There’s More (Preparedness) Work To Do

It’s Monday and you’re probably already feeling depressed. And I know that reading this post is only going to make it worse. I pre-emptively apologize.

So here it is — your disheartening news of the day:

Five Years After Katrina, Most Say Nation is Not Better Prepared

And if that weren’t enough, how about this?

Five Years after Katrina, Report Reveals 38 States Unprepared to Protect Children during Disasters

Ummm…yeah. And what’s worse is that Oregon is towards the bottom of the list in the Save The Children report. BOTTOM TEN!!!

In short, our state doesn’t require that licensed child care facilities have evacuation plans, that they have a written reunification plan for families and that they have plans for special needs kids. Fortunately, the state does require all schools to have a disaster plan for multiple scenarios.

Sure, it’s depressing Monday reading, but I’m really sharing these two studies in hopes that they move us in a positive direction — working together to get the readiness message to even more people and communities.

What can YOU do to help change these results by 2015?

2 comments

  • Wow…very sobering…

    Unfortunately, my state, Missouri, is also in the bottom. That is very scary.

    Thanks for sharing this info.

    Sherri
    Disaster Services Co-Chairman
    Greater Kansas City American Red Cross

  • Interesting, but definitely not positive. I have some questions about how they chose their qualifications though… Like, they specifically mention children with special needs, but only for child care facilities, not for schools. I'm fairly impressed with my school's plans: we have safety shutters for the cafeteria so it can be used as a safe room for those who cannot be in the safe tornado position, and we have EvacUTrak devices located in multiple classrooms for students on the second floor who use wheelchairs. Each classroom has emergency evac plans targeted to the classroom (mine, for example, directs my class to the cafeteria for a tornado emergency because my students with special needs need assistance with physical or sensory issues during incidents like this). One thing we (and lots of others) need to improve is egress for staff or students with temporary mobility impairments during fire drills.

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