31. Family Preparation for Responding to Disasters

Abstract

Disasters can occur with warning (eg, floods, hurricanes, and winter storms) or without warning (eg, fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, mudslides, power outages, or man-made events). Disasters, actual or anticipated, are extremely stressful events for a family, especially the children. Involving the children in the development of a plan for response will decreasing anxiety by increasing their understanding of the event and provided a pre-established and practiced plan of response for the whole family. The program was implemented by means of a combination of formal and interactive presentations. These programs, which included handouts and displays, were held at local community centers and health/safety fairs on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The initial target population was children in Kindergarten through 6th grade because of funding received from the EMS-C program; however, parents requested additional information on family disaster planning to include the senior members of the family. The revised program focuses on the personalization by each family of a 'Plan for Response' including local and out-of-area emergency contacts, management of utilities, organization of evacuation, preparation of disaster/evacuation kits, and the preplanning of pet relocation, a major stressor for adults and children. Families identified 3 potential disasters in making their personalized response plans. Evaluation of the response plan required the family members to identify an out-of-state contact and the listing of 10 items for a disaster/evacuation kit. The success of this program was demonstrated in 2003 during Hurricane Isabel as families prepared to evacuate or shelter in place. As part of the preplanning process, disaster kits were prepared and utilities were turned off. The school system has enhanced their databases to include emergency contact located on the Eastern Shore given that parents may be separated from their children due to Bay Bridge closures. The effectiveness of this program was assessed during the evacuation and community follow-up after Hurricane Isabel. Upon arrival of emergency equipment, many families were found with their utilities shut off, secured homes, and kits ready to leave. Observationally, it was noted by rescuers that families with young children were better prepared to evacuate than the elderly were. We were unable to assess the gauge the levels of stress because the impact of the storm was greater than predicted with more damage that lead to very high and long-term stress levels. A significant impact was that there were no life-threatening injuries or loss of life. This project is part of an ongoing EMS-C grant (Kids in Disasters). The next step on the Eastern Shore of Maryland is to expand this to schools and businesses so that they can learn how to effectively prepare for a disaster.