expert in dying, death, loss and critical incident individual and community disaster preparation and response with 20+ year’s experience. She has over 60 courses, books and training manuals to her credit and is available for consulting, lectures and interviews.