Prepardness 1
Fandom is a world-wide community and, as we've seen over the past few years, there are many places in the world where natural or man made disasters are affecting us all. We've been really good at pulling together to help each other in the aftermath but there are also things we can do before an emergency to help ourselves, and each other, survive and prosper.
Emergency Preparedness is generally pushed by various government organizations and usually in response to things like earthquakes or tornadoes. But, preparedness works for all sorts of emergencies, even relatively 'minor' ones like winter storms that leave you holed up in your apartment for a few days, or windstorms that tear down power lines and leave communities without power. Even fires, or car accidents can be made much less frightening with a little preparedness ahead of time.
There are lots of resources and advice out there - up to and including reserving space in the luxury bomb shelter hotel. But for most of us, we don't need to go that far.
The three basic ideas are:
Build a Kit
The adage was to make an emergency kit that will keep your entire family safe and fed for 72 hrs. Nowadays, with cuts in services and the recognition of actual response times in large scale emergencies, longer than that is better - but how long is still up in the air. Still a 72 hr kit is the base on which everything else is built. Some people are starting to include their home gardens as part of their emergency planning - not a bad idea, in my opinion.
Believe it or not, you probably have most of what you need for a 72 hr kit in your pantry; three days worth of canned or shelf-stable food (just make sure you have a manual can opener!). The thing that most people don't have is enough water. Every person in a household needs 1 gallon of water per day, ½ per day for small-ish animals like cats. If you buy bottled water, buy some extra each time you go until you have enough. You can even store water from the tap in those huge liter soda bottles; though you'll need to rotate the water more frequently than with pre-sealed water (do not use the translucent 'milk jug' style bottles).
There's also unexpected sources of water in your home; the holding tank of your toilet contains clean water, and if you have a water heater that is not one of the newfangled 'no tank' types, you have a huge reservoir of water there too - there are instructions on the 'net on how to access the water in your hot water tank in an emergency.
Your kits should also include extra medication, an extra pair of glasses if you need glasses (like, say the old pair that was replaced by your newer ones) and any other specialized things you need. Blankets, flashlights, a campstove if you want to have hot food during a power outage and a weather/emergency radio fill out much of the rest of the basics. If you're a camper, you're waay ahead of the game and all you need to do is make sure your camping supplies are somewhere you can get at them in an emergency
You should prepare a kit for your pet as well, food, water, toys, a copy of their vaccination records, a carry case or leash, cat litter or poop bags (you need human poop bags in your human kit too - small garbage bags with twist ties does fine). Most shelters, if they'll take animals at all, won't take them if they don't have collars, leashes, or cages. Service animals stay with their people but you need to make sure you have proof that they are a service animal (not a companion animal, alas).
Kits need first aid supplies, extra clothes, blankets and so on. American Red Cross and Ready.gov are both great sites for details on building a kit. Kits can also be pre-purchased and there are tips on building ones on a budget. I've just given a brief overview; look at those sites for the important details.
The most important thing about making kits is that you don't have to do it all at once, if your finances are tight, start small and continue to build over time. That's what I've had to do. Each step, no matter how small, can make a big difference.
Where you put your kit is as important as what's in it. Storing it up in the attic or someplace you can't get to it (back of a crowded garage) makes life difficult for you when you need it right then. Some people store a backpack next to their bed, others store a case in the living room, or - in small spaces - toss a fabric over it a made their kit an end table. Wherever you put it, you need to be able to find it in the middle of the night, in the dark.
Make a Plan
Really, this should be for everyone, anywhere - making a plan can save anguish if there's a house fire, a car accident, or an earthquake.
Planning means sitting down with your family and discussing what you'd do if there was an emergency, where would you meet if you couldn't get home? What out-of-state person would you ask to be your central contact if there's a large scale disaster where you are? Everyone needs to know how to evacuate the home, and where to meet up when you've done that. Everyone needs to have an emergency contact name on their person - programming 'ICE' before a name on your mobile will tell many emergency responders to call that number first, if you're hurt and can't speak for yourself. You can check ahead of time to see how the local Red Cross handles their emergency registry and you can also decide with your family how you'll notify everyone of your status: Facebook may work, text messages might, but don't depend on mobile phone service.
