National Preparedness Month - Start With Your Home and Family!

Natural disasters are a common occurrence throughout the world. Disasters are a part of everyone’s existence and we all need to be prepared for the simplest to the most devastating.

Look around at the disasters that have impacted us locally: the fires in the Milford Flats area, the Uinta Basin, Farmington Canyon and on the Utah/Nevada/ Idaho border. If we haven’t been involved in the flames and heat, we have all suffered from the smoke. We have also seen abnormally high temperatures over the past month. These have caused illnesses and even deaths to young and old alike. We have lost six miners, two rescue workers and a federal mine inspector. Last summer Southern Utah recorded dramatic losses due to massive flooding.

Houses crumbled into the river, folks could not get to their houses because they were surrounded by water and internal flood damage was phenomenal. If you look at all of the new construction of roads, offices, hospitals and even renovations of such places as the Capitol the common theme is earthquake proof.

There are three steps to being prepared. First, plan your emergency protocol to evacuate as safely as possible. Second, talk with your family and decide what is important to all of you. Keep it together in one place so that if disaster strikes you can easily collect it and leave your home. And third, protect your home and family by knowing where everyone is and how to reach them. Consider your critical needs. Some of the basics will include food, water, shelter, power for your home as well as for a vehicle and communication. Have on hand at least a 72 hour kit for each member of your family.

In the case of an earthquake, the suggestion by FEMA is to have enough prepared to help you and your loved ones survive for up to three months. Remember to check on your neighbors after an emergency, especially those who are elderly or disabled.

If you want to learn more about disaster preparedness you can contact the American Red Cross. They have all sorts of information as well as sample emergency kits. You can contact them at http://www.redcross.org. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has developed a 165 page disaster manual that is a wonderful resource. You can find it at http://www.fema.gov. These are great resources for you, but at times you may want a human being to assist you in preparing your personal emergency plan.

The team at Health Watch is glad to assist its patients with emergency planning. When you are ready to make a plan, we will be there, ready to help.

Mary Kroeger, RN
Health Watch
Simply Seniors News http://www.SimplySeniorsNews.com

Article Source: Mary Kroeger

The Secret of Teaching Disaster Preparedness!

Headlines are full of hurricanes, earthquakes, bird flu, terrorism, and other dangers of the world in which we live. However, most civilians aren’t prepared to face a disaster or even a family emergency. This begs the question “Why not?” This article is intended for those who want to change this fact by teaching others, including their own families, to be better prepared, safer, and more self-reliant.

We’ve identified several “learning obstacles” that prevent individuals and families from being as emergency ready as they should be. We’ll list them here quickly then cover each in more detail and discuss ways to jump these learning hurdles.

Since we’re talking about educating families – the cornerstone of all reaction plans - let’s use the acronym F.A.M.I.L.I.E.S.:

Fear – “It’s too scary to think about.”

Attention Span – “I’m too busy to learn or do anything new.”

Media – “There’s always a weatherman in the hurricane.”

Info Levels Now – “A 72-hour kit is all I need.”

Lifestyle Ties – “I don’t want to change the way I live.”

Income – “I can’t afford to buy the gear or take the steps.”

Ego – “I’m so important that others will look after me.”

Selflessness – “I’m not worried about me, I want to help others.”

Why is it important to increase the level of civilian preparedness training over what we have through sites like ready.gov? That question can be a series of articles on its own, but the 4-part short answer is one, most free websites have only the bare minimum info; two, the fewer victims we have in a disaster the better off we’ll all be; three, all business continuity plans rest on the ability of employees to return to work; and four, the term “civilians” includes the families of first responders. The more prepared the family, the more able is the responder to report for duty.

As we cover each learning obstacle below, you’ll find a brief description of the problem followed by a few specific tips on how to deal with that particular issue. When teaching, remember that people have different learning styles. Visual learners do best by watching. They are receptive to videos, PowerPoint, or live demos. Auditory learners prefer verbal communication such as podcasts, or books on tape. Kinesthetic learners benefit from hands-on experience. Try to incorporate a little of each into your presentations.

Fear: Fear is probably the number one reason people don’t prepare. Too many people focus on the dangers they may face in disasters, rather than the benefits of self-reliance. Worse, many so-called experts dwell on nothing but the threat since they have little to no new preparedness information. Let’s look at ways to teach readiness while avoiding fear:

Take a tip from insurance salespeople. They focus on the benefits of the policy rather than the reasons you might need one. Accentuate the positives of preparedness, not worst case scenarios.

