COURSE: Are You Ready? Emergency Response Planning for Alaskan Families

Printable Version of Unit Three

Copyright by the Alaska Center for Resource Families, 2008

(NOTE: This is the printable version of Lesson Three only. Please go to first page of Lesson One, Lesson Two, and Lesson Four to download the printable version of those chapters.)

You will need to print out the following handouts for this Lesson

#2: RESOURCE LIST: THINKING ABOUT MY COMMUNITY

#3: GUIDELINES FOR SHELTERING IN PLACE

Section 3: Be Informed

In this section, you will learn:

• How to determine what kind of natural or man-made disasters will most likely affect your family
• How to put a plan in place that will help you the most with what is most likely to happen

 

3. Be Informed.

Every area has its own possible disasters. Thinking ahead about what is most likely to happen in your area will help you be better prepared. Alaska probably won’t be hit by a hurricane. But we are at greater risk for danger from earthquake, wild fires and tsunamis than many other places in the United States. So the third part of getting prepared is to Be Informed. Know what disaster is most likely to take place in your community and what resources are available.

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Determining The Risk

Take the short quiz below and determine what is a risk in your community.

Is your community at risk for any of the following...	Low Risk	Higher Risk	Has Happened Before
Earthquake
Tsunami
Wild Fire
Fire in My Home
Flooding
Chemical Spill, Transportation Accident, Airport Disaster
Long Periods of Extreme Cold or Severe Weather
Terrorist Attack
Volacanoes

Look at the ones that you marked Higher Risk and also marked Has Happened Before. Those are the events you should focus your preparations for and think about how your family could respond.

What Resources Are Available in Your Community ?

As part of your planning, know what you have in your community in case of an emergency. You probably already have an emergency phone list for everyday emergencies such as medical personnel, the fire department, and accidental poisonings. What kinds of help is available in your community to help with disasters? You may live is a very small community where the community members will depend mostly on each other for help. Or you may be in a larger community that has an emergency response team. In either case, take a moment to think about what is available in your community and ask yourself these questions.

 

Does your community have an emergency response plan?

Where are the major medical centers or people in your community with medical skills?

Do you have any emergency response members such as Military, National Guard, Red Cross, or First Responders?

Does your community have a designated shelter that is used in emergencies? Often this is a school or a community center.

Is there a Red Cross office or someone designated in your community or tribal council that may be a source of information about your local emergency response plan?

If your community had to be evacuated, how would people leave? Who would direct the evacuation?

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To help in your planning, here is a printable listing of possible resources with a place for you to put down contact information. Your community may not have all these resources. However, every community has formal and informal resources. There is a space for you to put down your community's unique resources.

Excerpted from: From www.ready.gov

Alaska sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is home to many volcanoes and earthquakes. Many small earthquakes happen every year and several earthquakes in Southcentral and in the Interior has caused great damage.

Prepare for Earthquakes

• Securely fasten shelves to walls.
• Keep large or heavy objects on lower shelves.
• Store breakable items in lower cabinets with doors and latches.
• Inspect and repair electrical wiring and gas connections; these can be potential fire hazards during an earthquake.
• Secure your water heater by strapping it to wall studs and bolting it to the floor.
• Check your home or building for structural defects and repair cracks in your ceiling and foundation.
• Keep toxic and flammable items securely stored in cabinets with doors and latches.
• Identify safe places in your home or office where you will ride out an earthquake. The best protection is under heavy furniture where you are protected from falling debris.
• Learn how to turn off electricity, gas and water.
• Get an emergency supply kit.

Plan to Act Quickly

• During or immediately after an earthquake, the best protection is to get under heavy furniture, such as a desk, table or bench, staying away from large windows, mirrors or other glass.
• The greatest danger is directly outside buildings, at exits and along exterior walls, due to falling debris.
• If you are already outside, stay clear of buildings, power lines, overpasses and elevated expressways.
• Most deaths and injuries are due to falling walls, flying glass or debris.
• Expect aftershocks – smaller quakes (and sometimes larger ones) can often follow hours or days after the initial shake, causing further damage to weakened buildings and structures.
• Check for gas leaks – if you smell gas or hear a hissing or blowing noise, open a window and leave the building immediately; turn off the gas at the outside main valve, if possible and call the gas company.

Stay Informed

Local authorities may not immediately be able to provide information on what is happening and what you should do. However, you should watch TV, listen to the radio or check the Internet often for official news and instructions as they become available.

Information is Excerpted from: From www.ready.gov

To protect yourself, it is important to understand the basic characteristics of fire. Fire spreads quickly; there is no time to gather valuables or make a phone call. In just two minutes, a fire can become life-threatening. In five minutes, a residence can be engulfed in flames.

