PDC Updates | Mar 2, 2010
Disaster Preparedness
You don’t have to be a professional to carry your child out of harm’s way or cover your wind-damaged roof with tarps, but you do have to be prepared, and perhaps trained to perform as needed when needed. The FEMA image above is used by the United Methodist Committee on Relief to encourage people in that denomination to be prepared for disaster. Most religious groups and many community service organizations have some kind of preparedness programs. (Image: Bill Koplitz/FEMA)

Emergencies happen. Whether the emergency is a traffic accident or a tornado, a terror-related event or an earthquake, being prepared to respond knowledgeably, confidently, calmly and immediately can mean the difference between life and death. To underscore for yourself the importance of preparedness, remember that while your preparedness may be called on to save the life of an anonymous stranger, it is far more likely to be the factor that saves the lives of your own children and other family members.

We expect trained personnel from police and fire departments, civil defense, emergency medical services and other “first responders” to come with all due speed, under lights and sirens if need be, to rescue us no matter what disaster has happened. They will come, but they will come when they can. An automobile accident on a clear, quiet day may attract first responders in minutes. If the same accident takes place in the midst of a massive earthquake, and is one of hundreds or thousands of distress situations, professionals—working as fast as they can—may not arrive for days.

When disaster strikes, suppose your fully charged, right-at-hand emergency radio tells you that your area can expect service in three hours to six hours. Are you prepared to manage risks and respond to needs until first responders are on the scene? Three to six hours spent stranded without food or water is not particularly dangerous; three to six hours of bleeding is another matter. What if the delay will be days?

Even if professional first-responders will arrive in minutes, your readiness to be the first “first responder” for your family can be of extreme importance.

Hypothetically speaking, if there are 100 doctors in an area where 1,000 people are injured, and even if no doctors are among the injured, each doctor would need to be able to serve ten people before everyone has been attended to. Even if there are ambulances to bring the injured people to the doctors and some kind of transit to get to doctors to central locations (like hospitals), there might be time lost in finding the injured, finding the means of transportation, clearing roads and effecting the transit. The result is easily deduced: You cannot necessarily expect immediate attention to your particular emergency during a widespread disaster. Nor can you expect that you or your loved ones will be the first victims found, transported and treated when the services are able to function.

In the meantime, the degree to which you are prepared to respond to your personal emergencies—injuries, food and water needs, shelter from continuing adverse conditions, etc.—may be exactly the degree to which you are able to make yourself and your family safe.

Whether it is because of the scale of the situation or because the emergency services (fortified as they may be) have suffered damage to buildings, communications, equipment or manpower, the chances are very good that you will be on your own in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. Your own survival and that of your family and neighbors may depend on your level of preparedness.

The following is a list of relatively simple and minimal preparations you should make.

  • Have a family plan that includes how you will contact each other, and where you will gather if separated in a disaster.
  • Have the contact information for emergency services in a form that will be available no matter what happens. Many Emergency Contact listings for Hawaii are available from PDC.
  • Maintain at least one emergency kit, prepared to support your family for several days.
  • Consider certified training from Red Cross in both first aid and CPR.
  • Find your local Community Emergency Response Team trainer, and take the course.
  • Review the disaster-preparedness section of Pacific Disaster Center’s website.
  • Familiarize yourself with FEMA’s “Are You Ready” guide to preparedness, including the related online videos.
  • Review various preparedness publications from different governmental agencies available in PDC's website.
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