Planning also includes things like knowing where the nearest hospital is, and if your house uses gas, how to turn off the gas if there's an earthquake that seems to have damaged your home (Note: if, for some reason, you turn off your gas, never turn it back on yourself, call the gas company and have them do it).
Again, Ready.gov, American Red Cross and your local (state or city) Emergency Management Office (or, sometimes, your fire department) can help you in developing plans.
Stay Informed
You need to know what's going on, especially in an emergency. Know where your emergency radio station is, and the NOAA station, have a radio that is battery or crank powered so you can stay informed even if the power is out.
Get some extra training, many local Red Cross organizations put on preparedness classes for the general public. Sometimes your fire bureau will do that as well.
Specific Needs
Some of us have specific health, or other, needs and in that case, it's extra important to prepare before an emergency happens. Emergency planners work hard to be aware of the different populations in their area but both finances and imagination create limits to what they can do.
People with mobility problems need to plan their evacuation routes carefully and, if you live alone, you should try and enlist a neighbor in being an on-site buddy. Even if they can't help you physically (or you don't want them to), they can call emergency service or act as a source of information when emergency responders show up to help.
If you are someone who uses dialysis, you should work with your dialysis provider to find out what their emergency plans are and what you should to in an emergency. Dialysis centers are required as part of FEMA to have emergency plans.
Some local governments have registries where people with functional needs can voluntarily register so that first responders are aware ahead of time that someone uses a wheelchair, or has oxygen in their house, or other critical needs. If your local government doesn't have something like that, call your nearest fire station and see if they have a way of preserving that information - especially if you use oxygen, fire fighters really like to know that ahead of time.
If you need life-saving medication, discuss with your doctor if there's any way to get enough spare for a couple of days (or longer, but that's a long shot). I've never heard of an insurance company covering 'emergency meds' but you can call and see.
Diet Restrictions
If you have significant dietary restrictions, it will be important to make sure you have food you can eat stored and available. Emergency shelter food is usually MRE's or similar emergency rations (if it's an extensive or long term evacuation) and it's extremely unlikely that they will have special diet food in any quantity at all. If there is a call to evacuate to a shelter, you should try and bring some of your own food if at all possible and if not, notify the shelter staff as soon as you can that you have medically necessary dietary needs.
Queer and Transfolk
For all the attempts emergency planners make, they have blind spots and sexual minorities definitely fall into that blind spot almost all the time, keeping safe, together, and at least moderately comfortable will fall heavily on you.
If you have a same-sex partner it's extremely important that you include a copy of a power of attorney or other medical sharing form, or a DP registry form, in your emergency gear, this can help keep you together and ensure access if there's an emergency or evacuation. Your out of state contact should be someone who is aware of and comfortable with, your relationship.
For transfolk, problems are most likely to occur in ensuring you have hormones or other medications at hand, and if there is an evacuation or you are going to be staying at a shelter. Do the very best you can to ensure you have extra hormones/medications so that you don't run out. A copy of the physician's letter stating you've completed your surgery/transition may help ensure you are allowed to shelter with the proper gender - most emergency shelters segregate based on sex and family. Awareness of trans needs is likely to be quite low among most first responders and emergency aid workers and it's entirely possible that your needs will be low priority. Try and find, or cultivate, an ally among the shelter workers.
If you have a local GBLT community or resource center, you can also contact them and see what information they have including GBLT needs in disaster planning. Even if there's nothing, the questions themselves may spark change.
