I usually send this reminder out in early January each year, but I decided to wait a couple of weeks so that it wouldn’t get lost in all of the New Year’s Resolution emails we all got bombarded with. 

As you know, keeping your MyDisasterPlan.com account updated with the most current documents and information is critical if your disaster preparedness plans are going to be successful.  This is a great time of year to log in, take a look around, and make sure you’re updated. 

This is also a perfect time of year for a homeowner’s (or renter’s) insurance check-up.  I know, moans and groans from lots of you, but it doesn’t have to be a painful experience…here’s the best way to handle it. 

1. Update your home inventory in MyDisasterPlan.com (don’t forget all of those cool Christmas gifts you just figured out how to use)
2. Print out a “Property Report” from the report menu
3. Make an appointment to sit down with your insurance agent for a check-up.
4. Go to your meeting and share your home inventory with your agent, then discuss your coverage

That’s it!  With the your home inventory, your agent can see photo’s, costs, serial numbers, locations, etc of all the important items you own, and pictures of all the rooms in your house.  You will find out if you have the right coverage for your family’s belongings, and have a chance to correct any gaps in your coverage. 

I am going to give you a quick warning, however…I recently had a friend explain to me that they intentionally left a few of their more expensive pieces of jewelry and electronic equipment out of their inventory when they met with their agent.  They figured that their insurance rates would go up too much if they included those items.  This is insanity!  They are choosing not to insure some of their most valuable assets.  Doing this all but guarantees that these items won’t be covered if they’re destroyed or stolen.  Just be honest with your agent, you might be surprised at the options you have to cover these items.

Well, I feel the need to write a short post while I watch the coverage of the Haitian earthquake.  I see some similarities to the images we all saw after hurricane Katrina…people living in the streets, no possessions, no food, no water….many searching for loved ones, or mourning the loss family and friends.  There is no way that I could come close to imagining myself in their situation…but I find myself trying to do just that. 

I want to encourage all of you to take a moment, look around your house, and think about what you would do without any infrastructure for 3 or 4 days.  How would you get clean drinkable water?  Could you keep up with basic hygiene?  Would you have a first aid kit capable of helping your family?  Do you have a flashlight, utility knife, emergency radio?  This is an opportune time to watch the Haitian situation unfold, and assess your disaster preparedness efforts.  Just consider all of the challenges they’re dealing with, and make a list of the skills and supplies that you would need if you found yourself in a similar situation. 

Even if earthquakes aren’t likely where you live, many other disaster situations can result in the loss of basic services and infrastructure. 

Plan ahead…and be a survivor! 

Get a disaster kit checklist

Get a Go Bag Checklist

Get incident specific disaster preparedness fact sheets

Discussing disasters with your children can be difficult, but very important.  The more your child understands about disasters and your preparedness efforts, the less apprehensive they are likely to be during and after an event.  While you don’t want to upset your children or burden them with fear of impending disasters, understanding that certain events may happen in your area, and knowing that you have prepared properly for those situations ultimately creates a more confident child. 

 

You will have to consider your child’s age and maturity when implementing these suggestions, and adjust them accordingly.  We want our children to be well informed, and to feel safe and secure knowing that steps have been taken to minimize the risk of any possible situation.  Children typically feel empowered when they work through the preparation process with their parents.

 

Before a disaster:

• Expose your children to the concept of disasters, focusing mostly on natural disasters.  Terrorism can be a very difficult concept for children, especially younger children.  The effects of disasters and terrorist attacks are similar in effect (from the child’s point of view) and do not need to be specifically separated until the children are old enough to handle the concept.
• Use opportunities when disasters are mentioned in the news to answer questions about what happened and how the effected people will cope with the situation.
• Discuss the similarity between your preparedness efforts and the fire drills your children experience at school or daycare.
• Read books to your children that discuss weather, clouds, storms, tornadoes, etc, as that can foster substantive discussions of weather-related emergencies.
• With books about firefighters and other emergency responders you can guide the discussion toward the role of emergency responders during a disaster, and how they keep us safe and help us in times of need.
• Let your children assist you in preparing or maintaining your disaster kit.  Teach them (as appropriate) about the different parts of the kit and why/how they help during an emergency.
• Help your children prepare their own disaster kit or “go bag.”
• Get your child an Emergency Wallet Card (free from www.MyDisasterPlan.com) and explain to them when to present it to an adult and what it does.
  • An Emergency Wallet Card should have the child’s name, contact information for the parents and/or another emergency contact, emergency medical information, out-of-town contacts, local meeting places, and a summary of the family’s disaster plan.

