New Materials on America's PrepareAthon!
This week officially marked the end of summer and in just a few short months the chill of winter will impact many communities across the country.
A new video, When the Sky Turns Gray , asks, “how prepared, or unprepared, are you for winter storms?” The 90-second animation gives an introduction on what to do before, during and after a winter storm strikes. If winter storms are a common local hazard for you, we encourage you to take the protective actions outlined in the video.
This video also complements the new How to Prepare for Winter Storms guide available on the America's PrepareAthon! website . This guide, paired with When the Sky Turns Gray , will help you:
- Learn about winter storms;
- Know the correct actions to take to prepare and how to practice them; and
- Get your community involved through a local National PrepareAthon! Day.
Please share these helpful materials through your communication channels. In addition, take time, September 30—National PrepareAthon! Day, to do a preparedness action before a disaster impacts you. Looking for preparedness actions? Use the America's PrepareAthon! How to Prepare guides available for earthquakes , floods , hurricanes , tornadoes , wildfires and winter storms .
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30 Days 30 Ways Preparedness Challenge
The Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency (CRESA) in Vancouver, Washington is challenging everyone to get more prepared by doing one simple task each day in September. Every day this month, a new challenge is issued to complete a five minute preparedness action. This year's challenge focuses on actions that encourage preparedness within your whole community and neighborhood. Through partnerships with local organizations, CRESA has crafted fun and interactive activities that open up the preparedness conversation between families, friends, coworkers and neighbors.
There's still time to meet the challenge to take simple steps towards preparedness. The 30 Days 30 Ways Preparedness Challenge is an effective way to answer the America's PrepareAthon! call for everyone to make the move from awareness to action. Join participants from all over the world in preparing for emergencies and disasters.
Ways to participate:
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It Takes a Whole Community
You may be familiar with the phrase, “practice makes perfect,” especially when it comes to physical activities such as sports or dance, but what about practicing for emergencies? For the Macomb County Health Department Medical Reserve Corps (MCHD MRC), in Macomb County, Michigan, practicing how to dispense vital medications at a Point of Dispensing (POD) during an emergency provided the perfect opportunity to do a whole community exercise.
In April 2014, the MCHD MRC conducted a drive-through POD exercise at Utica High School with 16 volunteers and hundreds of community members. The MCHD MRC wanted to be inclusive of families with multiple children, older adults, individuals with disabilities and others with access and functional needs. They chose a drive-through POD since it usually more accommodating for a variety of community members. In a drive-through POD, people can sit in the comfort of their car as they get their needs met. During this exercise, community members got the opportunity to go through different POD stations set-up to collect medical information in order to dispense the correct medicine to a person in need. Each station also provided resources on what to expect in a public health emergency.
The MCHD MRC accomplished all of its exercise goals:
- Demonstrated how a POD operates to the community;
- Provided volunteers an opportunity to practice drive-through POD operation;
- Raised the community's awareness about public health and preparedness; and
- Provided resources to citizens to encourage them to take action and prepare themselves, their families and their communities.
Some of the benefits of this exercise included:
- Strengthened response capabilities;
- Built lessons learned for future PODs that was shared with other community members;
- Made connections with other organizations for collaboration on future exercises;
- Built a strong partnership with multiple agencies including fire, police and emergency management; and
- Provided insight to the school on POD operations so they could know what to expect in a real emergency.
This exercise demonstrated that combining volunteers and drive-through POD plans will allow Macomb County to better serve the whole community: not only during a public health emergency, but beforehand through preparedness education.
Looking for ideas on getting your own community to practice for an emergency? Turn to America's PrepareAthon! There are step-by-step guides and playbooks available for multiple hazards on the America's PrepareAthon! website.
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Dates for Your Calendar!
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