Now, all that I've just written is an overview, your needs are going to be specific to your area and the risks you face. You can find more detailed information about all of this on the Red Cross and Ready.gov websites.
http://www.ready.gov/
http://www.redcross.org/
Please comment on Dreamwidth because it isn't run by the Russian Mob!
http://xtricks.dreamwidth.org/82919.html: link to the original post
Emergency Preparedness is generally pushed by various government organizations and usually in response to things like earthquakes or tornadoes. But, preparedness works for all sorts of emergencies, even relatively 'minor' ones like winter storms that leave you holed up in your apartment for a few days, or windstorms that tear down power lines and leave communities without power. Even fires, or car accidents can be made much less frightening with a little preparedness ahead of time.
There are lots of resources and advice out there - up to and including reserving space in the luxury bomb shelter hotel. But for most of us, we don't need to go that far.
The three basic ideas are:
Build a Kit
The adage was to make an emergency kit that will keep your entire family safe and fed for 72 hrs. Nowadays, with cuts in services and the recognition of actual response times in large scale emergencies, longer than that is better - but how long is still up in the air. Still a 72 hr kit is the base on which everything else is built. Some people are starting to include their home gardens as part of their emergency planning - not a bad idea, in my opinion.
Believe it or not, you probably have most of what you need for a 72 hr kit in your pantry; three days worth of canned or shelf-stable food (just make sure you have a manual can opener!). The thing that most people don't have is enough water. Every person in a household needs 1 gallon of water per day, ½ per day for small-ish animals like cats. If you buy bottled water, buy some extra each time you go until you have enough. You can even store water from the tap in those huge liter soda bottles; though you'll need to rotate the water more frequently than with pre-sealed water (do not use the translucent 'milk jug' style bottles).
There's also unexpected sources of water in your home; the holding tank of your toilet contains clean water, and if you have a water heater that is not one of the newfangled 'no tank' types, you have a huge reservoir of water there too - there are instructions on the 'net on how to access the water in your hot water tank in an emergency.
Your kits should also include extra medication, an extra pair of glasses if you need glasses (like, say the old pair that was replaced by your newer ones) and any other specialized things you need. Blankets, flashlights, a campstove if you want to have hot food during a power outage and a weather/emergency radio fill out much of the rest of the basics. If you're a camper, you're waay ahead of the game and all you need to do is make sure your camping supplies are somewhere you can get at them in an emergency
You should prepare a kit for your pet as well, food, water, toys, a copy of their vaccination records, a carry case or leash, cat litter or poop bags (you need human poop bags in your human kit too - small garbage bags with twist ties does fine). Most shelters, if they'll take animals at all, won't take them if they don't have collars, leashes, or cages. Service animals stay with their people but you need to make sure you have proof that they are a service animal (not a companion animal, alas).
Kits need first aid supplies, extra clothes, blankets and so on. American Red Cross and Ready.gov are both great sites for details on building a kit. Kits can also be pre-purchased and there are tips on building ones on a budget. I've just given a brief overview; look at those sites for the important details.
The most important thing about making kits is that you don't have to do it all at once, if your finances are tight, start small and continue to build over time. That's what I've had to do. Each step, no matter how small, can make a big difference.
Where you put your kit is as important as what's in it. Storing it up in the attic or someplace you can't get to it (back of a crowded garage) makes life difficult for you when you need it right then. Some people store a backpack next to their bed, others store a case in the living room, or - in small spaces - toss a fabric over it a made their kit an end table. Wherever you put it, you need to be able to find it in the middle of the night, in the dark.
Make a Plan
Really, this should be for everyone, anywhere - making a plan can save anguish if there's a house fire, a car accident, or an earthquake.
Planning means sitting down with your family and discussing what you'd do if there was an emergency, where would you meet if you couldn't get home? What out-of-state person would you ask to be your central contact if there's a large scale disaster where you are? Everyone needs to know how to evacuate the home, and where to meet up when you've done that. Everyone needs to have an emergency contact name on their person - programming 'ICE' before a name on your mobile will tell many emergency responders to call that number first, if you're hurt and can't speak for yourself. You can check ahead of time to see how the local Red Cross handles their emergency registry and you can also decide with your family how you'll notify everyone of your status: Facebook may work, text messages might, but don't depend on mobile phone service.
