After major disasters work your plan
When a major disaster occurs there are things that we should have done beforehand to mitigate the problems such as getting CERT trained, having 96 hour kits prepared and ready, having heavy items stored low and light items stored high, having cabinets and other furniture secured to the walls so they won’t fall, having child locks installed on the cabinets so dishes won’t fall on the floor, having your shoes under the bed and ready so glass won’t be in them, having several roller bandages ready to stop the bleeding, getting first AID training for the whole family, having an out of state contact that will expect your call so when your son or daughter who lives 20 miles away calls your out of state contact that person can tell you that they are ok and tell your son that you are ok. (It is harder to call in state than out of state at the time of a disaster)
1. Check yourself and your family for injuries and treat with first aid.
2. Check your home quickly for gas leaks and only shut the gas off if it is leaking. You may need to shut the water or electric service off as well so know where the shut off are. Depending on your home you may have already put on your safety equipment.
2. Put on your safety gear such as goggles, hard hat, good boots, gloves. In other disasters a major problem was volunteers becoming the victims because they did not have the proper safety equipment. Don’t put yourself in danger because if you become hurt you cannot help anyone else. If you cannot handle a situation go get help. Don’t go in alone always use the buddy system. 3. Check on your neighbors and then report to your neighborhood meeting area to report and receive additional assignments. This is where block captains will report for their 10 homes they have checked on and this is where they can ask for additional assistance as needed. If you have not had this set up in your area yet, contact your city and ask about CERT and neighborhood watch and block captains and you can become involved to help with this plan. Many areas already have pre-printed maps so assignments can be given out to check each home. Have fire extinguishers ready to put out small fires.
Peak Alarm has their own disaster plan that is an integral part of our operation. Peak has data backups out of state and every night data is transferred from one building to another so in case of a major disaster all the account information will not be lost and the central station can continue to operate.
Alarms will go off all over the City and or State with AC failures (power failures), fires, floods and so on.
Understand that in a major disaster emergency authorities are not going to show up to the neighborhoods because police, fire and medical will be responding to large buildings, schools and hospitals first. For the first few days the people will be on their own and that is where CERT comes in. Community Emergency Response Teams (Training)
Many clubs, businesses, service organizations, neighborhood groups and churches also have emergency plans in place. They have sat down beforehand and brainstormed what will be needed to help prepare, mitigate and to help after something has occurred when the city, state and federal authorities have not responded yet. Start your own plan today with your group, business, neighborhood or church. Get CERT trained and do something before anything happens.
SLC also offers CERT training in Spanish. Both the English and the Spanish courses cover the same FEMA material that you will find in any CERT training class. Some of the modules are: Disaster First Aid. (6 hours), Cribbing (learning how to lift heavy objects off of someone that is trapped safely), CERT organization and delegation, Light Search and Rescue and fire suppression, terrorism (CERT does not respond to terrorism although you can be observant and report to the proper authorities), Disaster Psychology and much more.