Use “mundane” threats to get people to prepare for more dire situations. For example, people living on the coast understand hurricanes and are receptive to helpful tips regarding evacuation. However, you might get a negative reaction with a “nuke in the harbor” scenario.

Teach preparedness without mentioning a threat. For example, focus on financial planning. It’s more economical to buy groceries in bulk and cook at home, and it’s also healthier. Guess what? This means you’ll have more food at home in a shelter-in-place situation. Also, encouraging families to take up camping as a hobby inadvertently helps prepare them for an evacuation.

Attention Span: With microwave ovens, ATMs, email, and so forth, we live in a world of instant gratification. We have become a society whose mantra is “Just give me the condensed intro, not the whole pamphlet.” We rarely take time to do a thorough and detailed job of anything, and the notion of adding things to the list, even something life-saving, is out of the question.

Most people don’t realize that being prepared for disaster takes only subtle modifications to your life and doesn’t require extensive study or training.
People in this category appreciate “helpful hints,” so break things down into bite-size pieces. Use simple (though detailed and thorough) checklists and bulleted lists rather than wordy text or long speeches. For one such list, see “50 Emergency Uses for Your Camera Phone” at http://www.disasterprep101.com/news.htm.

Show them how some aspects of preparedness can save time. For example, having more food in the pantry saves shopping time. Also, being current and comprehensive with your insurance policies and personal documentation will save months worth of time getting your life back on track after a disaster.

Media: News channels can be a double-edged sword. They’re great for emergency warnings, but sometimes contradict themselves. For example, weather stations will pass along evacuation warnings in advance of a hurricane, but then they’ll send a reporter out in the middle of it to give a live report. Some people see this and think hurricanes are no big deal. We’ve seen the same in minor chemical spills. Let your preparedness students know that: Things are always smaller and friendlier on TV than in real life. A picture of a snake isn’t the least bit alarming. However, turn one loose in your classroom…. (No, don’t actually do this!)

News sources live and die on ratings, viewers, and subscribers, and therefore take risks. However, these are usually controlled risks, since, for example, the weather reporters are usually in a side area and not in the direct path of the eye of the hurricane. So don’t do what they do, do what they say.

Info Levels Now: Most “emergency” sites on the internet with “readiness information” have nothing but variations of the 72-hour kit checklist. The other end of the spectrum finds all the “survivalist” info concerning edible plants and living off the land. These two extremes can mislead the public in two distinct ways. One, the simplistic info might tell people that a 72-hour kit is all they’ll need and the government will come protect them. Two, the other extreme relates to fear since it tends to tell people that “things will be so bad that you’ll need these survival skills.” The extremes should be avoided. Shoot for the more realistic middle ground.
“72-hour” kits are the absolute minimum. Recommending only a 72-hour kit is like telling a family on a vacation road-trip to get only enough gas to get to the next exit where there might be another station. If you teach outdoor survival skills, remind people that these skills aren’t the very next option after their 72-hour kit runs out. They’re there for the most severe cases in isolated incidents.

Bridge the gap between these extremes by providing instruction on how families can use simple measures to stay safe and secure for up to four weeks, either during an evacuation or extended shelter-in-place. A good example is the four weeks of food and water stored in the pantry. Four weeks is a more realistic figure and fills the void between simple kits and survival skills. For more thoughts, see “The Disaster Dozen: The Top Twelve Myths of Disaster Preparedness” at http://www.disasterprep101.com/news.htm.

Lifestyle Ties: Essentially, this is another form of fear. It’s the fear of changing one’s lifestyle to incorporate readiness, and it’s the fear of losing one’s current lifestyle in the wake of a disaster. Two points come into play here.
One of the main goals of true readiness training is the preservation of our lifestyle as we know it, and not just mere physical survival. Therefore when discussing disasters, cover their aftermath and what it will take for families to return to normal. Don’t cut the subject short.

Realistic preparedness doesn’t involve major changes, but incorporates subtle modifications to the things we already have and do. For example, the simple habit of topping off your vehicle’s gas tank three times a week is easy to develop and ensures you have as much fuel as possible in an emergency. Simple task, powerful results, no appreciable change in your lifestyle.

Income: Many people see ads for high-priced “disaster” goods and gear and assume that protecting their family will be a major financial investment. This isn’t necessarily the case. If done correctly, protective measures can actually save a family money, or at least zero itself out on your household budget.
In our discussion of the 4-week pantry we pointed out how storing this much food could actually save time and money.

You don’t need to buy expensive gear. In fact, we recommend finding things you need at thrift stores or yard sales, and in other cases, making your own gear. For example, our “mess kits” were made with leftover plastic dishes from microwave dinners. Part of any comprehensive family preparedness training should include a section on frugality, or how a family might save money by reducing expenses and through better household budgeting.

