Be Prepared . . .

Help may not always be readily available. At home or at work, routines can be disrupted with little or no warning by natural disasters, fires or other catastrophic events.

Plan Ahead
It is important to identify and learn about the hazards most likely to occur in your community. Making a plan and sharing this information (link to family communication) with your loved ones may prevent needless confusion, worry and injuries.

Learn about the most likely hazards, both natural and man-made, for your neighborhood, worksite and community. Determine the safest course of action for you and your family for each hazard. In some situations, it may be better to stay where you are, also called sheltering in place. This would be necessary during a tornado or hazardous chemical release, for example. Sometimes, leaving an area to escape danger or evacuation is the safer course of action in situations such as a fire or hurricane. Plan for your familys comfort during disasters. Severe weather, earthquakes, flooding and other emergencies may cause utility outages. Prepare a kit that can meet your households basic needs (food, water, etc.) for 72 hours. Don't forget a kit for your car. Practice with your family what to do in an emergency. Conduct regular drills. Know how to keep in touch. Local telephone service may be interrupted, sometimes, it is easier to contact a family member in another state. Each family member should know how to contact a local and out-of-state emergency contact to advise if they are safe.

Get Training

Become trained in first aid and CPR with AED. Ideally, at least one person in each household and workplace should have these lifesaving skills. Research shows 75 percent of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur at home and 25 percent of hospital emergency room visits could be eliminated if someone knew first aid. Emergency care skills can mean the difference between life and death, temporary and permanent disability, and short- and long-term recovery. Join your local Community Emergency Response Team. CERT educates you about disasters and hazards that may impact your community. It provides training in basic disaster response, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, and your community's emergency response plans. CERT members can assist others in their neighborhood or workplace following an event.

http://www.nsc.org/safety_home/Resources/Pages/EmergencyPreparedness.aspx

Principles of Emergency Management

In 2007, Dr. Wayne Blanchard of FEMAs Emergency Management Higher Education Project, at the direction of Dr. Cortez Lawrence, Superintendent of FEMAs Emergency Management Institute, convened a working group of emergency management practitioners and academics to consider principles of emergency management. This project was prompted by the realization that while numerous books, articles and papers referred to principles of emergency management, nowhere in the vast array of literature on the subject was there an agreed-upon definition of what these principles were. The group agreed on eight principles that will be used to guide the development of a doctrine of emergency management. The summary provided below lists these eight principles and provides a brief description of each. Principles: Emergency management must be:

1. Comprehensive emergency managers consider and take into account all hazards, all phases, all stakeholders and all impacts relevant to disasters. 2. Progressive emergency managers anticipate future disasters and take preventive and preparatory measures to build disaster-resistant and disaster-resilient communities. 3. Risk-driven emergency managers use sound risk management principles (hazard identification, risk analysis, and impact analysis) in assigning priorities and resources. 4. Integrated emergency managers ensure unity of effort among all levels of government and all elements of a community. 5. Collaborative emergency managers create and sustain broad and sincere relationships among individuals and organizations to encourage trust, advocate a team atmosphere, build consensus, and facilitate communication. 6. Coordinated emergency managers synchronize the activities of all relevant stakeholders to achieve a common purpose. 7. Flexible emergency managers use creative and innovative approaches in solving disaster challenges. 8. Professional emergency managers value a science and knowledge-based approach; based on education, training, experience, ethical practice, public stewardship and continuous improvement.

Tools
In recent years the continuity feature of emergency management has resulted in a new concept, Emergency Management Information Systems (EMIS). For continuity and interoperability between emergency management stakeholders, EMIS supports the emergency management process by providing an infrastructure that integrates emergency plans at all levels of government and nongovernment involvement and by utilizing the management of all related resources (including human and other resources) for all four phases of emergencies. In the healthcare field, hospitals utilize HICS (Hospital Incident Command System) which provides structure and organization in a clearly defined chain of command with set responsibilities for each division. Professional Preparedness Preparedness is how we change behavior to limit the impact of disaster events on people. Preparedness is a continuous cycle of planning, managing, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, creating, evaluating, monitoring and improving activities to ensure effective coordination and the enhancement of capabilities of concerned organizations to prevent, protect against, respond to, recover from, create resources and mitigate the effects of natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters. In the preparedness phase, emergency managers develop plans of action carefully to manage and counter their risks and take action to build the necessary capabilities needed to implement such plans. Common preparedness measures include: communication plans with easily understandable terminology and methods. proper maintenance and training of emergency services, including mass human resources such as community emergency response teams.

development and exercise of emergency population warning methods combined with emergency shelters and evacuation plans. stockpiling, inventory, streamline foods supplies, and maintain other disaster supplies and equipment. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), recommends the following for a disaster preparedness kit: one gallon of water per person per day for three days, non-perishable food for each person for three days, battery powered or hand crank radio and extra batteries, flashlights for each person and extra batteries, first aid kit, whistle, filter mask or a cotton t-shirt for each person, moist towlettes, garbage bags, and plastic ties, wrench or pliers, manual can opener, plastic sheeting and duct tape, important family documents, daily prescription medicine, other things include diapers/formula for babies and special need items. Typically a three day supply of food and water is the minimum recommendation, having a larger supply means longer survival (Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA), n.d.). Small comfort items can be added like a few toys for children, a candy bar, or a book to read. These small items that do not take up much space can come in handy to increase moods during survival time. develop organizations of trained volunteers among civilian populations. Professional emergency workers are rapidly overwhelmed in mass emergencies so trained, organized, responsible volunteers are extremely valuable. Organizations like Community Emergency Response Teams and the Red Cross are ready sources of trained volunteers. The latter's emergency management system has gotten high ratings from both California, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Another aspect of preparedness is casualty prediction, the study of how many deaths or injuries to expect for a given kind of event. This gives planners an idea of what resources need to be in place to respond to a particular kind of event. Emergency Managers in the planning phase should be flexible, and all encompassing carefully recognizing the risks and exposures of their respective regions and employing unconventional, and atypical means of support. Depending on the region municipal, or private sector emergency services can rapidly be depleted and heavily taxed. Non-governmental organizations that offer desired resources, i.e., transportation of displaced home-owners to be conducted by local school district buses, evacuation of flood victims to be performed by mutual aide agreements between fire departments and rescue squads, should be identified early in planning stages, and practiced with regularity.

Personal Preparedness

Preparedness
Personal preparedness focuses on preparing equipment and procedures for use when a disaster occurs, i.e., planning. Preparedness measures can take many forms including the construction of shelters, installation of warning devices, creation of back-up life-line services (e.g., power, water, sewage), and rehearsing evacuation plans. Two simple measures can help prepare the individual for sitting out the event or evacuating, as necessary. For evacuation, a disaster supplies kit may be prepared and for sheltering purposes a stockpile of supplies may be created. The preparation of a survival kit such as a "72-hour kitis often advocated by authorities. These kits may include food, medicine, flashlights, candles and money. Also, putting valuable items in safe area is also recommended.