Category: General Preparedness

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Emergency Responders General Preparedness Personal Stories Uncategorized

The Best Gift of the Evening

My daughter is one of those kids for whom it is always difficult to buy a gift. I say “kid,” but she is 23 years old, a Flair Bartender (think Tom Cruise in “Cocktail”) and a Paramedic. She has been self-supporting for years and as a single working woman, has the luxury of being able to buy, what she wants cash when she wants it. When her birthday came around this year, she told me she wanted a toolbox (with Sears Craftsman tools) and a 72-hour Go-Pak.

Now before you think that this is a set-up, you must realize that I am the author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Disaster Preparedness” (www.TheCompleteIdiotsGuide2DisasterPrep.com) and my youngest child has had a 72-hour Go-Pak since he was 5 years old. My daughter’s interest was not in just any Go-Pak, but in the best one that I had reviewed while I wrote the book. As an author and researcher, I also never write product endorsements, only factual reports.

As soon as my daughter opened her gifts, the Go-Pak had everyone’s attention. The backpack was opened and everything in the Go-Pak passed around by her firefighter colleagues. The Go-Pak she received was the 1800Prepare/Guardian adult 3-day disaster kit. This kit comes in a substantial bright red backpack. The Go-Pak comes “out of the box” with everything except your important documents, prescription medications and spare clothing. I do recommend adding 2 additional chem-lite sticks and a USB data drive for photos and medical records. The 1800Prepare website (www.1800prepare.com) has a complete inventory of the items in this Go-Pak. For me, the coolest item in the kit was the “Tube Tent.” This tent does not require poles and can be used as a tarp, tent or even a rain poncho should the poncho included in the Go-Pak be lost or damaged.

My daughter got her toolbox (with tools) too. Although she loves to tinker and her firefighter friends plan to borrow her tools often (at least so they said at her party), the best gift of the evening was her 72 hour Go-Pak. Every firefighter at the party asked me where they could get one like it and plan on giving them for gifts this year.

For years, I have encouraged everyone to give 72 hour Go-Paks to every family member as a gift. I am proud to say that as the result of this one gift, one major city’s fire/rescue service will begin giving this most important gift of preparedness.

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Emergency Responders General Preparedness Uncategorized

Search dogs in the world of disasters

Greetings to all,

As you think about disasters, being personally prepared is extremely important and I’m glad to see all the posts that are coming into the site. Keep in mind, many of the people you may deal with in disaster situations (including Katrina and tornadoes) are volunteers.

Many people do not realize it, but 95% of the search and rescue dog handlers out there are volunteers. They spend their own time and money training/certifying and even deploying to disasters. Only the federal FEMA teams and some of the state disaster teams have paid positions. However, you still only get paid for deployments, NOT for training.

This weekend, Dunder and I are off to some training and will be posting a few pictures next week of what we are doing. Dunder is a 16 month old yellow lab/golden retriever cross that was found in a shelter. We will be attending ‘drive’ training. (no he isn’t learning how to drive…he’s learning to want his toy more!) Basically, we are going to go play tug and let him bark at people. For us this is fun, for lots of other people they would find that annoying.

We do this type of training because a search dog’s job has to be fun for them, or they won’t do it well. Nintey percent of what I do is spend time trying to make the ‘training’ that Dunder and I do fun. It’s all a game to him with the biggest reward being that game of tug at the end. (I bet your boss wished you worked for something that cheap.)

Wags!

Robin and K9 Dunder (search dog in training)

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General Preparedness Personal Stories Preparedness Planning

A Survivor of Flight 1549

A dear friend of mine, Matt Kane, was a survivor of Flight 1549.  I asked him to give me his thoughts on his experience.

As a survivor of flight 1549 I believe preparation and emotional control were the key to our survival. It starts with the crew, especially Capt Sully. Their ability to make critical/correct decisions throughout the experience was key to the final outcome. The first thing he and the crew did was face their reality. They were not immune to their fear, but they did not allow it to control them. It was all about the question what is next.  They were able to control the panic and tap into their emotional benchmark.

Both the crew and the survivors of flight 1549 were prepared for the situation. The crews years of experience allowed them to make critical decisions and execution. The passengers were not overcome by fear and panic, but were prepared by inflating lift vests, opening exit doors and existing in an orderly controlled fashion.

I can make these comments with the upmost confidence based on the fact that I  experience this from seat 24 A with water up to my waist before the exit doors were open. We were prepared for the situation, we did not panic and survived.