Ego: Ego can also be called self-esteem, and this can either go high or low. In the case of high self-esteem, some people may think, “I’m so important that others will take care of me.” Low self-esteem carries its own peculiarities as well. These folks might think, “No one will help me,” or “Nothing exciting ever happens here, so why prepare?” Though not directly ego-related, many people hold that same belief that “Nothing will happen here. Things happen to other people.”

Since we want to avoid generating fear, don’t fight the “I’ll be taken care of” attitude with stories of how bad things could get. Instead, use this high self-esteem by pointing out that one reason people don’t prepare is because their friends don’t. Therefore, tell this group the truth that they can help get others to prepare by being prepared themselves, and setting an example.

People with low self-esteem should be shown that self-reliance really is possible for them. These folks have low confidence levels. Once they see examples of how easy it is to be far more prepared and protected than they are, they’ll appreciate their new confidence and may continue their education on their own.

Selflessness: Many people are so concerned about others that they neglect themselves. This is one of the reasons we see incidents of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) in people that were never in the actual emergency. This type of distant stress is caused when these folks see bad things happen to other people but they can’t do anything about it.

A good reminder for this group is that you’re more able to help others if you yourself are well prepared. And guess what? “Others” includes pets!
In the stocked pantry example, you’ve helped others by already having your supplies, which makes for shorter lines and more stock on the shelves when the unprepared make that last-minute scramble for supplies at the grocery store.

You also help others by setting the example that preparedness is socially acceptable, much in the same way that we wear our seatbelts so our children will.
The most important point of all is that your main goal is to teach both the importance and techniques of disaster preparedness in order to make our world safer. So, we have one last acronym for you; the word T.E.A.C.H.

Treat each family member as unique.

Emphasize the benefits and not the threat.

Allow for different learning styles and speeds.

Confidence building is goal number one.

Help others to help themselves, and to then help others in turn.

About the author: Paul Purcell is a security analyst and preparedness consultant and is the author of “Disaster Prep 101” (http://www.disasterprep101.com)

Copyright 2006 Paul Purcell. Permission is granted to reprint this article provided all portions stay intact.

Article Source: Paul Purcell

More Storms of Life Happening For More People!

When you receive the Seal, God writes His Name in your forehead. When you carry His Name like this you belong to Him. And when you belong to Him you care about the rest of His creation too.

The Seal on your forehead is a little garden plot, a little slice of life of the earth. It is where you bear fruit. Either that or you are completely desolate and ravaged by stormy weather. You do not want that to happen to you. But it is happening on the rest of the earth.

Oxfam is a non-profit based in the UK working to end poverty and injustice. They have an uphill battle now with what they have found to be happening. They have made some measurements and found that natural disasters are on the rise.

And natural disasters are not just increasing a little. They are exploding! Weather events are becoming more frequent and at the same time more unpredictable and extreme.

In the early 1980s there were around 120 natural disasters per year in the world. Right now Oxfam says there are 500 happening every year. And who else has taken notice of this?

In the last 10 years the number of people affected by natural disasters has been 254 million per year. In the 10 years before that the numbers had been only 174 million people per year affected. That is a 70 percent increase.

In 1980 there were 60 major floods and wind-storms. In the year 2006 there were 240 floods and wind-storms and floods particularly are on the rise. And there has been no increase in volcanic eruptions to cause any changes in the atmosphere.

Sometimes these disasters are called acts of God. In this case they are probably not being caused by God. In this case they are probably being caused by humans. They are evidence of the effects of global warming happening now.

God does have a hand in it. He is making things a little more severe right now so people will wake up and take notice. This is what He did with hurricane Katrina and the others that followed.

Americans have been typically slow to notice and take any responsibility. But when you are sealed your Seal becomes a little garden. It is a little spiritual ecosystem where things grow up unto new life.

And you do not want to let anything threaten the balance of that garden. You avoid the storms and floods that beat against your house. That is one reason you built your ecopetrous house on the Rock.

Those storms and floods are happening right now in the world. There are many more today than just a few short years ago. And when any of these storms happens to you, they will certainly also affect your little garden.

You can take action today. You can start to conserve energy and resources. You can recycle. And you can support causes for protecting the environment. Think these disasters are not being caused by man?

Let me just tell you that you have two choices: man and God. If the effects of man on the ecosystem are not causing global warming and these weather disasters than they must be caused by God.