Planning also includes things like knowing where the nearest hospital is, and if your house uses gas, how to turn off the gas if there's an earthquake that seems to have damaged your home (Note: if, for some reason, you turn off your gas, never turn it back on yourself, call the gas company and have them do it).
Again, Ready.gov, American Red Cross and your local (state or city) Emergency Management Office (or, sometimes, your fire department) can help you in developing plans.
Stay Informed
You need to know what's going on, especially in an emergency. Know where your emergency radio station is, and the NOAA station, have a radio that is battery or crank powered so you can stay informed even if the power is out.
Get some extra training, many local Red Cross organizations put on preparedness classes for the general public. Sometimes your fire bureau will do that as well.
Specific Needs
Some of us have specific health, or other, needs and in that case, it's extra important to prepare before an emergency happens. Emergency planners work hard to be aware of the different populations in their area but both finances and imagination create limits to what they can do.
People with mobility problems need to plan their evacuation routes carefully and, if you live alone, you should try and enlist a neighbor in being an on-site buddy. Even if they can't help you physically (or you don't want them to), they can call emergency service or act as a source of information when emergency responders show up to help.
If you are someone who uses dialysis, you should work with your dialysis provider to find out what their emergency plans are and what you should to in an emergency. Dialysis centers are required as part of FEMA to have emergency plans.
Some local governments have registries where people with functional needs can voluntarily register so that first responders are aware ahead of time that someone uses a wheelchair, or has oxygen in their house, or other critical needs. If your local government doesn't have something like that, call your nearest fire station and see if they have a way of preserving that information - especially if you use oxygen, fire fighters really like to know that ahead of time.
If you need life-saving medication, discuss with your doctor if there's any way to get enough spare for a couple of days (or longer, but that's a long shot). I've never heard of an insurance company covering 'emergency meds' but you can call and see.
Diet Restrictions
If you have significant dietary restrictions, it will be important to make sure you have food you can eat stored and available. Emergency shelter food is usually MRE's or similar emergency rations (if it's an extensive or long term evacuation) and it's extremely unlikely that they will have special diet food in any quantity at all. If there is a call to evacuate to a shelter, you should try and bring some of your own food if at all possible and if not, notify the shelter staff as soon as you can that you have medically necessary dietary needs.
Queer and Transfolk
For all the attempts emergency planners make, they have blind spots and sexual minorities definitely fall into that blind spot almost all the time, keeping safe, together, and at least moderately comfortable will fall heavily on you.
If you have a same-sex partner it's extremely important that you include a copy of a power of attorney or other medical sharing form, or a DP registry form, in your emergency gear, this can help keep you together and ensure access if there's an emergency or evacuation. Your out of state contact should be someone who is aware of and comfortable with, your relationship.
For transfolk, problems are most likely to occur in ensuring you have hormones or other medications at hand, and if there is an evacuation or you are going to be staying at a shelter. Do the very best you can to ensure you have extra hormones/medications so that you don't run out. A copy of the physician's letter stating you've completed your surgery/transition may help ensure you are allowed to shelter with the proper gender - most emergency shelters segregate based on sex and family. Awareness of trans needs is likely to be quite low among most first responders and emergency aid workers and it's entirely possible that your needs will be low priority. Try and find, or cultivate, an ally among the shelter workers.
If you have a local GBLT community or resource center, you can also contact them and see what information they have including GBLT needs in disaster planning. Even if there's nothing, the questions themselves may spark change.
Now, all that I've just written is an overview, your needs are going to be specific to your area and the risks you face. You can find more detailed information about all of this on the Red Cross and Ready.gov websites.
http://www.ready.gov/
http://www.redcross.org/
Please comment on Dreamwidth because it isn't run by the Russian Mob!
http://xtricks.dreamwidth.org/82919.html: link to the original post