 |
Note: Some links open in a new window. If you don't see this menu, just close that window to return here.
Emergency Planning Home Page
The intent of this resource center is to make available to you a varity of resources that may be helpful in planning how to protect your family and help your neighbors in the event of a local emergency. It is not intended to replace common sense or any other documents you may have that contain similar information.
Prelude: The thoughts behind the beginning of our CERT project were fueled by our experiences with hurricane Isabel, 9/11 and the Cecil County Depart of Emergency Service's "Family Emergency Preparedness Guide". Although we didn't experience any major problems here on 9/11, it could have been much worse if the situation had involved a larger region or a local industrial complex. Consider the plight of the people in the Gulf coast, New Orleans and the surrounding areas.
If you were to consider the ratio of professional Emergency Responders to the population in Cecil County, it quickly becomes apparent that there aren't enough to quickly handle an event involving even the low hundreds of injuries. Likewise, if the infrastructure experiences major damage, Elk Forest is likely to be low on the list to be repaired. The Emergency Responders priorities have to be to first serve the areas where they are most needed and areas like ours are well down the list of "heavily populated". The larger the emergency, the further down the list we are so we could expect to be without services for several days or longer.
The first level of responsibility falls back on YOU to provide for your family. If the Emergency Responders are focused on helping the areas of greatest needs (hospitals, industrial complexes, multi family housing, center cities, etc.) and your neighbors are focused on taking care of their families, there is no one but YOU to provide for your own needs. This is where the Family Emergency Preparedness Guide can be a great help if you take it seriously and follow it's recommendations.
The second level of responsibility falls back on us as neighbors to help those in greater need. Basic human decency dictates that you will be willing to sacrifice your own needs in order to help others that are in danger. That's why a person run's into a burning building to try and save a child. Granted that not everyone practices this level of human decency but I feel most of the people in our community would willingly put themselves in a position of danger to help others. That's one of the many reasons this is a desirable place to live!
If you have the needed information and an idea of how to proceed in the event of a large scale emergency, the process of helping others is more efficient and each of us faces a lower level of danger! Those of us that have been through the CER-T training are developing a list of "assets" (the questionnaire included on this website) and "needs" and are developing possible plans of action for different types of emergencies. Over 50 households have returned the questionnaires and the data has been tabulated. The CER-T team members now have copies of the data and the preliminary response plans are formed. This plan will not supercede the normal 911 response but will supplement it in case our firemen and/or EMT's cannot respond in a timely manor.
An Observation: The better prepared you are, the
longer you can survive without neighborhood support. You need to take care
of yourself for the short term. Unless your situation is a life
threatening one, chances are your neighbors aren't going to
be able to help you until their personal situation is under control!
The longer the neighborhood can support it's own needs, the better it can
survive until the professionals arrive. We're spoiled by the current level
of rapid response and being able to get "anything" we need
quickly but those rules don't apply in the event of a larger emergency.
Ask anyone that experienced, and is still trying to recover, from the hurricane seasons in FL and
along the Gulf
Coast! This year is forecasted to be just as bad according to the
National Weather Service.
What can you do? Make a serious attempt to use the
resources available to develop your own survival plan and implement it!
Don't put it off until it's too late. The bottom line is that YOU have to
do it, not someone else.
I hope this section of the Elk Forest website is helpful to you in getting
your own plans in place. If you have something you can contribute to help
others, please pass it on.
If you have not filled in a questionnaire and returned it, please do that.
We will gladly add your information to our database.