Disaster Preparedness
As the Gulf Coast braced itself on Labor Day in preparation for Hurricane Gustav to hit Louisiana, Fox News anchors were filing compelling reports from New Orleans. Trace Gallagher made the point that after what happened with Hurricane Katrina, people were well advised to follow evacuation orders and get in their cars and go.
But as more than 2 million people left New Orleans and vicinity, it was speculation that this new hurricane was going to cause significant damage - before the fact. It was also not surprising that despite all the buildup, the storm itself was weakening as it reached land. And as I’ve written about in my 2005 book, False Alarm; the Truth About the Epidemic of Fear, excess worry about potential dangers can cause harm even if the disasters never occur. For one thing, people rushing to safety can get injured on the way. For another, too much attention and concern about worst case scenarios can create a boy-who-cried-wolf mindset that creates a slower response the next time around. (In fact, the inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina was due, at least in part, to previously overhyped hurricane warnings that caused people not to take the Katrina warnings seriously enough).
So how should we prepare for potential disasters if our system of risk assessment and the media reports that inform them are often premature or inaccurate? Though it is often better to overreact rather then underreact, it is at least as important to stay calm, and to have a generic plan for disaster response that is useful for all disasters.
Here are some useful tips:
* Don’t overreact. If you make calm rational decisions you are far less likely to be hurt and your response is far more likely to be effective.
* It is always wise to keep a 3-month supply of your medications on hand. The majority of our medications come from other countries and these supplies might be interrupted during a national emergency.
* Keeping a several weeks-worth emergency supply of food and water is also wise, but it is not necessary to prepare your stash with an exact kind of disaster in mind. An electrical blackout is far more likely than a hurricane or earthquake, but you can prepare similarly for both.
* Hospitals have limited surge capacities for disasters. Medical care should be planned without assuming quick access to emergency services.
* Have a personal evacuation and communication plan in place for you and your close relatives. How will you reach people if cell phones aren’t working? Where will you go if there is an advisory to leave your home?
Dr. Marc Siegel is an internist and associate professor of medicine at the NYU School of Medicine. He is a FOX News Medical Contributor and writes a health column for LA Times, where he examines TV and movies for medical accuracy. Dr. Siegel is the author of “False Alarm: the Truth About the Epidemic of Fear” and “Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic”. Read more at www.doctorsiegel.com
Tags: disaster, emergency, Gulf Coast, hospital, hurricane, medication, New Orleans, preparedness, relative, stay calm
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It appears as if all the media is concerned with is New Orleans again. If a city is on a body of water and is below sea level it would only natural to assume that you would have flooding and that a sea wall could be undermined during a natural disaster. I sincerely hope and pray that the citizens of Mississippi are not overlooked again.!
“Though it is often better to overreact rather then underreact…”
“Here are some useful tips: * Don’t overreact. ”
The topic of preparation is a huge topic. With all of the material about homesteading, first aid, sanitation, 72-hour survival, navigation, animal first aid, alternative transportation, primitive technology, urban bushcraft, edible and medicinal plant identification, water purification, bugging out vs. sheltering in, food/water storage, vermin control, improvised shelter, etc., I expected a little more from an article with such a generalized title as, “Disaster Preparedness.”
Since knowledge is power, I would have thought Dr. Siegel would have at least included the recommendation for all people to do what they can to inform themselves better. Buy books. Go to the Red Cross and FEMA websites, put away some cash in case the ATM’s fail, keep a few small jugs of gasoline (in proper containers, easier to lift than one giant jug) in the garage, sign up to a few “prepper” websites, get spare batteries for the flashlights and radios, use texting instead of voice on one’s cell phone in an emergency, and in general learn what other people are doing.
Whatever. People, especially senior citizens, look up to doctors as legitimate authority figures. Nowadays everybody has access to cell phones, the internet, the public library, etc.. Perhaps next time the good Doctor writes, he will put a little more creativity into his article. I doubt he could do much harm by urging everyone to be more informed, prepared, and aware, rather than basically telling them to avoid going to the hospital and get 3 months of prescription meds, water, and food. There is a lot more to this topic than meets the eye in this article. Dr. Siegel clearly meant well, but obviously has not even a sliver of an idea of what he presumes to discuss.
First, if you live below sea level, move!!! Second, if you didn’t move, buy a boat and learn how to swim. Third, don’t ask for help for being stupid!
You left out some critical points:
Have a local rallying point for family members.
Local laws permitting, consider arming yourself to deal with lawlessness such as occurred after Katrina.
Make provisions for your pets. Many Katrina victims refused to leave because they would not leave their pets.
The less you rely on the government, the fewer problems you will probably have.
Dr. Siegel, if I lived in a below sea level bowl, as do the folks in New Orleans, I would “evacuate” every time the wind blew hard. All of us can still recall the idiots who decided to stay, standing on the roofs of their homes, no food or water, waiting for the Coast Guard to rescue them—at taxpayer expense.
Your “Don’t overreact” bit was cute, but “Wisdom is the better part of valor” always rules the day. In other words, when you live in a “geographically challenged” area, don’t depend on someone else to save you and yours. It can’t always be done.
We begin National Disaster Prepreparedness month with an exercise in why we need to prepare. Hurricanes Gustav and Hana.
This month communities, organizations, businesses and schools will practice their plans and test their security systems. Other groups will discuss their needs and update plans. People will be put in charge of safety and well being. The work is not all drudgery and people enjoy the break from routine.
Families need to plan even more than communities do. Contact people need to be identified, emergency communication plans written, and back ups produced of important documents including family history items. Families need funds and food, gear and systems just as much as the big guys. Once families have a flexible plan that can adapt to each challenge, they should practice the plan.
Think how fun it would be for kids to run a communication drill in the middle of a school day. The family could debrief at the park. There they could discuss how long it took to inform everyone and to meet at the assigned point. They could run evacuation drills or fire drills. Another exercise is a treasure hunt of the house to develop 72 hour/evacuation kits.