Children and Disasters NPM Week: 3

Author: danielkilburn 2019-09-15 1 Comment

National Preparedness Month

Week 3: September 15-21

Teach Youth to Prepare for Disaster

 I see it as, teach our children to prepare for disasters.

During the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake my oldest daughter was with her mom out of state visiting relatives, she was 3 years old at the time.

I was very glad that neither she nor her mother was in California because I knew they would have a hard time dealing with the effects of the earthquake.

At that time, I had no idea what to do either.

A year later my youngest daughter came into my life. It was about that time I started actively searching for information on disaster management planning through FEMA and the American Red Cross.

In 1994 I received my 1^st training certification from FEMA.

A couple of years later when my oldest daughter was starting school, I introduced her to the basics of disaster management planning.

The Fire Escape:

 I remember sitting down and talking to her about the hazards of home fires and how fast a fire can take over the house.

I asked her to show me 2 ways she could get out of the house if there was a fire.

She took the obvious route to the front door.

And I asked her what if the fire is blocking the front door? How can you get out now?

She immediately took me into the master bathroom opened the window and showed me how she can get out of the house.

What can we learn from this?

First of all, your children know a lot more than you think they do.

And they are willing to be involved in your emergency action planning if you are.       

Hurricane Irma.

My granddaughter was staying with me at that time.

We had already discussed and practiced the whole emergency action planning outline.

She knew where to go.

She knows who to call.

She knows what to do.

Practical application:

During the lead up to hurricane Irma making landfall we were going through our emergency action plan, and packing for the evacuation.

At one point my granddaughter looked at me and asked me, Papa, are you okay?

I told her of course I am, why?

She told me that I seem awfully agitated. I had to admit that I was.

I sat down with my granddaughter and told her yes, I am agitated and I am anxious and I have a little bit of upset going on within me. Why?

She told me that my agitation was making her question our emergency action planning decisions. And it was upsetting her.

I stopped right there and sat down with her and told her that no matter how much we plan for, no matter how much we prepared for.

 We haven’t had to do it yet. And I was worried that I was forgetting something.

I could tell that my answer was actually agitating her more.

Realizing that what I was saying was affecting her I changed course.

I asked her to tell me if she knew if we had a plan? Her answer was yes of course we do.

I asked her to tell me if it seems like we’re following through with that plan? Her answer was yes, we are following through with the plan this is the plan we made.

I told her that no matter how I might be feeling at the moment, everything is going to be okay because we have to plan.

She brightened up, we have a plan, we are working our plan, everything is going to be all right.

And it was.

At a minimum:

Make a Plan

Teach your children who they will contact?

Teach your children where they will meet?

Practices what you teach.

A great place to start the introduction to disaster management planning with children, is the Home Hazard Hunt, Home Fire Safety check and Home Escape Plan.

Downloadable PDFs can be found here: https://www.emergencyactionplanning.com/resources/

FEMA resources can be found here: https://www.ready.gov/kids

Till next time

“Be Safe”

P.S. Your children will follow your lead.

Lead them well.