Letters from NYC

Disaster Preparedness

My dear blog dad, Harvey, has a post up on “emergency preparedness” inspired by Kim du Toit's plan. I figured I should offer my experience and 2 cents to this discussion as someone who’s been trained in this area by the American Red Cross.

My first and perhaps most important comment, is that there are different “Go Bag” needs, depending on the type of emergency you may encounter and the type of area you live in. Emergency kits are great ideas, which work best when residents have advanced warning and provided the disaster happens after everyone is home together.

I have 2 “Go Bags” in my front closet and a smaller version under my desk at work. My primary "Go Bag" is for evacuation in the event of a man-made disaster, such as the nuclear power plant accident (that’s 50 miles from me blowning-up), or an environmental or biological disaster that would put New York Residents at risk. Here’s what I have in my “Go bag” for a man-made disaster:
- Copies of important documents in a waterproof ziploc bag (insurance cards, photo IDs, proof of address, etc.) for me and my son.
- Extra set of car and house keys
- Emergency Credit and/or ATM cards and emergency cash, especially in small denominations.
Bottled water, water purifying tablets and small, light-weight, high-energy, non-perishable food such as energy or granola bars
- Flashlight, emergency AM/FM radio and extra batteries. (wind-up radios would be better as they don’t require batteries).
- Medication and other essential personal items. Be sure to refill medications before they expire. Keep a plastic covered list of the medications each member of your household takes, why they take them, and their dosages.
- First aid kit
- Sturdy, comfortable shoes, lightweight raingear, and a mylar blanket
- Primary contacts and meeting place information for your household, and a small regional map.
- Child care supplies or other special care items like diapers and diaper rash lotion
- A big enough water proof back pack or bag, that is comfortable and can be carried in the event a person/family has to travel on foot for several days. As you've seen in movies, and as I experienced first hand the morning of 9/11, the only effective way out of any city is on foot. During the northeast power outage in the summer of 2002, drivers were stuck in their cars for hours, ran out of gas and were forced to abandon their overheated cars causing grid-lock for miles.

Of course, the above bag contents are different from what I have in my second ‘emergency kit’. That’s because the 2nd kit is in case of a natural disaster. We don’t get tornadoes in NYC, but we do get affected by Noreaster’s which are very strong wind-rain-snow storms at the beginning and end of each winter. During a natural disaster what I expect most to happen is that there will be transportation/communication delays or disruptions, with possible power outages. Because Noreaster’s, like hurricanes, are the type of events which someone can prepare for in advance, the type of emergency kit that Kim du Toit has prepared is perfect; provided you have the type of home structure you can hunker down in. Those are the kind of supplies a family can store for emergencies, as there’s no mobility involved. Because how far could he go if gas supply is scarce like in a hurricane? In that type of disaster, your home or apartment then becomes your emergency shelter.

That is different from man-made disasters, and especially a man-made disaster in an urban setting. First, there isn’t enough gasoline to keep traffic moving and there aren’t enough evacuation routes or highways, for that matter to accommodate everyone that has a car. That’s why my evacuation plan is for walking away towards a particular ferry line which would transport me to within 3 miles of my home. I would then pick up my son and either go into our safe room or leave with our go bag to one of 3 alternate locations depending on location, intensity, severity and possible duration of the disaster and available transportation. I have 5 disaster preparedness plans for the following possible events: biological (if a poinson is released in the air, or the food or water supply is poisoned), natural (such as hurricanes or noreasters, nuclear,and power failure. For help in preparing for different types of disasters, you can read the NYC Household Emergency Preparedness Guide.

Of course, disaster planning for myself is nothing compared to the lengths of planning I’ve gone to in relation to preparing for my son’s well-being. You would be surprised how unprepared many schools and hospitals still are, even in areas where tornados and terrorists are a reality. Jon’s post on school bus takeover’s is just the tip of the ice berg, as I found out.

When I was selecting schools and after-school programs for my son, three questions which baffled most directors were:
- What plans did you have in effect that you executed on the morning of 9-11?
- How have these plans changed since then?
- How frequently do you practice your emergency/disaster preparedness plan?

Of the 19 School Directors I interviewed, only 2 had an actual Intruder and Disaster Plans in place. In their plans, staff and students learn about emergency procedures, they practice them and kids are playfully quizzed on them 3 times a year. I wonder how many parents out there can tell me what plans their schools have in place in the event an armed intruder or a gas explosion occurs within the school. What are the channels of communication? Where are the congregation points (for parents and kids to reunite) both in and out of the school?

If something happens at Harvey’s job, how will his Beloved Wife know how to get in touch with him or where to meet up w/Harvey if cell service is disrupted and the highway to and from their home or between them is impassible.

As I wrote the last sentence I began to cry because I realized I was channeling my friend, Rick, through my typing. You see… I never took security or personal safety too seriously until I lived in the Philippines and was able to foil a kidnapping attempt. Like many of you, I always assumed (aided by denial and hope) that I and my loved ones would be safe. Rick got on my case when I began working for one of the firms at the World Trade Center. In the process, he opened my eyes and showed me the importance of disaster preparedness. It was his insight, planning and execution that led his firm to lose only 3 permanent employees on 9/11. Unfortunately, he was 1 of the 3 that died. Having exited the building, he went back in to help a few consultants who had ignored his warning in the drive to finish their project. On that day, he also helped employees of other firms who had no disaster readiness plans in place, and who would have died in the towers when the primary exits were blocked. Which brings me to the question he would ambush people with whatever floor he happened to be on: Can you tell me where ALL the emergency exits are on this floor and where the exits lead to? Do you know?

Posted by Michele at June 2, 2006 01:36 PM | TrackBack