 

During a disaster:

• Early in the process (if possible) calmly discuss your expectations for how the situation will progress.  The less your child is caught off-guard the less apprehensive they will be.
• Acknowledge that it is normal to be scared, and that you can work together to make the situation better.
• Pick an age-appropriate task or job for your child to help them feel pro-active and part of the “team.”
• Avoid getting agitated, your children will mirror your reaction to the event; be calm and deliberate in your comments, instructions, and reactions.
• Having something “normal” to do like singing a favorite song or playing a favorite video game, can bring some comfort to a scary situation.
• Your child’s appetite might decrease during a stressful event.  Encourage them eat or drink, but don’t force them.

 

After a disaster:

• Allow your children to discuss their feelings of fear or sadness, reinforce that these feelings are appropriate; really listen, don’t just talk.
• Your children may need more physical contact after an emergency: more hugs, wanting to be in the same room with you, standing closer than normal, and holding hands more.  This is normal and needs to be accommodated.
• Include your children in the recovery effort.  Playing an active roll in the clean-up and recovery can be important for their sense of stability and accomplishment.
• Encourage your children to write stories and draw pictures of what they saw, heard, and felt.
• Discuss your thoughts and feelings with your children, but remember that they need you for stability; if you need to vent, do this with an adult away from the children.
• Answer their questions as honestly as you can, and give them the amount of detail they ask for.
• Replace any special toys or security items (blankets, pillows, teddy bears, etc.) as soon as possible.

Here’s the next installment in our video blog series.  In this episode I explain the use and care of an essential piece of water rescue / water safety equipment…the Throwbag.  Enjoy the video, and leave a comment for me.

Rescue Throwbag Demonstration

How Families can Prepare for Wildfire Survival and Recovery

Disaster Preparedness Expert Shares Action Steps

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Houston, September 2, 2009 — As thousands evacuate their homes to escape raging wildfires, the need for residents throughout the region to take often-overlooked preparedness steps is high, and success can translate into lives and dollars saved.

Many more families will be forced to evacuate in the coming days. These four action steps, taken now, can help reduce tragedy now and save time and money when the recovery process begins. 

 Patrick Krupka, disaster preparedness expert and founder of MyDisasterPlan.com, shares critical steps to facilitate evacuation, return and recovery.

 Families in a wildfire danger area must have:

1. A “Go Bag” for each member of the family
2. A well organized family disaster plan
3. A complete home inventory
4. Off-site back-ups of important documents and information

 

“The missing piece of many disaster plans is the protection of a family’s irreplaceable legal and financial documents,” says Krupka. “In my 20 years of emergency work, I have seen families lose everything; houses, heirlooms and furniture, and also birth certificates, custody documents, passports and insurance records.  In an emergency, your documents are actually your most valuable items.”

 Traditional methods of protecting documents in a fireproof box or in a family member’s basement are not the best option. “A secure Internet-based electronic disaster planning service is the most forward-thinking option to help families protect their documents from destruction.” It also allows access to stored documents from anywhere, which is very important in cases of evacuation.

 MyDisasterPlan.com offers free resources to prepare for wildfires and other emergencies. Low-cost secure electronic disaster planning services are available, too, incorporating best practices from FEMA, the American Red Cross and Krupka’s experience as a firefighter, paramedic and rescue specialist.

 A family disaster plan that codifies where important items are, where family members should meet or who they should call if separated, and includes key identification and financial information can reduce fear and stress leading up to and immediately following a disaster.

 MyDisasterPlan.com is a unique disaster-planning service that gives people a user-friendly way to securely store electronic copies of driver’s licenses, birth certificates, credit card and banking data, emergency contacts, and inventories of valuable possessions. People use it to build customized family disaster plans, printable reports, and emergency wallet cards.

Contact: Patrick Krupka, Founder
Organization: MyDisasterPlan.com
Phone: 1-888-412-8799

Email: pkrupka@MyDisasterPlan.com

After just completing several radio interviews about disaster preparedness in California, I was especially interested in the coverage of the wildfires last night and this morning.  These fires set up such a classic situation in which homeowners are forced to flee their homes on short notice, only to return to a completely unknown situation later.  I saw a video of a man on his mobile phone breaking the news to his wife that their house was destroyed…in fact that their whole block was destroyed.  These wildfires are unbelievably destructive. 

