Emergency Cooking

Part of emergency preparedness includes planning ahead for how you will prepare meals with items in your food storage. In the event of a prolonged power outage, and disrupted gas lines, it’s a good idea to add a few more items to your preparedness kit. Here are a few suggestions:

• Mechanical can opener
• Bottle opener
• Tin foil for cooking on campfire or grill
• BBQ grill or camp stove and extra fuel (propane, charcoal, wood, etc.)
• Set of old pots and pans to use on grill
• Cast iron skillet
• Dutch oven
• Mortar and pestle, grater or potato masher to make baby food

Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation

MRC members are encouraged to help spread the Surgeon General’s Vision for a Health and Fit Nation 2010. This grassroots education campaign is in response to the growing obesity epidemic in America. Some facts provided by the Office of the Surgeon General include:

• Two-thirds of adults and nearly one in three children are overweight or obese.
• The prevalence of obesity in the U.S. more than doubled (from 15% to 34%) among adults and more than tripled (from 5% to 17%) among children and adolescents from 1980 to 2008.
• An obese teenager has over a 70% greater risk of becoming an obese adult.

Read the fact sheet for The Surgeon General’s Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation, or the full Vision document and share the information with your families, neighborhoods and friends to start making a difference today. Small changes in habits and daily routines can add up to big changes over time. Being a member of the MRC includes promoting public health every day.

Anthrax

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have identified a number of bioterrorism agents they consider high-priority for public health emergency planning. Anthrax is one of the agents included in “Category A” because it can be spread easily from person to person, can result in high mortality rates and have a significant impact on overall public health.

Anthrax can enter the human body through an open sore on the skin, by inhaling it into the lungs, or by digestion. Luckily, anthrax infection can be treated, if treatment is given early. In the event of a bioterrorism attack using weaponized inhalational anthrax, local health departments will work with the CDC to mass dispense antibiotics to all potentially exposed individuals within 48 hours. During the anthrax attack in 2001, many people in Washington DC and Florida were provided with a full course of antibiotics to treat patients who were potentially exposed.

Responding to these types of potential emergencies would include the help of hundreds of MRC volunteers. Thank you again for volunteering for the Davis County MRC.

Is Flu Season Over?

Is the 2009-2010 flu season finally over? Well, yes and no. While the May 2-May 8, 2010 CDC FluView update shows flu activity in the United States continues to decline, that doesn’t mean there will be no more cases of the flu this season. Even though flu activity is currently low, additional waves of influenza activity due to the H1N1 virus or other seasonal viruses can still occur. Sporadic cases of flu viruses can continue to pop up throughout the spring and summer.

Because flu is unpredictable, remember key flu fighting points: stay home when ill, cough on your shoulder or sleeve, and wash hands often.

National Bike Month

The month of May has been recognized as National Bike Month since 1956. Events include Bike-to-Work Week May 17-21, and Bike-to-Work Day on Friday, May 21. Cycling to work can be a great experience that allows you to become more physically active while reducing your carbon footprint.

The League of American Bicyclists offers some of the following reminders and tips for using your bicycle to commute:

• If you live to far from work to ride your bike, consider using public transit for part of the way
• Review your work schedule each week and plan which days will be best to ride your bike
• Try riding to work on a weekend first to determine the best route and how long it will take
• Always wear a helmet
• Be visible and predictable at all times
• Wear bright clothing and signal turns
• Obey all stop signs, traffic lights and lane markings
• Have your bike tuned at your local shop annually

National MRC Summit

The 2010 Integrated Training Summit is a joint training for MRC Members and volunteers with the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS). This year’s training was originally to be held May 11-15, 2010 in Nashville, TN. Due to the recent flooding emergency in Nashville the summit was cancelled and has been rescheduled for June 2-6, 2010 in Las Vegas, NV.

Because the summit is much closer and thus has become more accessible to Davis County MRC members, and because registration is still open, summit information is being posted here for those who may be interested in attending. All registration, agenda and hotel information is included at the Integrated Training Summit website. The current program agenda is also available.

For MRC volunteers who are able to attend this training, this will be a great opportunity to meet with other emergency responders and learn lessons first had regarding preparedness, deployments and large scale disasters.

Are You Ready?

The FEMA Are You Ready Guide is a fantastic resource for emergency preparedness. The guide contains preparedness information at the individual, family and community level. Information on how to become familiar with local emergency plans, identifying local hazards and supply kit checklists are all included.

The guide also has sections that go into detail on what to do before, during and after each of the following hazards: floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, thunderstorms and lightning, winter storms, extreme cold, extreme heat, earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides and mudslides, fires, wildfires, hazardous material incidents, household chemical emergencies, nuclear power plant, and terrorism incidents.

In addition to the Are You Ready Guide, FEMA also provides a full web site with additional Are You Ready resources and information.

Incident Commander

In each emergency response there is one person in charge, the Incident Commander. In fact, out of all the Incident Command System (ICS) positions, the Incident Commander is the only one that is always filled. The Incident Commander does the jobs of all ICS positions until the size of the response requires more people to help maintain the span of control (supervising 3-7 resources, with 5 being optimum).

In larger incidents involving more than one response agency (health and fire for example), there may be a need to have a Unified Command where an Incident Commander from health and an Incident Commander from fire work together side by side setting a common set of objectives for the emergency response.

In public health emergencies all activated MRC volunteers will report to the Davis County Health Department who will have a staff member either serving as the Incident Commander, a partner in the Unified Command, or as a supervisor within the Operations Section.

To learn more about Incident Commander and all ICS operations, complete (or review) FEMA Independent Study Course 100.a: Introduction to Incident Command System, and Independent Study Course 200.a: ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents.

Animal Disaster Preparedness Day

FEMA shared this information in their Citizen Corps News Digest this past week:

May 8th is National Animal Disaster Preparedness Day While our pets hold a special place in our hearts, unfortunately they often don't hold a place in our disaster preparedness plans. Encourage members of your community to consider their pets when preparing for the approaching hurricane, tornado, and wildfire seasons and other disasters. And work with shelters in your area to identify pet friendly shelters for pet owners. Provide veterinarians and kennels with tips on disaster preparedness to share with pet owners. Additionally, consider partnering with a local pet store to hold an event offering "pet disaster kit shopping lists" and giveaways such as I.D tags. FEMA’s Ready Campaign has a brochure on pet preparedness, a pet preparedness instructional video, and a Community Pet Preparedness Toolkit.

Nashville Flood

The following website contains a You Tube video with photos summarizing the damage experienced during the rain-related flooding in Nashville this past week.

http://bit.ly/bu2idU

Towards the end of the video are some interior shots of the Gaylord Opry Hotel, which received over 10 feet of water from the overflowing Cumberland River. The hotel was to be the site of the 2010 National MRC & NDMS Training.

As the website states, the news media did not report on the enormity of the disaster experienced in Nashville. The photos in the video help illustrate what local residents are experiencing and serve as a reminder why we all volunteer to help our communities.

Shelter-in-Place

Many of us have heard about sheltering-in-place during a chemical or radiation emergency, but most of us may not have enough information about what it exactly means to shelter-in-place. Depending upon the type of emergency, shelter-in-place instructions from response officials will vary greatly (for example, you don’t always need to seal off the room with plastic and duct tape).

The American Red Cross offers a detailed, yet easy to follow Shelter-in-Place During a Chemical or Radiation Emergency guide that is an excellent addition to any family emergency preparedness kit. The guide also contains links to other preparedness information such as supply checklists, pet care, emergency plans, and school preparedness programs.