Smart to be prepared

Colonel Rodney Smart, acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) says what is obvious: “…it's better to have a well prepared citizenry that an under prepared one,". This blog has been beating that particular drum for years. In fact, preparedness is part of our raison d’etre.

AirgunsTT commends the ODPM and our national government on decisive action last Friday, with regard to warnings on Tropical Storm Tomas. Just look at the resultant damage to Barbados and St Vincent and the Grenadines. They received late warnings.

Preparing for our own earthquake

Since Haiti’s 7.0 magnitude earthquake and now Chile’s 8.8, some Trinidadians and Tobagonians have been paying attention and wondering about our readiness for our own ‘overdue’ quake.

Waiting for a government directive through the Office of Disaster Planning and Management (ODPM) may work. But it certainly won’t pay. Far better to prepare ourselves, family and community by stockpiling water/food, a redundant security system—preferably in conjunction with our immediate community—and medical supplies, plus whatever other preparations we’d need to rebuild and return to some degree of normalcy. In short, we need beans, bullets and band-aids. 

And training.

Organise family emergency drills. Then at the street level. Then at the neighbourhood level. Then the entire community, if possible. Video everything, then look for weaknesses and strengths. Eliminate or reduce the weak parts of the plan, and build on the strengths.

Document and pass on to other communities. Rinse. Repeat.

While on the subject, shouldn’t the Tobago-based Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) pilot program finally reach Trinidad? Maybe AFTER the disaster…

T&T’S CHILE RESPONSE

“Prime Minister Patrick Manning and his Government is monitoring the situation in Chile and will take appropriate steps soon.”

The Chilean government does not want outside help, and has said so itself:

‘Chile has so far not requested foreign assistance, saying it can handle the immediate relief effort.

Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez said Chile did not want aid offers to be "a distraction", adding: "Any aid that arrives without having been determined to be needed really helps very little."’

Civilized people don’t go where they’re not wanted. Are we savages?

Emergency preparedness: Fairgrove, Cupertino

Cupertino Walk for Action Volunteers, inspected supplies in their emergency container, made sure residents in their area had received important emergency information, and that resident knew about the their emergency ARC location based at Hyde Middle School in Cupertino Sunday October 18, 2009. (Photo: Maria J. Avila/Mercury News)

Daily scouring the net can be a rewarding experience. One occasionally comes across some nuggets that makes you grab the family emergency plan off the fridge door, with a view to editing.

The city of Cupertino, in California recently activated and tested their emergency preparedness plans. Cupertino publishes its agenda, minutes and even videos of council meetings on its website.

The Silicon Valley Mercury News has a story on the exercise here. One particular neighbourhood was more prepared than others: the 15-block Fairgrove area. Fairgrove has 225 homeowners, while Cupertino has 52,000 residents.

It would be nice if the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management looked closely at Fairgrove’s preparation. The citizens were involved, and not treated as victims/consumers.