Emergency Preparedness News

Your Community in Dialogue: Nursing Homes/Elderly Care Facilities – Will Your Loved Ones Be Adequately Cared For During a Disaster or Emergency?

ICE PACK.com Editorial Staff — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:30:12 +0000

The degree of neglect and abuse which has been attributed with far too many of our nation’s nursing homes is deeply troubling to say the least. Neglected, abused, and threatened, nursing home residents may suffer physically and emotionally. Painful bedsores, broken bones, or even premature death can result from neglectful and outright abusive treatment. Unfortunately, in many cases it seems a serious lack of emergency preparedness by these nursing home facilities may just be one more offense to add to the list.

Almost seven years ago, the devastation of Hurricane Katrina revealed the critical failures of nursing homes to provide adequate care and safe evacuation for their residents during a disaster or significant emergency. 35 elderly residents of the St. Rita Nursing Home alone, for instance, drowned during that horrific event. According to a Houston Chronicle investigation, it was estimated that 139 nursing home residents died overall during that hurricane or in the immediately following aftermath.

The owners of St Rita’s were found innocent of negligent homicide and cruelty to the infirm in 2007, but have gone on to face more than 30 civil lawsuits from family members of those who needlessly perished. How were the owners found innocent of the criminal charges? One juror indicated that he was directly swayed by the arguments of the defense which emphasized the government was largely to blame for the tragedy because of breached levees and the state’s failure to help evacuate nursing homes.

A recent government investigation of 210 nursing homes across seven states found that as a whole, such facilities are woefully unprepared in the face of hurricanes, floods or wildfires. Amongst a litany of emergency preparedness shortfalls, a few standout. For instance 19 of these homes had absolutely no plan whatsoever to transport their patients in the face of disaster threatening the facility. To make that fact worse, 17 homes indicated that transportation contracts they did have in place to transport patients were not honored during an emergency evacuation.

Considering that in 2009, 3 million people spent time in a nursing home, there’s a good chance someone you know and love is a permanent or temporary resident of such an elderly care facility. If so, there are questions about that facility’s emergency plans to which you need answers. Many residents of such homes lack mobility and are already in frail health, so failure to have adequate emergency plans could be a death sentence.

What is the plan to notify family members of residents in case of an emergency or evacuation?
How is the evacuation of residents conducted? How are they transported? Where are they transported to? How do you communicate with your loved ones under such circumstances?
How does the facility manage the medication requirements of residents during an evacuation?
What is the plan to coordinate with local authorities during a crisis?
Does the nursing home’s emergency plans in any way rely upon external resources (such as local, state, or federal government) to facilitate the safe evacuation and care of residents during a disaster? If so, to what degree and specifically which organization or agency is being relied upon? (similar questions need to then be asked of said organization or agency)
If the facility relies on third-party contractors to provide transportation, has that third-party ever been put to the test during a live emergency? How can you be assured that such third-party will fulfill its contractual obligations?
When was the last emergency drill conducted by the elderly care facility?
Is emergency evacuation covered in the contract that you signed with the facility for your loved one?
Does the nursing home have a Shelter-In-Place capability?
In the event of an extreme weather emergency can the facility sustain itself for at least 72 hours without endangering the health and welfare of the patients? Does the facility have back up power for HVAC and refrigeration of medications and food?

Ask the questions and make a real difference in the quality of care of your loved ones living in a nursing home or elderly care facility!

Facta non Verba

Your Community in Dialogue: Dangers of Living Near Nuclear Power Plants

ICE PACK.com Editorial Staff — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:30:06 +0000

On April 13^th, the U.S. Department of State canceled it’s travel advisory to Japan which had been active in one form or another for over a year since the Japan 3.11 earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear power plant disaster. There is no doubt that Japan has made remarkable progress in its recovery, but how did the country fare in the immediate days and weeks during their nuclear evacuation? That evacuation may have saved lives, but to one demographic it was rather brutal – the elderly. Dozens of senior citizens died as a result of the evacuation itself.

