Here is the latest round-up of news about emergency preparedness. It is a subject that is generating more and more interest in the media as natural and man-made disasters continue to accelerate throughout the world.
From Calgary, Canada:
The city has put together a booklet with information to help people with disabilities prepare themselves for emergencies and disasters.
The Persons with Disabilities Guide has practical advice on how to get prepared, a personal assessment sheet, and a checklist that can be used to tell others about any special needs for a person with a disability.
"We know that persons with disabilities can be impacted more severely by an emergency or disaster more than others," said Tom Sampson, chief of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA), in a release.
"A minor inconvenience to most of us, like a power outage, can be much more serious for people who rely on power for mobility or medical needs."
The city launched the guide on Thursday to mark the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
Jack Smart, who is on the city's advisory committee for accessibility, says being in a wheelchair, he knows how a few things can make a big difference.
"Being ready, you know, with medications and supplies and battery and contact lists, seems like common sense, but we sometimes forget that in our busy lives," he said.
More than 90,000 Calgarians have a disability, the city says.
The Persons with Disabilities Guide is available online or by calling 311.
From Albany, New York:
Darrel Tedisch wants to know how prepared Albany residents are in the event of an emergency. To this end, he put together an online survey to help residents and officials alike gauge their readiness.
As the City of Albany’s Emergency Management Specialist, Tedisch helped draft the city’s Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan, which city officials are in the process of updating..
Natural Hazard Mitigation Plans cover ways in which a city will respond to emergencies brought about through floods, earthquakes, severe weather events, volcanoes, droughts or landslides.
The NHMP is a little known-document, which is why Tedisch wants to engage the public.
“Most folks just don’t think of emergencies until they’re involved in one,” he said. “What can you do as a city government to let people know that they need to get prepared?”
The city’s operating budget allocates $10,000 for emergency response, and typically that money is reserved for supplies or equipment, not for training, awareness programs or drills. Linn County Public Health, as well as citizen volunteer groups like the Linn County Medical Reserve Corps, help to offset the burden.
Still, response and management in the event of a real emergency remains a puzzle for the city. As it stands, the city relies on literature generated through FEMA for any public-awareness campaigns, and participates in FEMA-sponsored drills, such as the statewide earthquake exercise conducted last October.
“In that exercise we discovered through the data that we could expect somewhere in the neighborhood of 560 people who would need to be sheltered,” he said. “That’s a lot of people, and you know most of our shelters are in schools, and all of our schools except for Timber Ridge (middle school) and now a little bit of Central (elementary), were built in the 1950’s. They’re not built to withstand a major earthquake. So that’s going to create a problem.”
And from the Dallas-Fort Worth area comes this item on a couple selling a house with all the amenities, including a Dooms Day Room:
Perched high on a private road with sweeping views of Possum Kingdom Lake, a 4,500-square-foot luxury home listed for nearly $1 million is grabbing its fair share of attention.
But actually, it's what's underneath this custom floor plan on Honeysuckle Court featuring three bedrooms and a world-class kitchen that has buyers interested: A 1,000-square-foot "doomsday" bunker, equipped to handle pretty much any catastrophe you could imagine.
"We've had some people just come because of that," said listing agent Dee Dee Jordan.
The home on Honeysuckle Court has a spectacular view... which may be why this bunker is equipped with a periscope.
The bunker is accessed through a secret door and a steep set of stairs that leads to a living space complete with a kitchen, bathroom, bunk beds, and enough storage space to provide food for a dozen people for 10 years.
Currently, there is enough ready-to-eat and dehydrated food to fill two separate storage rooms.
Jordan said almost all of it will be included as part of any sale.
There is also a periscope, a nuclear and biological chemical filter system, a propane tank, back-up generators, and solar panels.
"They [owners] have one of these in every home they have, and it's their belief they want that type of security," Jordan explained.
Hikingware.com reminds you that you don't need to be a millionaire with a Doomsday bunker to have peace of mind about emergency preparedness. Even on the most modest of budgets, you can still afford to be ready for any disaster, with a little planning and budgeting.
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