For any of you that live near these, immediately download our wildfire information sheet and work through the action steps listed. 

For those of you who are at risk of a wildfire emergency, but are safe from this wildfire, you should still get the Wildfire information sheet and begin the process of getting prepared.

Don’t forget to go by www.MyDisasterPlan.com and get your free emergency wallet card, everyone should have one of these in their wallet.

Make sure that you have a disaster kit, and a “go bag” in your home, and make sure that you have back-up copies of all of your important documents and information so that if your home is damaged or destroyed, you can re-create those documents and start to put your life back together.

In this three part series, Patrick and Dave test various signal mirrors at both short and long ranges, and discuss the pro’s and con’s of the various devices.  Be sure to watch all three videos!  Then leave a few comments, or suggestions for other product demo’s you’d like to see.

Part 1   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJPPDD22htc

Part 2  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-1ZP66FduI

Part 3  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYf2ojb2zEE

As always, you can get more disaster preparedness information or start your family disaster plan at MyDisasterPlan.com

Just wanted to announce the first in our series of videos. Post a comment and let us know what you think.  Just click on this link to see the video:

Surviving a flood with your disaster kit 

After you watch the video, stop by MyDisasterPlan.com to create your family disaster plan and get a free emergency wallet card.

I like to bring up current events when they are applicable to our mission here at MyDisasterplan.com, so the recent train crash in Washington, DC is worth discussing here.  In a mass casualty situation like that, there can be considerable delays in contacting victim’s loved ones.  Having something in your wallet, preferably tucked behind your driver’s license, with your emergency contact information on it can be crucial during an incident like that.  When police or paramedics look for your driver’s license for your identification, they will also find your emergency wallet card.  If you have prepared properly, this card will tell them who to contact on your behalf, as well as your basic insurance and medical information.

You can get a free emergency wallet card here on this blog (look to the right of this column) or from MyDisasterPlan.com just by entering your name and email address in the spaces provided.   If you have an account with MyDisasterplan.com, you can easily print cards for each member of your family, all with their specific information.  This card is formatted to have the words “In Case Of Emergency” clearly visible above your license.  The front of the card has your emergency contact information (who to call if you are found unconscious) along with your insurance information, and emergency medical information.

You never know when tragedy will strike…we all hope it will never happen to us, but the reality is…it happens to someone each and every day.  Whether it’s a commuter train crash, or a two car accident on the freeway, every day something like this happens.  Be prepared by having your information accessible to rescuers, get your wallet card today, and keep it in your wallet at all times!

Until next time,

Patrick Krupka

The questions that I posed at the conclusion of the last blog were about drawing the line between personal responsibility, and governmental responsibility as it pertains to disaster response.   In my mind, the distinction is pretty clear. 

During the initial response, during the event and the first 24 to 72 hours afterward, the local, county, and state agencies should be responsible for immediate life safety, rescue, fire suppression, civil control (basic law enforcement), and stabilization of the community infrastructure.  During this time individuals who are not experiencing life threatening situations should rely on their emergency kits to survive and wait for the initial response to be completed.  Just like triaging patients at a large car accident, the “walking wounded”  who needed care, but were stable and in no immediate danger, waited until the more severely injured had been stabilized and transported.  After a disaster there are people who need rescue, those who need help to survive the first 24 hours, and those who are uncomfortable, mildly injured, inconvenienced, and just waiting for life to return to normal.  These folks should have a well stocked disaster kit, and a plan of action to survive as comfortably as possible for the first 72 hours after a disaster. 

In the next 72 hours and beyond, once the rescues have been mostly completed and the significantly injured and displaced have been cared for, efforts should turn to restoring basic services like water distribution, electricity, communication services, availability of groceries and fuel, and getting banks, restaurants, schools  and medical clinics open again.   This is a great time for the federal government to step in and arrange for fuel deliveries, make-shift hospitals, information and emergency supply distribution points, etc.  Local agencies should be under a lesser burden by this point so that they can deal with the effect of the disaster on their own families and organizations.

In order for this system to function as planned, however, the vast majority of citizens in the community must be personally prepared to make it through those initial 72 hours without assistance.    

I’m working on an interview with a local economics professor to delve into “recovery related economics” associated with disaster, and the best way to provide local financial recovery for a community.  Don’t worry…we’ll make it more interesting than it sounds. 

Post or email your questions about the economics of recovery, and we’ll make it interactive!

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