So what has been done to resolve such evacuation difficulties in the future? According to one recent article, not much. “We have set a terrible precedent for the rest of the nation and for any town in the world where nuclear plants are located,” said Katsutaka Idokawa, the mayor of Futaba, a town near the devastated Fukushima facility. “I see this disaster as a meltdown of Japan itself.” Local community leaders in Japan fear that were the event to repeat today near their own communities, they would fair no better than the two towns surrounding Fukushima Diiachi did over a year ago.

Is the United States better prepared to meet the needs of its elderly and disabled population in the event of a nuclear disaster? Are we even adequately prepared to meet the emergency needs of our general population during such an event? Japan is extending its evacuation plans from a 10-mile radius immediately surrounding a nuclear power plant to 18 miles – in particular to mitigate the exact problems they found as they tried to evacuate their handicapped and elderly from the area of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. So how about the United States of America?

The Indian Point Energy Center located in Buchanan, New York is just 38 miles north of New York City, well within the 50 mile radius which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission indicates may have contaminated food and water in the aftermath of a nuclear power plant disaster. In March 2012, Bronx Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera wrote, “Recently the Nuclear Regulatory Commission denied a request for the operators of Indian Point Energy Center to provide an emergency preparedness and evacuation plan for the surrounding communities which are home to 20 million Americans in a tri-state area. In addition, there are serious questions as to the ability of local, state and federal government agencies to communicate and react to a nuclear emergency.”

In our last post we identified an ongoing initiative to promote community dialogue through this blog series. In consideration of living in proximity to a nuclear power plant, we would suggest you ask the following questions of yourself, nuclear power plant representatives and of your own elected local officials:

Do you know if you live in a 50-mile radius of a nuclear power plant? With 104 nuclear reactors spread across the U.S., you might be surprised. Find out here.
Are you upwind or downwind of the nuclear power plant and what are the prevailing winds in your area? What is the evacuation plan for your community (read neighboorhood) in the event of a nuclear discharge or release?
What plans have been established for elderly residents, nursing homes and the handicapped during an evacuation?
What plans have been established for infant day care facilites and schools?
Considering the U.S. government warned Americans within 50 miles of Fukushima Daiichi to evacuate last March, why are our own local officials still stuck on the 10-mile radius evacuation plan? What do your local elected officials think of this fact?
If such a nuclear disaster occurred, what local hospital is prepared to provide you emergency radiation exposure care? Considering the very troubling results of a study performed at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2009, a better question might be – how can you even know that hospital personnel will even be present to provide that emergency care? (give you a hint – 39% of those responding in the aforementioned survey were not even willing to show up to work in case of a nuclear event)

If you live within 50 miles of a nuclear reactor, go ask your elected officials, city council, board of supervisors, Town Hall or other local leaders these very important questions! Remember – don’t take no for an answer and don’t let this very important issue be marginalized.

Community leaders answer to YOU as members of the community! You are important and you have a voice! Use that voice to be an instrument for change and progress.

After you get (or perhaps don’t get) those answers, come back to this blog and share “the answers” with emergency-minded citizens just like yourself and engage Your Community in Dialogue! Now it’s your turn!

Facta non Verba

Your Community in Dialogue: Promoting Public Discussions on Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response

ICE PACK.com Editorial Staff — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 18:55:27 +0000

This past December, FEMA released its Whole Community Approach to Disaster Management. The theme of this program advocates a different approach to how the U.S. Government responds to disasters – now when things go disastrously bad, you simply cannot count on the government to solve all your problems. Successful emergency response and disaster recovery really boils down to the emergency preparedness and disaster response capability of the individual and, by extension, an individual community. This could be a mind bender for some to understand.

The first question which must be asked – have you reviewed the Whole Community Approach to Disaster Management? If so, do you agree with its premise? If you don’t agree, we encourage you to make your voice heard amongst your elected officials. If you do agree, then we strongly encourage you to become an emergency preparedness activist for your family, community, and amongst your civic leaders.

Before deciding which way you come down on FEMA’s new approach, we might suggest a few additional questions to ask yourself and pose to elected officials:

Where does the funding come from to facilitate this new “whole community” approach?
Who has the funding and equipment resources needed to implement the program locally?
Is there training for individual communities to actually learn the process of becoming independently resilient?
At what point will the Federal Government step in during a crisis when local resources fail?

