What to Do About Your Pets in an Emergency

There are a number of resources available to remind pet owners what to do in the event of an emergency. Most importantly is the need to prepare. Make sure you have enough pet food and medications if your pet needs them.

See below for other suggestions.
Pet Disaster Safety Checklist

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Emergency Kit

Take a moment to download the following checklist of what you and your family need to include in your emergency preparedness kit.

Prepare City Emergency Kit

Tips for Parents

English: A neighborhood watch sign attached to a door. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From the National Neighborhood Watch: Tips for Parents Kids need to know how to keep themselves safe and knowing this will build the self-confidence they need to . . . Kids need to know how to keep themselves safe and knowing this will build the self-confidence they need to handle emergencies effectively. You can make sure your children are prepared by teaching them how to act in an emergency and planning ahead. Make sure kids know their full name, parents’ full names, address (including city and state), and phone number (including area code). Explain to kids that an emergency is a situation where they need the help of a police officer, firefighter, or doctor. Discuss or role-play different situations and ask children to identify the emergencies. Teach children to call 911 or 0 in an emergency and explain that this will bring a police officer or firefighter to the emergency. With a play phone or one that’s disconnected, have children practice dialing 911 or 0 and telling the “operator” their emergency, full name, full address, and telephone number. Have children also practice dialing on a cell phone that’s turned off. Talk with kids about what to do when they need help if it’s not an emergency, such as if they are home alone and have a headache. Make sure your children know how to reach you at all times, and be sure that you can reach them. Post emergency numbers by the phone, including your work and cell phone numbers. With your children, pick a safe place they can go to near your home if they need help right away. Find out if your neighborhood has a McGruff House. If not, consider starting your own. Find an alternative place your children can go if they cannot reach home, such as a school, library, fire station, or other safe place.

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FEMA Has Toolkit for Business Earthquake Survival

FEMA has an excellent toolkit for businesses on how to prepare for and mitigate damages caused by an earthquake.

If you click here you will find numerous resources to prepare your business. Do it today so that you can stay in business and fully recover after a major earthquake.

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American Red Cross Ready Rating Program Helps You Get Prepared

English: Washington, DC, July 7, 2006 -- A Red Cross "ready to go" preparedness kit showing the bag and it's contents. Red Cross photograph (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Preparedness Essentials

The Ready Rating program is designed to help your business or organization get better prepared for emergencies. Below are the five cornerstone preparedness actions of the Ready Rating program. When you join the Ready Rating program, you'll get access to a detailed Ready Rating Program Guide that guides you through each of these steps. This condensed version of the Program Guide is designed to provide a snapshot of how the American Red Cross can help your business get better prepared.

The 123-point Red Cross Ready Rating 123 Assessment tool and Ready Rating 123 Program Guide are the result of a comprehensive review of preparedness recommendations conducted by the American Red Cross National Office of Preparedness and Health and Safety Services, the national Ready Rating team, and the American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council. All Ready Rating program steps and recommendations are grounded in scientific research, best practices and/or expert opinion from respected professionals representing multiple disciplines and perspectives.

1. Commit to preparedness

This step indicates your commitment to increasing your business' or organization’s level of emergency preparedness during the course of the calendar year. You will be working to make your business or organization more prepared and to enhance overall community preparedness. Key actions for this step include:

• Having your business or organization make preparedness a priority by having senior leadership involved
• Appointing a Ready Rating liaison dedicated to completing the 123 Assessment

2. Conduct a Hazard Vulnerability Assessment
This step involves gathering information about possible emergencies that could impact your business and your facility’s capabilities to respond to and recover from a disaster or other emergency. Key actions for this step include:

• Knowing your region and the types of disasters most likely to impact your business
• Obtaining a Hazard Vulnerability Assessment from your local emergency management agency
• Considering which hazards your facility is most likely to experience, based on proximity and past events
• Knowing your business or organization’s current capacity to prepare for, respond to and recover from a disaster 
• Assessing the physical capacity, supplies, equipment and human resources of your facility to resist damage during a disaster

