Standing Ready at Home: What would you do if basic services (water, gas, electricity or telephones) were cut off? Standing Ready has a listing of links to show you how to be prepared to care for yourself and your family for at least three days when help can not reach you immediately. Start today by making your own family disaster plan and emergency kit. Preparing a Disaster Plan for your Home: After assembling an emergency disaster kit, have a family meeting. At this meeting, you want everyone in the home over the age of 9 years to familiarize themselves with the kit. At this meeting, discuss how each of you will react in case of a disaster. Most likely, when a disaster strikes, the family will be separated: at school, at work, at home. Much of your family’s preparedness will have to do with surviving the next 24 hours. If possible, arrange for a family meeting place after a disaster. This should be a fairly centralized location where each family member knows how to get there. A good example is at home or at a favorite park or mall. Different scenarios and their solutions should also be discussed. Standing Ready at Work: When at work when a community-sized disaster strike, it is very human to want to leave immediately to find and protect family members. However, depending upon the disaster, it may not be prudent to rush off into a perilous situation. Before leaving the safe confines of an office space, find out everything you can about the disaster. Does it impede the safe trip home or to pick up kids at school? Are schools being instructed to keep children indoors? Is taking a car trip to retrieve family members possible? How are the roadways? Is it safe to even be outdoors? Before throwing cautions to the wind, find out as much as possible. There is little sense in placing yourself or your family members in harm’s way. Standing Ready at School: Youngsters and young adults at school when a disaster strikes need to heed the advice of their teachers during a disaster. Remember, most schools have backup plans in case of myriad scenarios and will likely enact a plan of action following a disaster. By following teachers’ instructions, you ensure that the delineated plan of action has a greater degree of success. Also, by adhering to a teacher’s instructions, you ensure that your parents will be able to retrieve you in a safe and orderly fashion so that you can be reunited with your family. Remember, your family is going to use the school’s protocol and follow its procedures in picking you up. Family plans need to take this into account when establishing a meeting place following a disaster.
Standing Ready Congregations: Traditionally, the faith community has been the place of refuge and solace as well as voluntary service during times of crisis. Congregations can encourage preparedness activities and training. Mass Care training for Shelter Operations can be an outreach program for members. It may be possible for your facility to serve as a temporary shelter for disaster victims or evacuees. A Standing Ready faith community is one of our country's greatest resources. Contact our local American Red Cross or Salvation Army for information on how your congregation can serve to help in our community. http://www.salvationarmytexas.org/ Standing Ready for CommunityOrganizations: As Standing Ready partners, organizations in the seven-county Brazos Valley Region ( to include…) can collaborate with other local agencies serving vulnerable populations to specifically address issues related to disaster preparedness and response. If needing to stay open and operational, ensuring continuation of critical services to their clients, creating a disaster plan for their organization is vital. Some organizations may be able to suspend operations for a period of time, allowing staff and volunteers to reach out and serve in disaster activities. Other organizations may anticipate an increase in clients needing services and should plan for potential volunteer service roles to assist staff. Find out how other regions in Texas have worked to address the needs of non-profit organizations assisting in disasters. http://www.txvoad.org/synapse/center/homepage.cfm?website=txvoad.org
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When an emergency or disaster occurs, many ask, "What can I do?" "How can I help?"