We believe one of the very first steps in becoming a resilient community and individually accepting the role of “emergency preparedness activist” is to open up the channels of communication with public officials to become educated and learn what you can do and, more importantly, what your community can do with inspired leadership by local officials. We are launching a new blog series entitled Your Community in Dialogue to actively promote dialogue in public meetings. In each post we will share thought-provoking insights, and key questions for active members of communities to engage their community leaders.

We then ask you to share the results of your community conversations with other readers of this blog. Frankly speaking, unless active members of the public fully engage community leaders tasked with emergency preparedness and disaster response, most will never know if, or even how their community plans to deal with common extreme weather emergencies or, heaven forbid, the unthinkable catastrophic disaster scenario.

When you attend upcoming meetings with your child’s Parent Teacher Association, or elected officials, City Council, Board of Supervisors, Town Hall or Neighborhood Watch ensure that emergency preparedness and disaster response conversations makes it onto the agenda. In the midst of a general election year, elected officials typically are more focused on the needs of their constituents. Take advantage of this opportunity. Don’t take no for an answer and don’t let this very important issue be marginalized. Community leaders answer to YOU as members of the community! You are important and you have a voice! Use that voice to be an instrument for change and progress.

We would then like to know – did you get a substantive answer to your questions? Or do you feel you were simply blown off? By sharing your experiences (the good and the bad) as you engage in these dialogues, it will be of great help to all of our readership and truly promote an open, effective dialogue.

This blog series also just might prove once and for all that Social Media is good for more than idle “chit chat”. Let’s challenge social media to bring emergency preparedness to the fore front of community discussions. “Inquiring minds want to know?”

Watch for the first of Your Community in Dialogue blogs coming soon: Nuclear Power Plant Safety in Your Community. We look forward to hearing your comments and thoughts!

Facta Non Verba

ICE PACK Donates 1000 Hot Meals to the Red Cross

ICE PACK.com Editorial Staff — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:22:24 +0000

Recently we were presented with an opportunity to donate 1000 hot meals to the Central Virginia Chapter of the American Red Cross. With this donation, our local Red Cross chapter now has the capability of immediately distributing a comforting hot meal to a thousand of our own community citizens who find themselves the victims of a house fire, flood damage and extreme weather events – such as the area tornadoes last year and the crippling “snowmageddon” 2 years back. And we certainly can’t forget earthquakes since we are still feeling the aftershocks of our late summer quake here in Central Virginia.

The meals are completely self-contained, freeze-dried, packaged with the necessary water to prepare the meals, come with flameless ovens to heat them, and even provide utensils and plates. Everything needed to enjoy a nice hot meal during difficult circumstances in one bright, yellow container. “As we witness the recovery efforts of the recent outbreak of over 150 tornadoes across this country, you see the Red Cross right in the thick of that effort providing invaluable assistance to those poor disaster victims,” says Morris Peterson, CEO of Ashbury International Group, parent company of ICE PACK Emergency Preparedness Systems. “What many may not realize, is that very same level of assistance is given to our own community members every single day. With this donation we provide additional capability to our own Red Cross chapter to support those local efforts.”

The Red Cross will store these emergency meals in the local Charlottesville area, ready at any given point to distribute to the community when necessary.

Facta non Verba

2011 – The Costliest Year for Emergencies?

ICE PACK.com Editorial Staff — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 12:30:44 +0000

This past year was unusual both in terms of frequency of disasters and each event’s high cost. In recent years, typically one or two large to catastrophic events have dominated the news — like 9/11, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010. Whether 2011 with its multiple billion-dollar disasters is a trend is hard to tell, but professional emergency planners and managers should be prepared for that possibility.

The National Climatic Data Center at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration compiled data, including total loss data, on the 12 billion-dollar disasters of 2011. The following information illustrates the historic nature of those disasters:

The Groundhog Day blizzard of Jan. 29 to Feb. 3 dumped one to two feet of snow across the Northeastern, mid-Atlantic, eastern and central states, resulting in 36 deaths. Total losses were more than $1.8 billion.