Heat and smoke from fire can be more dangerous than the flames. Inhaling the super-hot air can sear your lungs. Fire produces poisonous gases that make you disoriented and drowsy. Instead of being awakened by a fire, you may fall into a deeper sleep. Asphyxiation is the leading cause of fire deaths, exceeding burns by a three-to-one ratio.

Before a Fire

Smoke Alarms

• Install smoke alarms. Properly working smoke alarms decrease your chances of dying in a fire by half.
• Place smoke alarms on every level of your residence. Place them outside bedrooms on the ceiling or high on the wall (4 to 12 inches from ceiling), at the top of open stairways, or at the bottom of enclosed stairs and near (but not in) the kitchen.
• Test and clean smoke alarms once a month and replace batteries at least once a year. Replace smoke alarms once every 10 years.

Planning Your Escape

• Review escape routes with your family. Practice escaping from each room.
• Make sure windows are not nailed or painted shut. Make sure security gratings on windows have a fire safety opening feature so they can be easily opened from the inside.
• Consider escape ladders if your residence has more than one level, and ensure that burglar bars and other antitheft mechanisms that block outside window entry are easily opened from the inside.
• Teach family members to stay low to the floor (where the air is safer in a fire) when escaping from a fire.

During a Fire

To escape a fire, you should:

• Check closed doors for heat before you open them. If you are escaping through a closed door, use the back of your hand to feel the top of the door, the doorknob, and the crack between the door and door frame before you open it. Never use the palm of your hand or fingers to test for heat - burning those areas could impair your ability to escape a fire (i.e., ladders and crawling).
  • Hot Door
    Do not open. Escape through a window. If you cannot escape, hang a white or light-colored sheet outside the window, alerting fire fighters to your presence.
  • Cool Door
    Open slowly and ensure fire and/or smoke is not blocking your escape route. If your escape route is blocked, shut the door immediately and use an alternate escape route, such as a window. If clear, leave immediately through the door and close it behind you. Be prepared to crawl. Smoke and heat rise. The air is clearer and cooler near the floor.
• Crawl low under any smoke to your exit - heavy smoke and poisonous gases collect first along the ceiling.
• Close doors behind you as you escape to delay the spread of the fire.
• Stay out once you are safely out. Do not reenter. Call 9-1-1.

After a Fire

The following are guidelines for different circumstances in the period following a fire:

• If you are with burn victims, or are a burn victim yourself, call 9-1-1; cool and cover burns to reduce chance of further injury or infection.
• If you detect heat or smoke when entering a damaged building, evacuate immediately.
• If you are a tenant, contact the landlord.
• If you have a safe or strong box, do not try to open it. It can hold intense heat for several hours. If the door is opened before the box has cooled, the contents could burst into flames.
• If you must leave your home because a building inspector says the building is unsafe, ask someone you trust to watch the property during your absence.

In the case of Forest Fire, review your evacuation plan and heed warnings to leave an area that is threatened by fire.

The following information is from the 2008 Spring Flood Breakup Guide Prepared by the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, PO Box 5750, Ft. Richardson, AK 99505.

More information about Flooding Conditions and Preparation for Floods in Alaska can be found on the State of Alaska website at http://www.flood.alaska.gov/

Information is Excerpted from: From www.ready.gov

Potentially active volcanoes in the United States exist mainly in Hawaii, Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. When pressure builds up within a volcano's molten rock, it has the potential to erupt, sending forth lava flows, poisonous gases and flying rock and ash that can sometimes travel hundreds of miles downwind.

• Follow the instructions of local emergency officials.
• Knowing your community's warning systems and disaster plans, including evacuation routes.
• Plan to evacuate quickly and to take your portable emergency supply kit with you.
• Plan ahead by adding extra goggles and something to cover your nose and mouth to your emergency supply kit. Include something to cover your nose and mouth for every member of your family.
• If you are unable to evacuate, and in order to protect yourself from falling ash, you should remain indoors with doors, windows and ventilation closed until the ash settles.

Stay informed

Local authorities may not immediately be able to provide information on what is happening and what you should do. However, you should listen to NOAA Weather Radio, watch TV, listen to the radio or check the Internet often for official news and instructions as they become available.

For additional information on dealing with volcanic eruptions, please see http://www.redcross.org/services/disaster/foreignmat/volcano.pdf and/or http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/volcanoes.shtm.

