By George Stevens
Writing for the NVFC
Disasters can strike at any time, and communities that are prepared in advance have a better chance at mitigating the impacts and recovering more quickly. The local fire department has a critical role to play in disaster preparedness, both in helping the community be ready and in making sure the department is ready.
- The Need for Quality Risk Analysis in “Small” Fire Departments
- The Essential Elements of Community Risk-Reduction
- Assessing the Risk
A key concept when thinking about disasters and their aftermath is resiliency. In this case, resilience refers to the ability for the community to withstand and recover from a disaster. The goal is to be able to restore essential basic structures and functions as quickly as possible and with minimal loss. To be a resilient community, planning and preparation must happen prior to the disaster.
In this article, I want to focus on key considerations for both individual disaster preparedness and fire department preparedness so that you can build a resilient community that can more quickly recover when the next disaster strikes.
Community and Individual Preparedness
Your fire department can develop community disaster preparation and resilience by working with churches, schools, civic organizations, elected officials, and businesses to raise awareness about possible disasters and help them develop plans to minimize the effect of the disasters. A good place to start is www.ready.gov. This site provides an extensive list of potential disasters and corresponding preparedness recommendations to mitigate the impacts and get back to normal more quickly. However, for the most part these recommendations are based on life getting back to normal within a few days or government relief being provided within three days. Recent events have shown that a state of normalcy or relief may take weeks or months.
One key concept that is necessary for building community resilience is the importance of following recommendations. Sadly, there are too many examples of lives lost because people did not heed the warnings and recommendations. For instance, Hurricane Ian resulted in 148 deaths in Florida, but many of these lives could have been saved if evacuation orders had been followed. In Buffalo, New York, a 2022 blizzard resulted in at least 39 deaths despite orders to stay in home and off the road. Preincident planning has to include all segments of the community, including the elderly, those with special needs, those new to the area, and other vulnerable populations to ensure they understand what to do should disaster strikes, where to find the current safety information during a disaster, and the critical nature of following safety recommendations.
Community planners also need to make preparations for the worst-case scenario. A report from the Los Angeles Times showed that community leaders in Paradise, California, only practiced for wildfire scenarios that stopped at the edge of town. This left them tragically ill-prepared when fire swept through the town, resulting in 86 deaths and the destruction of nearly 14,000 homes. Disaster planning should consider any number of possible scenarios that may occur—such as what would happen if a severe earthquake and its aftershocks crippled communities and their infrastructures, or if a cyber or physical attack threatened a critical utility or food source—and include a framework for what to do if response to the disaster takes months or longer.
There are many factors that impact an individual’s personal disaster resilience plan, such as where they live (town or country), what type of housing structure they have (apartment, townhouse, single family home, multi-level home), and financial situation. However, here are some basic considerations to improve personal disaster preparedness and build resiliency:
- Maintain a six-week supply of food for use in the event of disaster. If finances and storage allow, consider maintaining an even larger stock of provisions (six months) in case event relief is delayed or supply chains are disrupted. Build this reserve over time; most canned goods have a shelf life of well over a year and many boxed goods can be used for up to six months. Buy what you normally eat and rotate your supply.
- Maintain a two week or longer drinking water supply.
- Maintain a supply of disposable plates, bowls, spoons, forks, and knives.
- Keep water on hand to flush your toilets. Consider using one-gallon milk containers to store water to be at the ready, as this size container is easy to use, refill, and transport. When a hurricane or other storm is approaching, fill your tub with water.
- Have a safe alternate heat source in case you lose your main heating source.
- Have sufficient clothing and blankets in the event you lose your heating source.
- Have an alternate cooking source, such as an outdoor propane grill.
- If affordable and allowed, have a propane generator installed at your home. A cheaper but less effective alternative is a gasoline powered generator. Make sure to follow all safety precautions to save life and property. People die every year from improper use of this type of generator. Portable generators have their drawbacks but can power portable fans for cooling, cooking devices, heating, and lighting.
- Medical care may not be readily available for some time after a disaster. Keep up to date with vaccinations (flu, pneumonia, hepatitis, Tdap, etc.). Maintain a six-month supply of over-the-counter medicine such as pain reliever, cough syrup, allergy medicine, etc. Maintain a first aid kit that includes bandages, antibiotic ointment, and a bleeding control kit.
- Consider having potassium iodide on hand in case of exposure to radioactive iodine and understand its usage and dosage.
- If you live in an evacuation zone, evacuate. Evacuate early to avoid gas shortages and bumper-to-bumper traffic.
- If evacuating in a winter environment, take sufficient clothing and blankets to ensure warmth if you become stranded. In all cases, take several days’ supply of food and water with you when evacuating by vehicle.
- If you know in advance that your area is going to be hit hard by a storm, leave the area if you can. It may be a good time for you to go on vacation or visit relatives who live well outside the potentially affected area. This is especially important for the elderly.
- If possible, provide assistance to the elderly that cannot take care of themselves.
- During an emergency, do not waste resources. Minimize travel and carpool to save gasoline. If you can’t keep perishables cold, coordinate and share with neighbors.
Building Fire Department Disaster Resilience
Just as individuals need to be prepared before a disaster strikes, so does a fire department. A department that is not prepared will have a difficult time being there for the community during and after a disaster.
Here are some tips to help keep your department and members operating when a disaster strikes:
- Maintain emergency food and water rations at the fire station. During the first few days of a disaster, you may have volunteer firefighters who cannot report to work but can be available to staff your station.
- Assist firefighters and their families in obtaining vaccinations. In the event of some disasters, firefighters and their families will be given priority to get vaccinated.
- Install a permanent propane (preferred) or natural gas generator at your station.
- Establish a plan to maintain a gasoline and diesel supply for your department and firefighters when supply chains are broken.
- Establish a supply of expendable personal protective equipment for all disasters including N-95 masks, CBRN masks and cartridges, and Tyvek coveralls.
- Maintain a stock of potassium iodide tablets for firefighters and their families and understand when and how to administer them.
- Plan for how to operate without dispatch. In some emergencies, phones and radios may be inoperable and citizens may have to come to the station to ask for assistance.
- Plan on using assistance from civilians for operations such as road clearing and security.
- Plan for how to utilize perishable food supplies at schools, restaurants, and supermarkets before spoilage. This will require reaching out and making arrangements prior to a disaster with those that have bulk food storage in your community.
- Plan for how you will accept donations of food, labor, and equipment as well as how you will distribute needed resources to the community (feeding the public at the station, door-to-door food delivery, providing vaccinations, etc.).
- Train firefighters on how to respond to pandemic, biological warfare, nuclear emergencies, etc.
- Build new fire stations to meet building, fire, and WUI codes. If in a hurricane or tornado prone area, build to hurricane and tornado codes.
- At existing stations, provide a hurricane or tornado safe room if in a hurricane or tornado prone area. Mitigation grants are available that will pay for most or all of this cost.
George Stevens has served as the Mississippi director of the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) since 2007 and currently serves as chair of the homeland security committee. He also represents the NVFC on the committees for NFPA 3000, Standard for an Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response (ASHER) Program and NFPA 1010, Standard for Firefighter, Fire Apparatus Driver/Operator, Airport Firefighter, and Marine Firefighting for Land-Based Firefighters Professional Qualifications. A volunteer firefighter since 1986, he is a past president of the Mississippi Volunteer Fire Association, serves on the ICC Fire Code Action Committee, and served as the Lamar County (MS) Fire Coordinator from 2006-2019.
