Student Tribune
Additional Considerations for Disaster Preparedness
Having had the honor of serving both the South Texas region of the country
in June of this year during a major flood incident and the Florida Panhandle
region just this past week for Hurricane Michael, the one significant lesson I
returned home with, after participating in Disaster Recovery efforts on behalf
of the residents of those affected communities, is the value of
Preparedness.
We are or at least should be familiar with building our own individual
"Go-Kits" of personal items we will need when faced with a disaster but our
individual and collective Preparedness efforts shouldn't stop there. I'd like
to share with all of you some additional steps you can take which will assist
you in preparing for and recovering from a disaster.
Evacuation: When you are advised or even ordered to
evacuate a specific location, evacuate. We've all seen the television images of
those who are boarding up their homes and businesses and are preparing to "ride
out the storm." Although these stories and images provide excellent examples of
the enduring American spirit, the decision to remain in harms way is often
times the wrong decision, one in which lives are needlessly lost during the
event, as well as after the event, when search and rescue efforts are hampered
by the damage to the infrastructure in the community. It's prudent to remember
that tangible items can be rebuilt or replaced but human lives unfortunately
can not.
Know Your Way To Safety: How many of you know where the
emergency shelters are located in your communities or if you had to evacuate
due to a pending disaster, what the main and alternative routes to get to a
shelter or evacuate the area are? In a situation where you could not rely upon
a dependable Wi-Fi signal to render your GPS program on your cellular telephone
operational, do you have access to a traditional paper map and if so can you
read in accurately? At the time you need to get to a shelter or get out of
harms way by evacuating, you will need to know the primary, secondary, and
tertiary routes to travel and how best to navigate your way through the use of
a traditional paper map.
Documentation: When addressing important documentation such
as deeds to property, mortgage information for homes, titles to motor vehicles,
health records, wills, banking account information, firearms permits, and
drivers licenses, it is recommended that you make copies of these important
documents and retain those copies in a number of secured locations in the event
the originals become either lost or damaged during the disaster or are not
obtainable due to your inability to retrieve them from a disaster zone. FEMA
recommends that the original copies be secured in a safe deposit box at your
local bank branch, a second set of copies remain in a secure location at your
residence for everyday use, and a third set be added to your Go-Kit so to have
access to these documents in the event you require emergency services or need
to apply for temporary housing.
Comfort Items for Children: Those who are following
directives to either seek a shelter facility or evacuate the community ahead of
a pending disaster event, if you have children accompanying you, regardless of
age, do your best to bring with you a comfort item for the child to either the
shelter or your final evacuation location. Whether this item is a favorite
small toy, special blanket, a favorite book, or favorite item of clothing, this
cherished item, in the possession of a child during adverse conditions, will
help reduce fear and stress in the child and allow them to better cope during
the difficult times ahead. My having handed out approximately 50 small teddy
bears to displaced children during a part of my stay in the Florida Panhandle,
I can speak from personal experience of the comfort an item such as a teddy
bear can provide a child who is facing unspeakable loss and is incapable of
understanding what has happened to them and why.
Patience: The Florida Panhandle and portions of the State
of Alabama will take years to return to normalcy. The damage to infrastructure
and the local/regional economies is such that families will be relocating to
areas in which they and previous generations have resided will return to vastly
different social and economic realities. Neighborhoods and those who reside in
them will be forever changed by the disaster and its aftermath. A significant
component of anyone's personal Preparedness plan is to understand and accept
the realities of these social and economic changes and adapt to them as best as
they can. While we all strive to return a community to a similar social,
economic, and functional viability that existed before the disaster, we also
need to be realistic and accept that a full restoration to pre-disaster living
and working conditions may not be possible.
For additional information on how best to prepare for emergencies and
disasters or to schedule individual and/or group training sessions on emergency
and disaster preparedness contact Emergency Manager Chuck DiSalvo at x2926 or
via e-mail at cdisalvo@monroecc.edu
DiSalvo, Charles
Public Safety
10/23/2018