From www.ready.gov

Information is Excerpted from: From www.ready.gov

Tsunamis, also known as seismic sea waves, are most common along the Pacific coast, but can strike anywhere along the U.S. coastline. Tsunamis are enormous waves caused by an underground disturbance such as an earthquake. They can move hundreds of miles per hour, and hit land with waves topping 100 feet in height.

• Understanding the difference between the terms that identify a tsunami hazard: advisory, watch and warning. For a detailed explanation of these terms, see http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/tsunamis.shtm.
• Plan to act quickly. If you are in coastal waters and notice a dramatic recession of water from the shoreline you should heed nature's warning that a tsunami is approaching.
• Move inland immediately and do not return to the flooded and damaged areas until officials say it is safe to do so.
• Listen to your local news or radio or watch the internet for tsunami warnings in your area.

Stay informed

Local authorities may not immediately be able to provide information on what is happening and what you should do. However, you should watch TV, listen to the radio or check the Internet often for official news and instructions as they become available.

Information is Excerpted from: From www.ready.gov

A chemical attack is the deliberate release of a toxic gas, liquid or solid that can poison people and the environment.

Possible Signs of Chemical Threat

• Many people suffering from watery eyes, twitching, choking, having trouble breathing or losing coordination.
• Many sick or dead birds, fish or small animals are also cause for suspicion.

If You See Signs of Chemical Attack: Find Clean Air Quickly

• Quickly try to define the impacted area or where the chemical is coming from, if possible.
• Take immediate action to get away.
• If the chemical is inside a building where you are, get out of the building without passing through the contaminated area, if possible.
• If you can't get out of the building or find clean air without passing through the area where you see signs of a chemical attack, it may be better to move as far away as possible and shelter-in-place.
• If you are outside, quickly decide what is the fastest way to find clean air. Consider if you can get out of the area or if you should go inside the closest building and "shelter-in-place."

If You Think You Have Been Exposed to a Chemical

If your eyes are watering, your skin is stinging, and you are having trouble breathing, you may have been exposed to a chemical.

• If you think you may have been exposed to a chemical, strip immediately and wash.
• Look for a hose, fountain, or any source of water, and wash with soap if possible, being sure not to scrub the chemical into your skin.
• Seek emergency medical attention.

The State of Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management has a large listing of web based resources to help you learn more about preparing for specific disasters. Check out Citizens Resources (http://www.ak-prepared.com/homelandsecurity/citizenpreparedness.htm) for lots of information about this topic.

 

What If You Have Been Told To Evacuate?

If disaster strikes and you are told to evacuate by the authorities, follow these guidelines:

1. Leave right away if told to do so.
   
2. OCS policy requires children to be evacuated if an evacuation order is mandated for an area.
   
3. Listen to your battery powered radio for instructions from local officials.
   
4. Wear protective clothing and shoes. Make sure children are dressed appropriately and have shoes.
   
5. Shut off water, gas, and electricity if told to do so.
   
6. Leave a note telling when you left and where you are going.
   
7. Call your family contact to tell him or her where you are going.
   
8. Take your family emergency supplies kit.
   
9. Lock your home.
   
10. Use routes suggested by officials.

 

Sheltering In Place

In some emergencies, there may not be time to evacuate or the evacuation process (such as cars being stuck in a traffic jam when leaving an area) may be dangerous. In these cases, you may be asked to "shelter in place." This means that you take shelter in your home or your work place until an immediate safety hazard has passed, such as a chemical spill or some hazard in the air.

The Alabama Department of Health has produced a 90 second video as part of the "Emergency Preparedness Minute" Series called"Sheltering In Place." Click on the arrow below to start the video. As a supplement to the video, or if you are unable to view this video, also click on the guidelines below that were assembled by the American Red Cross for more information about sheltering in place.

PRINT OUT GUIDELINES FOR SHELTERING IN PLACE

Let's review what you learned by helping you plan what you might do in a disaster.

First, review the six situations of disasters that could occur. (To review, go to Stay Informed! Plan For What Might Happen in Your Community ) or think about the information you read abotu fires, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, chemical spills or floods.

Then, pick one of the Six Disasters listed that is the most likely to happen in your area. Answer these three questions.

1. What are some of the things your family could do to survive this disaster? (Be specific.)
   
2. What will you do to prepare for this situation? (Be specific.)
   
3. What emergency supplies may help your family in this kind of situation? (Be specific.)

Write down your answers to these questions on a separate piece of paper and keep a copy because you will be asked for this information on the final exam. You only need to do this for just one of the six disasters featured in this self study.

You have completed UNIT THREE: Be Informed. Click here to continue to UNIT 4: Children, Emergencies and Foster Care.