INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTIONNone of us want to think about being in a disaster. We watch in horror as we watch television reports of people losing their homes and family members because of fire, earthquake or floods. We cross our fingers and hope it doesn’t happen to us. But Alaska is not immune to disaster. Earthquakes, oil spills, forest fires, extreme cold, tsunamis -- all have happened in our state.
There are two reasons for this course.
With some simple preparation, your family can be ready. It truly can mean the difference between life and disaster.
Recently, our country has been rocked by images of huge disasters that ripped families from their home and cause loss of life and property. Tornadoes in the Oklahoma. Wildfires in Southern California. Floods along the Mississippi river. The hurricane damage and flooding caused by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.The taking of many lives by a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York.
But Alaska is not immune to disaster and has its own list of disasters that have impacted families and communities.
During the evening of March 29, 1964, the area of Prince William Sound, in Southeastern Alaska was struck by a moment magnitude 9.2 earthquake, the largest ever recorded in North America. This vertical displacement generated a major tectonic tsunami that struck the southeast coast of Alaska, the Pacific Coast of British Columbia, and west coast of the United States. As one might expect, damage from the 1964 tsunami was greatest along the southeastern coast of Alaska. Many of the coastal communities along Prince William Sound and Kodiak Island were completely wiped out. In all, tsunami waves generated by the 1964 quake killed 119 people and caused approximately 300 to 400 million dollars in damage to Alaska alone.
On June 15, 1996, Alaskans in the Mat Su Valley experienced the Miller's Reach Fire, which destroyed more than 400 structures and burned 37,000 acres of land. Recent fires like the Caribou Hills fire on the Kenai Peninsula in 2007 and the Tamarack Fire in Central Alaska in 2006 burned cabins and threatened to evacuate larger communities and filling them with breath threatening smoke.
In the summer of 1967, unusually heavy rains swelled the Chena and Little Chena rivers six feet above their flood stage in Fairbanks. The resulting flooding of downtown Fairbanks and the outlying regions, drove residents to their rooftops and displaced nearly 7,000 people from their homes.
In 1994 the Koyukuk and Kobuk Rivers flooded, causing significant loss of personal and public properties for hundreds of people. The Kobuk flooded again in 2006.
In each situation, Alaskan families and their children had to respond to an emergency, sometimes with little warning. Would you know what to do? More importantly, would your children know what to do?
How ready is your family? To help you get started, watch this short public service announcement developed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. This is a way to help you think about how prepared your family member will be in an emergency.
TRANSCRIPT OF VIDEO BELOW: .
Dad: If a natural disaster happened and we were outside the home we would probably all meet, I'll say around the grocery store, you know. Mom: We would all meet at a bus stop. That is our meeting place. Son 1: (sighs as he tries to think of an answer) Son 2: Well we would probably just meet out in front of the house. Son 3: Oh, we would probably meet at our neighbor's house. Son 2: If you have no plan then you can just plan what to do as it happens. Is your plan any better? Make sure your family has a plan in case of emergency. Ready.gov
To begin this course, ask yourself these questions of how prepared your family is for a possible disaster. Or better yet, ask your children these questions and see how they answer.
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NO |
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1. Does our family have an identified emergency kit of emergency supplies? |
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2. Is there enough in our emergency kit to last three days for our entire family? |
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3. Has our family discussed what we would do in case of a community wide emergency? |
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4. Can our family members tell me what they would do in case of an earthquake? |
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5. Can our family members tell me what they would do in case of a fire? |
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6. Have we identified an emergency contact who lives out of the area? |
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7. Does everyone know when and how to call the emergency person? |
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8. Does everyone have the phone number of the emergency contact with them in case the family gets separated? |
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9. Can each family member name the meeting place that our family would meet if they get separated? |
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10. Do I know what I need to do if I need to evacuate the area with a foster child? |
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11. Does my licensing or social worker have in the file where we would probably go if you had to evacuate the area? |
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12. If our children were at school, would they know where to meet us if they could not call us in case of an emergency? |
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13. Do I know what the school evacuation plan is for the school our children attend? |
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| 14. Have we practiced your fire evacuation plan or reviewed our emergency plan in the last three months? |
For every Yes, give yourself a point. How close to 14 points did you get? This course will help you bring those numbers closer to perfect!