March 28, 2024

Emergency Preparedness Begins at Home

Posted on August 1, 2014 by in In Every Life

As August arrives, I think about Alabama’s history during tornado season, recalling my grandmother frequently stating, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!” Public health experts recommend preparation for potential disasters, and have created checklist formats to help determine what is needed and how to create a plan. (Resources are listed at the end of this article.)

However, we often don’t take time to consider our individual situation and identify our most important needs.  Not only do we need to identify the safest locations in our homes and how to get there quickly, we need to have emergency supplies readily accessible when we get to that ‘safe place’.EmergencySuppliesW

A prepared backpack is a convenient way to grab personal items, medications, and a copy of important papers.  You can store the backpack in an entryway closet or near your bed. A larger container of non-perishable food, water, and other supplies can be stored in or near your ‘safe place’.  An ice chest makes a good storage container. When a disaster warning sounds, you can quickly remove the pre-stored items and reload the chest with ice packs, water, food, medication requiring cool storage, or other perishable items.

Your backpack should contain a brief history of any health concerns plus names, addresses and phone numbers of healthcare providers. A list of medications, dosages, times, purpose and who prescribed the medication is critical to prevent not having the appropriate medication to manage your health. You can carry a medication list in their purse or wallet, but place an additional list in the backpack in a zip-lock plastic bag to prevent water damage. Including a week’s supply of medications is helpful.

Maintain medication freshness by keeping them in a plastic pill box divided for days of the week, placing the pill box inside a plastic zip-lock bag.  When your medications are refilled or prescriptions changed, renew the contents in your emergency pill box.

A list of family contact information is critical to include in the plastic bag in your backpack. Families often create a plan to meet at various locations, depending on which area of town may be damaged. Include this plan with your family contact information.

Cell phone chargers, flashlights, and weather radios that have an alternate power source such as from winding a handle, can allow you to contact family and to get information if the power supply is interrupted.  When planning for extra batteries, include sizes for personal products such as hearing aids.
Select one time a year (such as August) to update your plan with your family and the contents of your backpack, larger storage container, and non-perishable food items in your pantry.

If you can serve as a volunteer responder for a disaster, organizations request pre-registration to enable you to be contacted in case of emergency.  Volunteers can accept or decline at the time of notification. Both the Alabama Dept. of Public Health and the American Red Cross provide opportunities for those interested in volunteering as a disaster responder. (Visit www.primemontgomery.com for these links.)

RESOURCES:

If you are willing to serve as a volunteer responder for a disaster, organizations request pre-registration to enable you to be contacted in case of emergency needs.  Volunteers can accept or decline at the time of notification.
The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) Alabama Responds volunteer network registration link is at https://alresponds.adph.alabama.gov/.    ADPH has a variety of online courses available by clicking on the ADPH Training Network’s On Demand link, Featured Products link, or by logging into the Learning Center Management System to locate relevant emergency preparedness content.
The American Red Cross provides opportunity to register as a volunteer at https://volunteerconnection.redcross.org/?nd=login and provides multiple resources at http://www.redcross.org/prepare/disaster-safety-library.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Health Alert Network provides links to various content areas at http://emergency.cdc.gov/planning/index.asp.

Arlene Morris72Arlene H. Morris, EdD, RN, CNE is Professor of Nursing, Auburn Montgomery School of Nursing. Reach her at amorris@aum.edu.

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