During the Midwestern/Southeastern tornadoes of April 4-5, 46 tornadoes affecting 10 states caused nine deaths, more than $2 billion in insured losses and exceeded $2.8 billion in total losses.

The Southeastern/Midwestern tornadoes of April 8-11 included an estimated 59 tornadoes across nine states that were responsible for numerous injuries but no deaths, and more than $2.2 billion in total losses.

On April 14-16, about 177 tornadoes across 10 states in the Midwest/Southeast resulted in 38 deaths. While few of those tornadoes were considered intense, they caused total losses greater than $2 billion.

The Southeast/Ohio Valley/Midwest tornadoes of April 25-30 were responsible for more loss of life than any of the preceding tornadoes of 2011. An estimated 343 tornadoes across 13 states caused 321 deaths. Several major metropolitan areas, including Chattanooga, Tenn.; and Tuscaloosa, Birmingham and Huntsville, Ala., were directly affected by several strong tornadoes, which were responsible for $7.3 billion in insured losses and more than $10 billion in total losses.

The Midwestern/Southeastern tornadoes of May 22-27 resulted in total losses greater than $9.1 billion, more than $6.5 billion of which were in insured losses. More than 180 tornadoes caused at least 177 deaths; 160 of those deaths were in Joplin, Mo., in what was the single deadliest tornado to strike in the U.S. since modern tornado record keeping began in 1950.

An estimated 81 tornadoes and severe weather struck the Midwest and Southeast on June 18-22; losses exceeded $1.3 billion.

Spring through fall, drought, heat wave conditions and wildfires in the Southern Plains and Southwest affected Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arizona, southern Kansas, and western Louisiana and Arkansas. Direct losses to agriculture, cattle and structures totaled more than $9 billion.

Mississippi River flooding during the spring and summer resulted from persistent rainfall (nearly 300 percent of normal precipitation) combined with melting snowpack. Economic losses were estimated at $3 billion to $4 billion.

Upper Midwest flooding in the summer resulted in five deaths and estimated losses in excess of $2 billion. These floods were caused by the melting of an above-average snowpack across the northern Rocky Mountains combined with above-average precipitation.

Hurricane Irene made landfall on Aug. 20 as a Category 1 hurricane over North Carolina. Over the next nine days, it moved north along the coast, bringing torrential rainfall and strong winds while causing flooding across the Northeast. Losses were more than $7 billion; at least 45 deaths resulted from the storm.

Wildfires impacted Texas, New Mexico and Arizona during spring through fall, losses from which exceeded $1 billion.

The estimated economic damages from these events exceed $45 billion as of press time, making it likely that 2011 will be the costliest year for insured losses since records have been kept. Given that 2011 was the first year of the 21st century’s second decade, it’s clear that those responsible for emergency management and disaster planning must anticipate the future in a bolder, more proactive way than they have in the past. The historic events of last year demonstrated some unusually destructive characteristics, attracted significant media attention, and laid bare numerous deficiencies in the plans, systems and processes used in all phases of emergency management.

When talking about disasters, 2011 has been a significant year on its own — and the events of the year appear to be keeping with the noticeable upswing in the number of declared disasters in recent decades. Although it is too early to establish a firm trend line or pattern, as a nation we need to consider the following:

Are large-scale disasters and catastrophes, events whose costs are measured in the billions of dollars, the new normal in the foreseeable future?

If so, how should the emergency management community plan and prepare for such mega-disasters?

Do we need to make changes, major or minor, to our policies, programs and response/recovery systems?

Should the threshold for a presidential disaster declaration be changed? (A staffer from the U.S. DHS Office of Inspector General recently noted that the formula hasn’t changed since 1999.)

Should the preparation of a national risk assessment be given a higher priority?

Should the DHS’ education and training programs give more attention to risk management for catastrophic natural disaster events?

Will the Whole Community concept being promoted by the current administration at FEMA be essential? Is it adequate as now articulated?

The emergency management community seems to be entering new territory with respect to the scale, number, frequency and cost of disasters in the United States. It is essential that we’re prepared for the worst as we head into a new year.

Facta non Verba

Article republished with permission from Emergency Management.