3. Develop an emergency response plan
An emergency response plan describes the steps your business or organization will take to protect your business and employees before, during and after an emergency. Key actions for this step include:

• Identifying an emergency planning committee that is responsible for developing and implementing an emergency response plan
• Developing a written plan describing how your business or organization will respond during a disaster or medical emergency
• Creating a Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP)

4. Implement your emergency response plan
This step involves continuing to work with the planning committee to implement the emergency response plan with employees. The key to implementing the plan is to make preparedness a part of the corporate culture. Key actions for this step include:

• Training employees on a regular basis about what to do during a disaster or emergency
• Acquiring and maintaining needed safety equipment and emergency preparedness supplies
• Showing employees how to be prepared at work and at home so they are better equipped to help the business respond to and recover from an emergency
• Conducting and assessing regular drills and exercises to determine the readiness of your employees and facilities

5. Help your community get prepared
Now that your company and employees are prepared, make at least one additional commitment to ensure that the overall community is prepared for a disaster or other emergency. Key actions for this step include:

• Hosting blood drives
• Contributing supplies and/or services to emergency response efforts
• Adopting a local school or school district and support their disaster and emergency preparedness program

 

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Lessons from the Zombie Invasion

FEMA Zombie Unit, Front (Photo credit: Arthaey)

Tonight Long Beach is being invaded by zombies. In keeping with the Centers for Disease Control's efforts to warn residents on how to prepare for any emergency, the following is an exercise on what you can do in your neighborhood to prepare for this invasion (or a possible earthquake,whichever you believe will occur first).

 LESSON

This lesson can be done individually or in pairs. Give the students 2-3 minutes to create a list of items that they think they would need in an emergency situation. If zombies, or real emergencies, are headed your way, it is important to be prepared.

Have the students stand up with their individual lists. Start the following narrative, and ask the students to sit down if the item mentioned in the story is not on their list. The last person standing is the most prepared in the event of an emergency.

Emergency Scenario:

You and a friend are in the middle of a zombie invasion. There is no time to head to the store, so you are going to have to make do with what you have already put in your emergency kit.

1.     The zombies are starting to shuffle into the city. They have overrun the facilities management outpost and the city water has been compromised. It’s time to make use of your bottled water supply.

2.     After hearing that the zombies are coming in from the west, you want to check on your other friends and family members. Pull out your emergency contacts and your cell phone.

3.     The zombies have been attempting to tear down the power lines. The lights have flickered a few times before finally shutting off. Now you are without electricity. This means the refrigerator and microwave are out. Do you have non-perishable food on hand to make dinner?

4.     It’s starting to get dark and you stumble over furniture looking for a flashlight. Do you have one?

5.     All of that stumbling caused you to scrape your knee on the coffee table. Pull out your first aid kit to bandage that up.

6.     It’s dark out and you’ve camped out in the basement, the most secure part of the house. Do you have a blanket or sleeping bag to keep you warm?

7.     While trying to sleep, you hear loud noises and start to worry. You try to turn on your radio for the latest updates.

8.     Why is the radio not working? That’s right, it needs batteries. If you don’t have any, you can use the ones from your flashlight… but ONLY if you have a candle with matches. You still need a light source.

9.     According to the radio report, the mayor has ordered an evacuation. You quickly gather your supplies and make your way to the car. Don’t forget that the electricity is out and you need cash on hand to make any purchases.

10.  Wait, did the mayor say that Main Street is closed and to head east towards Franklin? Which road should you use? Pull out your map to navigate to safety.

Who survived? Who did not? What was the most common item that knocked teams out of the running.

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Italian Court Convicts Scientists for Failing to Warn About Earthquake that Took 300 Lives

It's a little far fetched that any court of law would hold scientists responsible for the 300 who died in a major earthquake because they failed to "warn" residents that an earthquake could happen -- but this just did occur in Italy. These scientists will serve 6 years in prison. Click here to read article on the court ruling. Also check out other stories below.

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