Disaster Preparedness: A Step-by-Step Guide

Preparation for a Hurricane 

Hurricanes are common in Florida specifically from the month of June to November. The National Weather Bureau alerts residents on an upcoming hurricane ( Adame & Miller, 2015) In the event of an alert from the National Weather Bureau of an emergency hurricane to be experienced in my neighborhood in the next 15 minutes, I may have no enough time to prepare and safely move out of house and travel to a neighboring safer State. However, thank God, my house is located in a fairly high ground that is safe enough. First, I shall ensure I board up all house windows then bring in all outdoor objects that can be blown away by the hurricane. I shall also remove the car under the tree and safely park it in the garage and make sure the garage is safely locked. 

Inside the house, it is important to sit in safe places away from any danger of wind ( Rodríguez-Espíndola, Albores & Brewster, 2018). Thus, I shall ensure I stay away from windows and the exterior doors and shall be monitoring on the weather updates via the radio or television. Wind affects electricity supply lines and can lead to outage (Powell, Mustafee, Chen & Hammond, 2016). Thus, I shall also ensure the electricity mains are off and shall utilize battery powered lights and radio till when the hurricane is over. Safety of valuable documents is important during a disaster ( Thomas, Leander-Griffith, Harp & Cioffi, 2015). Thus I shall safely keep my insurance information, deeds, certificates, and passport in a storm proof container that is well labeled for easy retrieval in the event of separation. Communication is important during Hurricane and can be done using many available channels ( Anson, Watson, Wadhwa & Metz, 2017). In the event the hurricane becomes much worse I shall use my analog battery powered phone to contact the evacuation team for help. 

How Prepared are you in the Event of a Disaster? 

Since I reside in Miami, Florida, I have experienced many Hurricanes and water disasters like flooding. These experiences have led me to be more prepared on wind and water-related disasters than fire-related disasters. In Florida, the Hurricane season in early June ( Ronan, Alisic, Towers, Johnson & Johnston, 2015) . Thus, I usually ensure I have my Emergency preparedness kit with first aid supplies, batteries, an analog phone, flashlight, and enough cash. I also ensure the car is in perfect condition and has enough gas at all times. I do stock enough food and water in the house to ensure I don’t run out of supply for weeks. 

On fire-related disasters, I must confirm that my house is not fitted with smoke alarms to detect fire. In the event of a fire, occupants in houses with no fire alert equipment become vulnerable ( He & Zhuang, 2016) . There is a fire real in my house but have never used it since the house was constructed. The much I know about the gadget is that it is used for extinguishing a fire, but there are different types of fire that need different extinguishing gadgets of which I do not have. I have no emergency fire exit door and attest that in the event of a fire, I would be more affected than if it were wind and water-related disasters. 

Level of Disaster Preparedness before and After Training 

I have gained a lot of knowledge on disaster preparedness on many types of disasters than what I knew before. Before undertaking the disaster preparedness module, I had some knowledge of water and wing disaster preparation since I live in Miami, Florida. Miami is an area that is prone to tropical storms, hurricanes, and floods ( Thomas, Leander-Griffith, Harp & Cioffi, 2015) . After the class I have a vast knowledge of fire, wind, water, earthquakes, emergency epidemics, extreme heat and agricultural disease and pests’ related disasters. Knowledge acquired in disaster preparedness training can be used for personal home safety and for the safety of others ( Huang & Xiao, 2015) , Thus, I shall ensure my home is equipped with relevant fire and earthquake disaster preparedness gadgets to ensure I am safe in the event of an emergency fire or earthquake. People with knowledge on disaster preparedness are the best agents for disaster management (Dunlop, Logue, Vaidyanathan & Isakov, 2016). Thus, after the class, I can effectively advise others on how well to prepare for different forms of disaster. 

References

Adame, B. J., & Miller, C. H. (2015). Vested interest, disaster preparedness, and strategic campaign message design. Health communication , 30 (3), 271-281. 

Anson, S., Watson, H., Wadhwa, K., & Metz, K. (2017). Analyzing social media data for disaster preparedness: Understanding the opportunities and barriers faced by humanitarian actors. International journal of disaster risk reduction , 21 , 131-139. 

Dunlop, A. L., Logue, K. M., Vaidyanathan, L., & Isakov, A. P. (2016). Facilitators and barriers for effective academic-community collaboration for disaster preparedness and response. Journal of public health management and practice , 22 (3), E20-E28. 

He, F., & Zhuang, J. (2016). Balancing pre-disaster preparedness and post-disaster relief. European Journal of Operational Research , 252 (1), 246-256. 

Huang, Q., & Xiao, Y. (2015). Geographic situational awareness: mining tweets for disaster preparedness, emergency response, impact, and recovery. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information , 4 (3), 1549-1568. 

Medina, A. (2016). Promoting a culture of disaster preparedness. Journal of business continuity & emergency planning , 9 (3): 281-290. 

Powell, J. H., Mustafee, N., Chen, A. S., & Hammond, M. (2016). System-focused risk identification and assessment for disaster prepareness: Dynamic threat analysis. European Journal of Operational Research , 254 (2): 550-564. 

Rodríguez-Espíndola, O., Albores, P., & Brewster, C. (2018). Disaster preparedness in humanitarian logistics: A collaborative approach for resource management in floods. European Journal of Operational Research , 264 (3): 978-993. 

Ronan, K. R., Alisic, E., Towers, B., Johnson, V. A., & Johnston, D. M. (2015). Disaster preparedness for children and families: a critical review. Current psychiatry reports , 17 (7), 58. 

Thomas, T. N., Leander-Griffith, M., Harp, V., & Cioffi, J. P. (2015). Influences of preparedness knowledge and beliefs on household disaster preparedness. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report , 64 (35), 965-971.