Prepared or Not? Are you Ready?

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Prepared or Not? Are you Ready?

• Langara Summer School
• July 12, 2011
• Ann Pacey, Village Vancouver Transition Society

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Agenda

• Welcome and introductions
• Emergency scenarios
• Community resilience
• Personal strategies
• Comprehensive preparation guides

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Disaster a calamitous event, especially one
occurring suddenly and causing great loss of
life, damage or hardship, such as an earthquake,
fire or terrorist attack

• Effective preparation requires prioritizing based
  on likelihood and impact of events
• Preparedness should be motivated more out of love
  than fear

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Types of Emergencies

• Natural
• Earthquake
• Flood
• Severe weather
• Fire

• Human related
• Pandemic
• Terrorism
• Contamination radioactive, chemical release
• Energy and other resource shortages
• Economic breakdown
• Personal financial disaster

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Earthquakes

• The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a plate-boundary
  fault stretching from Cape Mendocino to Vancouver
  Island. It spawns earthquakes and tsunamis as
  powerful as any on earth. Barely known 25 years
  ago, Cascadia is now the most thoroughly studied
  subduction zone on earth.
• Cascadia has generated more than 40
  earthquakes of Magnitude 8 or greater in the last
  10,000 years. About 80 of the intervals between
  these 40 earthquakes appear to be shorter than
  300 years.
• The most recent rupture of the fault
  occurred January 26, 1700  311 years ago.
•  Geophysicists assess probabilities in a variety
  of ways, but their conclusions boil down to we
  are living on borrowed time. The best-informed
  people expect the next Cascadia quake and tsunami
  in our lifetimes, certainly in our childrens
  lifetimes.
• No aspect of our infrastructure has been built to
  withstand the shaking or the waves of this
  magnitude.
• An earthquake of Magnitude 8 or greater on the
  Cascadia fault will not be like the last
  earthquake, only bigger. It may be more like a
  four-minute war whose impacts will be
  experienced simultaneously by millions of
  Northwesterners. It will fell bridges, topple
  power lines, silence cell networks, and collapse
  fuel storage tanks.
• The quake and the tsunami will turn parts of the
  coast into an archipelago of isolated communities
  cut off from each other and from interior
  valleys.

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Increasing Vulnerability

• Climate change and the peaking of key resources
  like fossil fuels, will destabilize our current
  globalized economic system
• Droughts and severe weather will affect our food
  supplies
• Power outages will affect many aspects of our
  daily lives, while liquid fuel shortages will
  affect transport, access ro goods and services
  and individual mobility
• Meanwhile, economic pressures are already causing
  budget cuts to emergency response and security
  services

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Village Vancouver Transition Initiative

• World wide, grass roots movement to strengthen
  community resilience in response to climate
  change, peak fossil fuel and economic instability
• Transition means shifting from reliance on
  fossil fuels, to resilience in the face of future
  energy scarcity
• VV is addressing a broad range of projects and
  activities to support a truly sustainable
  Vancouver, including emergency preparedness

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What is Vancouvers Emergency Preparedness Like?

• The Neighbourhood Emergency Preparedness Program
  (NEPP) is responsible for community outreach,
  training and coordination
• Since the Japanese earthquake, the number of
  neighbourhood training sessions increased with
  sold out demand, that interest is falling off now
• In the event of an emergency, the community
  centre becomes the primary response centre in
  each community
• Functions as reception and command centre for the
  neighbourhood with connection to police, fire and
  other emergency response services. A volunteer
  with radio experience will set up radio contact
  in the CC.
• Newer centres were constructed to earthquake
  code. In the event of an earthquake, older
  centres (like Dunbar) would need to be checked
  before being opened.
• Each centre is supplied with one container
  containing around 100 cots and sufficient food
  for those cots.
• Budget cuts have led to the closing of police and
  fire stations

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Strengthening Community Resilience

• Major disasters in developing countries, like
  Katrina, have raised awareness of the need for
  communities to take responsibility for themselves
  in the immediate aftermath of an emergency
• Japanese citizen response to March earthquake
  greatly reduced death toll
• Dunbar is implementing a neighbourhood program
  based on a community-first response partnership
  developed in Washington State Map Your
  Neighbourhood

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Youre On Your Own (YOYO)

• In a widespread serious emergency, traditional
  9-1-1 and First Responder capabilities such as
  fire, police, medics, and utility personnel may
  be overwhelmed and unable to immediately assist
  individuals and families.
• People may be largely on their own for at least
  the first several days following the disaster and
  perhaps for up to two weeks, depending on the
  emergency.
• This fact often does not occur to many, so people
  live with a false sense of security as a result.