And if they are caused by God, then He is punishing you. But I am here to tell you that God is not punishing you. I know because you are reading this. You are seeking God, not shunning Him.

You are seeking God because He has sought you. He has led you here so you can learn more about the impact you are having on the earth. Just like you will learn to care for the earth when you receive the Seal.

Jason invites you to find out more about the Prophecy of Jesus by visiting Jason Witt.org

Article Source: Jason Witt

How Future Disaster Recovery Plans Will Depend On GPS Tracking!

Many disasters occurring, from environmental disasters such as global warming, terrorist attacks, massive fires, bridge collapsing, campus shootings, riots. This article shows how GPS tracking will play a role in saving lives and property in future mega disasters.

Our world today there are many disasters occurring, from environmental disasters such as global warming, terrorist attacks, massive fires, bridge collapsing, campus shootings, riots. You name it, every singe day, week, month and year there are more and more global events that are causing massive loss of life and damage to property worldwide.

Lives and property will be saved only when we have a way of effectively way to visually track first responders in real time and coordinate their efforts in saving lives and property.

The mobile tactical collaboration system (MTCS) is a next-generation web-based wireless-enabled software application that allows public safety officers to communicate and collaborate visually in real-time using tactical graphics, digital maps, and shared workspaces to enable highly effective command & control without ever having to setup a physical command post.

The mobile tactical collaboration system was recently expanded the product portfolio to include an integrated tracking solution, advantraq GPS, which provides real-time situational unit locations for operational commanders and their tactical operators in the field.

The advanTraq GPS solution integrated into the MTCS is in fact the worldtracker GPRS GPS tracking device that was researched and suggested by the Engineering Dept. of GLC Enterprises, Inc.

This GPS tracking solution uses the smallest GPS tracking device available today with an open interface that can be programmed. It allowed for easy integration into the mobile tactical collaboration system.

The mobile tactical collaboration system works in many public and private sectors which include the following and more.

- Law enforcement

mobile tactical collaboration system (MTCS) delivers to law enforcement and other first responders a secure, web-based interoperable command and control solution that provides a dynamic, live, and interactive common operating picture to authorized task force members at the scene, on approach to the scene, and at the operations center.

Deploying the MTCS solution enables law enforcement agencies to significantly enhance their 5Cs of interoperability, communication, coordination, collaboration, command and control.

MTCS provides operators with a major advantage in dealing with complex operations. By providing seamless communication, visual in addition to verbal, MTCS enables the task force to work as one synchronized, coordinated team.

The end result is maximum preparedness and increased public safety.

Ordia Solutions, Inc. built the army and marine corps 'command post of the future' and they are experts in this space.

- Fire & rescue

mobile tactical collaboration system (MTCS) delivers to firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and other first responders a secure, web-based interoperable command and control solution that provides a dynamic, live, and interactive common operating picture to authorized task force members at the scene, on approach to the scene, and at the operations center.

- Emergency response

During the response to hurricane Katrina, the United States realized the grave cost of ineffective communications between law enforcement, rescue, and other public safety agencies. We must enable robust communication between these groups in order to minimize confusion and bring clarity to a complex situation. mobile tactical collaboration system (MTCS) is the solution.

When timely communication is critical, a picture is worth a thousand words. By allowing first responders to share their understanding and intentions visually and with the aid of real-time voice communication, MTCS maximizes information sharing and enhances situational awareness. According to Colonel Robert Akam, task force Katrina. If rescue and law enforcement agencies had this capability, we could have eliminated face-to-face meetings to conduct interagency planning with much greater fidelity.

Mobile tactical collaboration system is continuously being updated based on real-world feedback from law enforcement, fire/EMS, search and rescue, emergency operation and fusion center personnel.

It is being fielded at several agencies in the mid-atlantic region for missions ranging from police raids, to a school storming exercise, to a joint tactical operation around the July 4th 2007 holiday involving SWAT, fire, EMS, HazMat, counterterrorism, intelligence, and marine assets. Other applications include remote briefings, special events management, geographically dispersed events, VIP escorts, facility security, high speed chase, hostage/barricade operations, preparedness training and exercises, and post-incident replay and analysis.

In closing, if you ever watch mega disasters on the history channel will clue you in on what's coming our way in terms of disasters. How many lives that will be saved will depend only on how good we are in organizing rescue missions in all public and private sectors.

Glenn Frieboth, owner of GLC Enterprises, Inc., authors the latest in Surveillance news and is based in Illinois. Find out more about the WorldTracker GPS Tracking Device at http://www.spygearco.com/WorldTrackerGPRSExtremeGPS-PE.htm

Article Source: Glen Freiboth