Free Flood Readiness and Response Exercise

Received from NMDHSEM….

Posted on the National Preparedness Community website

Free Flood Readiness and Response Exercise
Eric Nankervis (Mar 12th 2014 8:30 am)
In conjunction with National Flood Awareness Week, Points of Light is offering a free online flood readiness and response exercise on March 21, 2014 from 6 pm – 12 midnight ET

Resilient Response is intended for group interaction and lasts between two (2) and five (5) hours, depending on participant interaction.  The exercise walks the group though different scenarios related to flooding and challenges the group to explore how they would respond to the situations presented.   Participants may include:

 

• Neighborhood Associations/Civic Associations
• Homeowner Associations/Board of Governors
• Church/Faith-based Communities
• Neighborhood Watch Volunteers
• Volunteers in Policing (VIPs)
• Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT)
• Disaster Volunteers/Volunteer Emergency Support Teams (VEST)

 

For more information and to register for this and other Resilient Response exercises, please visit: www.ResilientResponseExercise.org

Here is the direct link to the Information:

http://www.drc-group.com/project/rrce.html

Facts about tornadoes

From FEMA:

Quick facts you should know about tornadoes:

• They may strike quickly, with little or no warning.
• They may appear nearly transparent until dust and debris are picked up or a cloud forms in the funnel.
• The average tornado moves Southwest to Northeast, but tornadoes have been known to move in any direction.
• The average forward speed of a tornado is 30 mph, but may vary from stationary to 70 mph.
• Tornadoes can accompany tropical storms and hurricanes as they move onto land.
• Waterspouts are tornadoes that form over water.
• Tornadoes are most frequently reported east of the Rocky Mountains during spring and summer months.
• Peak tornado season in the southern states is March through May; in the northern states, it is late spring through early summer.
• Tornadoes are most likely to occur between 3 pm and 9 pm, but can occur at any time.

You can learn more about tornadoes and how to prepare for them here: http://www.ready.gov/tornadoes

Staying safe in thunderstorms

In my oft occurring indoor moods, I exclaim “Outside is dangerous!”, when I see news stories about folks getting struck by lightning or getting lost in the mountains. OK, I really do love the outdoors but I also believe that some amount of caution should be used.

Frankly, especially when you’re in a first responder role or other emergency function, you just may not have the choice to come in out of the rain. Or it may just be that a storm brewed up unexpectedly, despite the predictions of our brilliant meteorological friends. It happens.

Do you know what to do to stay safe if you get caught out there? Fortunately, the National Weather Service has some guidelines you can follow:

Remember these tips when working or playing because we all want you to stay safe!

Home Economics for rainy days, floods and natural disasters

To be honest, I really don’t know what a modern home ec person does nowadays, as opposed to when I was in school (and our school didn’t have a home ec program). I do know that I wish I knew every time something goes past its expiration or I have to dispose of something safely. I look those sorts of things up, of course, and I have this wonderful book about keeping house, called
Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House, by Cheryl Mendelsohn. This blog post, though, is the first I’ve seen that links Home Economics to community preparedness. That should be a no-brainer but I see now that I have a whole new area to explore 🙂

Dr Jay Deagon's HomeEcConnect

Words written and photographs taken by Jay Deagon @HomeEcConnect

For those of you who do not know me personally, I live in South-East Queensland, Australia. For the past few days we have had extensive flooding down majority of the east coast of Australia. Thankfully, me and my family are all safe and no damage has been done (except for our washing line which was bent by a very large tree branch). I am truly grateful; however, many other families and communities have not been so lucky. At this point, I would like to extend a big thank you to all of the emergency workers, electricity workers and our police departments for their efforts in rescues and clean up.

I believe that this natural disaster, and all natural disasters around the world in the past few years, are a timely reminder about the importance of Home Economics knowledge and education. For example:

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Best article title ever!

No one can be uncheered with a balloon – or an offhand Pooh reference. This awesome title greeted me in my Feedly aggregator. I don’t know who creates the titles for an RSS feed but whoever did that deserves and award.

 

If you’d like to read the whole BBC News article, complete with a picture of Pooh, here is the direct link:  Winnie the Pooh teddy among objects found in Scottish sewers

FEMA Tips (plus one more) for dealing with blackouts

Yes, it’s a rough winter but a blackout can happen any time of the year, as some of us found out about 10 years ago in the big Northeast summer blackout. It was no fun. Here are some tips from ready.gov to remember *before* it happens to you:

1. Follow energy conservation measures to keep the use of electricity as low as possible, which can help power companies avoid imposing rolling blackouts.

