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Storm and Disaster Preparedness: Take Action and Improve
This is about mega storms and looks at a massive storm to hit eastern Canada. I will show you how to learn from these storms. Mid January 2020, the Canadian Atlantic province of Newfoundland and Labrador and more specifically the capital city and region around St. John’s received 75cm of snow. It was accompanied by winds up to 140km/h causing whiteout conditions and dangerous amounts of drifted snow.
This blog and vlog are about learning from mega storm experiences and ideally planning ahead for them. With climate change, storms can become all the more extreme in severity and quantities of rain or snow.
In my fire fighter days, we had mega storms and those storms strained our ability to respond and access the urban and rural areas.
Don’t wait until you encounter mega storms to plan for them. And when you do face these storms, learn as much as possible from them. In the vlog, I run you through how to learn from those experiences.
Do your research.
There is an amazing amount of material available to us these days. Do your research at the national, provincial/state and local levels as there can be complimentary information for your location.
Involve the Household
Involve everyone in your household. In multi-person households, one person should not be the holder of all the awareness and solutions. This knowledge imbalance creates dangerous situations when that person is not around or if that person is incapacitated.
Talk with your children and get their perspectives and ideas for preparedness. Have them run your through responses to different types of scenarios, and they will feel empowered and more confident.
Looking After Ourselves
In a disaster or weather system, you and your neighbours are likely your first line of response and assistance. Understand how you will respond.
Get to know your neighbours and look after each other. A neighbour may be able to help you far sooner than government services overwhelmed with the crisis or emergency. Government services may need to focus their efforts on keeping critical infrastructure such as hospitals and key roadways open.
Create or Update your Emergency Plans
Now is a good time to create or update your personal emergency plans. Is the plan what you need to respond to many types of disasters or crises? No? Do something about it.
Canadian and American Preparedness and Disaster Weblinks
Canada
Federal: https://www.getprepared.gc.ca/index-en.aspx
Provinces and Territories: https://www.getprepared.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/mrgnc-mgmt-rgnztns-en.aspx
Environment Canada weather service: https://www.ready.gov/local
Federal Guides and Publications: https://www.getprepared.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/index-en.aspx
Canadian Red Cross: https://www.redcross.ca/
United States
Federal: https://www.ready.gov/winter-weather
States and Territories: https://www.ready.gov/local
National Weather Service: https://www.weather.gov/
American Red Cross: https://www.redcross.org
Cities and Municipalities:
As local websites frequently change, Google your city/municipality name and words such as Emergency Preparedness, Disasters or Readiness. You should be able to locate valuable local emergency and preparedness information and tips.
If you can not find such information, call your Mayor and demand they produce such material. It’s 2020 and cities and municipalities have a duty to provide this.
Your municipality’s should highlight their risk analysis and identify the greatest risks facing your community and region such as: tornadoes, forest fires, earthquakes, flooding, …