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Map Your Neighbourhood

• Personal Emergency Preparedness is not enough. If
  you have already prepared yourself and your
  family for an emergency or disaster, then take
  the next step by helping to guide your neighbors
  to do what you have done and get themselves
  prepared.
• Preparing your neighbourhood is vital. Neighbours
  will likely be the first ones to offer you
  assistance. Neighbours that are prepared are more
  effective in their response to a disaster and
  have an increased capacity to be self-sufficient
  for the first 72 hours after a disaster
• if you have unprepared neighbors, whose house do
  you think they will come to in the aftermath of a
  disaster? Will you be willing or able to share
  all of your food and supplies with your
  neighbors?

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Creating a Network

• You are safer and more likely to survive a
  serious disaster in a group of like minded
  individuals
• A Disaster Preparedness network is more effective
  when members pool resources, supplies and skills
• When a disaster event occurs, connect with
  network members to make sure everyones needs are
  met.

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Special Needs

• Elderly
• Children
• People with disabilities or medical conditions
• Pregnant women
• Pets

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Children

• How will school officials communicate with
  families during an emergency? What will they do
  if you are unreachable?
• Does the school store food, water and other basic
  supplies?
• Is the school prepared to shelter-in-place?
• What are their evacuation plans
• Be hones with your kids trust is very hard to
  regain once lost.
• Teach them not to panic.

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Getting started

• Many excellent resources are available free of
  charge and online to start your preparedness
  efforts (see resources at end of presentation)
• Make an inventory of your present assets and
  skills and a list of priorities
• Get started and work diligently. Find a friend or
  a circle of friends to work through the
  preparation efforts
• Build skills

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7 Habits of Personal and Community Resilience

• Solidarity and cooperation
• Creativity and adaptability
• Proactivity
• Prudence, preparation and planning
• Responsibility
• Awareness of environment
• Holistic methodology

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Skill Building

• Grow a food garden and learn basic permaculture
  skills
• Learn canning and other food preparation skills
• Plan and prepare meals from the foods you are
  storing
• Learn to sew and repair clothing. Learn to quilt,
  knit, crochet, weave, spin and dye wool. Make and
  repair your own shoes and emergency footwear
• Take the beginning and advanced first aid
  training
• Make your own soap and candles
• Learn how to repair and maintain your home
  (carpentry, plumbing, electrical, masonry,
  woodworking)
• Cut your familys hair
• Lear radio an communication. Understand police
  and fire codes and CB lingo

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Communication

• Timely information is critical to making
  decisions
• Commercial, government services and internet will
  work in some emergencies
• Every home should have a weather radio with
  backup batteries or windup power
• Every home should have at least one hardwired
  phone line
• Outgoing communication is important to
• Request help from emergency services
• Contact family, friends and DP network members
• Relay first person updates from affected areas

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Resources

• Web sites
• http//vancouver.ca/emerg/NEPP/
• http//www.getemergencyprepared.com/
• http//www.l2020.org/index.php?pageemergency-prep
  aredness-menu
• http//www.emd.wa.gov/myn/index.shtml
• http//www.chrismartenson.com/page/what-should-i-d
  o
• http//www.wordpress.peakmoment.tv/conversations/?
  p418
• http//www.mvcommunitypreparedness.org/
• Books
• Handbook to practical disaster preparedness for
  the family, Arthur Bradley
• Crisis preparedness handbook, Jack Spigarelli
• Long emergency, James Kunstler
• When technology fails, Matthew Stein
• The Secure Home, Joel Skousen
• The Resilient Gardener, Carol Deppe