Home| About Us | News| Find Jobs| Events| Voices| Discussions| Features & Profiles| |

Emergency Preparedness

Emergency Preparedness

Emergency Preparedness Resources

"The First 72 Is On You"

During a major disaster such as an earthquake, widespread flooding, wildfire, or a terrorist attack, disaster response resources can become overloaded. For this reason, you are likely to be on your own for the first 72 hours. You should have adequate food, water, lighting, medication, first aid supplies, and automobile fuel to enable you to evacuate or hold on for at least three days until help can arrive. An exception to the 72-hour rule is the Pandemic Flu.

Pandemic Flu Could Infect 1 In Every 4 People

Pandemic Influenza (flu) is a worldwide outbreak and there is little on no immunity (protection) to humans. As many as one in every four people could get sick, and the medical community could be overwhelmed. The number of deaths worldwide could be in the millions. Read more about it by checking out these web sites:

• Fact Sheets on Pandemic Flu, Avian Flu, and Isolation and Quarantine, SCCPHD.
• General information about pandemic flu and other health-related information, CDC.
• All the information you will need to make your own emergency preparation plan, Red Cross.
• Updates on national and international pandemic flu, pandemicflu.gov.

If you plan to use a breathing mask to help protect from inhaling airborne virus particles, make sure the product complies with the N95 standard (meets CDC guidelines to TB exposure control), such as the 3M 1860 Particulate Respirator. Look for a Type N95 surgical mask and particulate respirator at your local medical supply store, or use a web site such as All Heart or Senior Shops. Please note that supplies may be on backorder.

Ravenswood Family Health Center

Lean more about services offered, and sign up for their online newsletter. The clinic provides access to a comprehensive program of primary health services for all ages, especially those who are uninsured or medically underserved residents of East Palo Alto, Belle Haven, and North Fair Oaks: http://www.ravenswoodfhc.org/

San Mateo County Alert System

San Mateo County's Community Alert System allows you to be contacted during a major crisis or emergency to give you useful information. Notification can go to multiple devices including email account, cell phone (via SMS), pager, or smartphone/PDA (BlackBerry, Treo, etc). To learn more, go to this link: http://www.smcalert.info/

Prepare, Bay Area

Make a plan, get a kit, be informed, from the Red Cross, Bay Area: www.redcrossbayarea.org/pba/

PrepareNow.Org

Supporting special needs of vulnerable populations in a disaster: http://www.preparenow.org/

San Francisquito Creek Level Monitor

Monitor the tides and creek level by checking the Palo Alto web site here.

Stanford University Library Emergency Preparedness Resources

A huge collection of documents about preparing for an emergency, making a plan, assembling a disaster supply kit, preparing for children, people with special needs, and animals: click here

Disaster Preparedness Checklist from the City of East Palo Alto

Disaster preparedness for the first three days, flood safety guide, and disaster preparedness manual: www.ci.east-palo-alto.ca.us/police/oes.html

San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority (JPA) Web Site

The agency empowered to protect and maintain the 14-mile San Francisquito Creek and its 45 square-mile watershed: click here

Palo Alto Office of Emergency Services (OES)

Information on floods, earthquakes, fire, terriorism; emergency management plan, pandemic flu planning checklists: click here

San Mateo County Office of Emergency Services (OES)

School site emergency operations plan, non-911 emergency public service answering point access numbers, Megan's Law, activity logs, news releases, flood safety awareness, earthquake preparedness, terriorism, information for older Americans/people with disabilities: click here

How Does 911 Work?

http://www.smc911dispatch.org/

Be Prepared with CERT or PEP

Learn more about Community Emergency Response Teams and Personal Emergency Preparedness: http://www.menlofire.org/cert

Governor's Office of Emergency Services (OES)

Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS), National Incident Management System (NIMS); bird (pandemic) flu, news bulletins, email subscriptions, hazardous material handling: click here

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

Flood insurance rate maps, application for assistance after a disaster, national threat advisory, best practices: http://www.fema.gov/

Fire Dispatch

FireDispatch.com publishes live fire department emergencies as they are happening-in real-time, unedited, and long before they become "news". FireDispatch.com combines the latest web technologies including streaming audio and video, digital images, and dynamic mapping to virtually put you on scene with the firefighters. FireDispatch.com mirrors the real world, so content changes by the second, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - you never know what will happen next.

FireDispatch.com is a popular destination with firefighters, allied agencies, public officials, news media, hospitals, volunteer organizations such as the Red Cross, interested citizens of all ages, and many others: http://www.firedispatch.com/

The Emergency Resources Preparedness section is maintained by Dennis Parker, Community Advocate.

Contributed by Content Manager

Approved by: Content Manager

• What do you think ? Add a comment