2. Fill plastic containers with water and place them in the refrigerator and freezer if there’s room. Leave about an inch of space inside each one, because water expands as it freezes. This chilled or frozen water will help keep food cold during a temporary power outage, by displacing air that can warm up quickly with water or ice that keeps cold for several hours without additional refrigeration.

3. Be aware that most medication that requires refrigeration can be kept in a closed refrigerator for several hours without a problem. If unsure, check with your physician or pharmacist.

4. Keep your car tank at least half full because gas stations rely on electricity to power their pumps.

5. Know where the manual release lever of your electric garage door opener is located and how to operate it. Garage doors can be heavy, so know that you may need help to lift it.

6. Keep a key to your house with you if you regularly use the garage as the primary means of entering your home, in case the garage door will not open.

I will add one more here. During the northeast blackout, landline phones still worked – until their batteries ran out. We were fortunate enough to have held on to an old rotary phone and I was able to call in to work for information on closures. Those old phones don’t take up much room in a cabinet, so if you have one, don’t toss it! ^MARH

Please help Animal Protection of New Mexico with info on La Cienega dogs

I’m posting this on the blog for folks that aren’t on Facebook. I can’t imagine anyone being so cruel. If you have any information about these shootings, please call APNM toll-free at 877-548-6263. You can report in anonymously, if you so choose.

If you are on Facebook, you can Like their page to keep up on the news about this case at http://www.facebook.com/animalprotectionnm and/or follow them on Twitter at http://twitter.com/APNM

MGT 310: Threat and Risk Assessment (THIRA) – Dec 9-10, 2013 in Gallup, NM

MGT 310: Threat and Risk Assessment (THIRA)

This course prepares participants to conduct a jurisdictional Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA). Participant activities focus on allowing the jurisdiction to understand threats and hazards and how the impacts may vary according to time of occurrence, season, location, and other community factors. This knowledge helps a jurisdiction establish informed and defensible capability targets. Participants will identify threats and hazards of concern, give the threats and hazards context, examine the core capabilities, set capability targets, perform vulnerability and consequence assessments, and apply the results. The course delivery combines lecture, small group discussions, participant activities, and multimedia scenarios to improve the jurisdiction’s capability to prevent, protect, mitigate, respond to, or recover from all-hazards events.

December 9 & 10, 2013 in Gallup, NM        

This course is being managed by McKinley County OEM to register please go to the following link:

http://bit.ly/17xmyiE

Participants should work in one of the listed disciplines, have completed a WMD/terrorism awareness level course, or be approved by the local jurisdiction host. Completion of the online courses IS-700.a (NIMS – An Introduction) and AWR-160 (WMD/Terrorism Awareness for Emergency Responders) is recommended but not required. The DHS/FEMA NTED course AWR-160 is offered online by TEEX at: www.teexwmdcampus.com.

 

Preparing others financially for a major disaster

OK, I’ll admit that if the zombie apocalypse happens, we may not be able to get to our bank accounts, anyway (and, no, we won’t go there about money in the freezer). Most disasters, however, are well-addressed by normal preparedness plans. If you help others with financial preparedness, this University of Minnesota offering may be just the ticket:

via Ready.gov….

FREE DISASTER FINANCIAL RECOVERY WEBINARS
Natural disasters wreak havoc on families in more ways than one. It takes time for survivors to recover emotionally and financially. This webinar series will help professionals assist individuals and families with disaster financial recovery including:

• Becoming familiar with the “Recovery After Disaster: The Family Financial Toolkit”;
• Identifying key strategies and resources to help with financial recovery;
• Determining family financial picture; and
• Guiding families as they make financial decisions.

The hour-long webinars are held once a month November 26 – March 18 at 2pm CDT.

First Responder Resiliency Class (Roosevelt Co, NM)

The goal of this course is to understand, assess, plan, and apply the psychology of resiliency. The course will provide you with materials and techniques that you can apply throughout your life to help you assess situations and move forward smoothly through difficult and varied situations. Finally, the course is intended to serve as a decision model to help you determine if your resiliency skillset is adequate to support you or if you wish to pursue additional resiliency training.

 

Topics include:

Goal Setting, Sleep, Relaxation, Perspective,

ABCs, Empathy, and Social Support

December 7, 2013 (0800-1700)

Roosevelt Co. Sheriff’s Office

( 109 Airport Road, South of Portales)

 

Maximum Class of 30

This class is at no cost to the student. Fire, EMS and Law Enforcement CEUs have been applied for.

Lunch will be provided – please register by Dec. 5th at noon.

 

To Register and assure a seat, contact:

 

Larry Nelson, MS NMCEM

Director – EMS, Fire and Emergency Management Programs

575-562-2831

Lawrence.nelson@enmu.edu