Can You Weather a Winter Storm? We’ll Tell You How to Prepare

The winter storms that have punished the Northeast during the past couple of weeks have gotten many of us talking about how best to prepare for bad weather.

Do you know how?

Join us this Friday, Feb. 6, from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern, for #GoodandReady for Winter – an interactive chat on Twitter.

During this online discussion, you’ll get safety tips and more from Good & Ready, a Points of Light program that convenes select business, nonprofit and government partners to increase the ability of individuals and communities to prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters and emergencies.

Find out how to build an emergency supply kit. Ask us about winter volunteer opportunities. Share your winter preparedness plans. What’s on your mind?

To participate, follow @goodandreadyorg on Twitter and use the hash tag #GoodandReady.

If you can’t join us, there are other ways to get involved. Like Good & Ready on Facebook. Take the Good & Ready pledge to get prepared at www.goodandready.org. Use Good & Ready resources to develop a family emergency plan.

We hope to see you online!

Three Things You Can Do to Help During the Ebola Outbreak

This post is by Colleen Clay, senior director of disaster services at Points of Light.

People respond to crisis with action, and as the world faces the first Ebola epidemic and the largest Ebola outbreak in history, that desire to help has mobilized volunteers from around the globe to serve affected communities. 

A micrograph of the Ebola virus (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Finding an effective way to help can be difficult when the epidemic and greatest need is in Africa, and you are not a medical professional nor in an affected area. However, you can make a difference in prevention, reduction in suffering and support for responders. Here are three steps you can take to help. 

1. Get informed. Deadly epidemics are scary and misinformation can actually make things worse. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has the facts on risk, transmission, diagnosis and treatment, and they have multiple fact sheets for travelers and people and organizations that want to provide factual information to their networks. 

Get all the facts here. Share them with friends and family and through your social networks. Click here for a great infographic you can share that communicates the most important basic facts.

2. Take action to prepare your family and household for disaster, including pandemic flu. The U.S. government’s pandemic preparedness is focused on health care system preparedness, hospitals and medical providers. But every family should have a family disaster plan and supplies, and should talk together about their family plan. 

GoodandReady.org has resources available to help your family learn about and plan for all hazards. The CDC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have produced guides and checklists to help your family and community prepare for flu epidemics. These guides are helpful in thinking through communicating with schools and workplaces, and ensuring you have needed supplies should an outbreak occur in your community. Click here and here for examples.   

3. Help support the response to Ebola and other disasters by donating cash, goods and services, and by volunteering. The Center for International Disaster Information has useful information about how to help. Cash is the most useful assistance and CIDI has listings of nongovernmental organizations working specifically on Ebola. 

There is great need for medical supplies, particularly personal protective equipment. But general donations are usually best donated to local charities.  Alternatively, you could hold a rummage sale, and donate the proceeds to response organizations.

Points of Light partners with the American Red Cross and Save the Children. Both organizations are working to halt the epidemic and provide care to affected communities.

You can take action to stop the epidemic and provide needed resources to affected communities. Get informed, get prepared and share facts and resources to halt the epidemic.

What’s in Your Disaster Kit? Do You Have One?

Read about how folks in Salt Lake City, Utah, are preparing for disaster. To help your family take action, visit Good & Ready, where you’ll learn how to create a disaster plan, build a preparedness kit and more.

Emily and Jim Weigel stand beside the only part of their house that survived a 2010 fire, the living room mantle.

Just after lunch on July 26, 2010, Emily Weigel was startled by a banging on the front door. A neighbor warned that the house next to Weigel’s was on fire, so Weigel grabbed her baby – who was wearing just a diaper – and ran outside barefoot.

Within minutes, 10-foot-tall flames ripped into the second floor of Weigel’s Salt Lake City, Utah, home. She watched helplessly as fire burned everything in her house, grateful that at least her family was safe.

“Sure, I miss my wedding dress,” Weigel said, “but I’d rather have my husband and kids with me than a wedding dress.”

Weigel and her husband, Jim, learned that though they can’t predict when a disaster will strike, there are things they can do to prevent harm and minimize headache. Now, for example, they frequently check the smoke detectors in every room and have fire extinguishers at the ready.

To help Utahns and others around the country prepare for disasters, The Allstate Foundation and Points of Light have paired up to present a 14-city preparedness tour. After stops in Savannah, Ga., Baton Rouge, La., Colorado Springs, Colo., among other cities, the tour landed at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City last Saturday.

Volunteers help Hogle Zoo visitors assemble disaster preparedness kits. 

Dozens of volunteers from Allstate and Points of Light’s HandsOn Network helped hundreds of Utahns build free disaster kits, which contained first-aid kits, cleaning supplies, battery-free flashlights, emergency planning checklists and several other items. They assembled more than 500 kits in less than two hours.

“The thing that is unique to Utah is that we have seasonal disasters,” said Gavin Seal, a Salt Lake City Allstate agency owner. “We have the wildfire season (June through October) and those living in the foothills or the mountains face that risk. Then, we move into winter. Last year, we had a series of extreme cold temperatures, which can cause a lot of destruction – from plumbing freezing to power outages. And finally, there’s the underlying risk of a catastrophic earthquake at any time.”

According to FEMA, 85 percent of Americans are unprepared for disaster, which can lead to the unnecessary loss of property and lives, Seal said.

The educational component of the event was helpful for Casey and Jillian Koon, who were reminded that they need to have clothes packed for themselves and their two children.

Autumn Shaw, center, came to learn about disaster preparedness with her mother, Paula, and son, Boston.

“They were helpful in telling us what extra supplies to pack, what things to think of and what to use in case of an emergency,” Casey Koon said. “Having kids heightens your awareness and definitely raises more concerns about making sure you have everything you need in case of emergency.”

Many locals receiving kits said they had previously either done nothing or too little to prepare. Autumn Shaw, who attended the event with her mother, Paula, and son, Boston, said she was not prepared for a disaster and was surprised about some of the items in her starter kit.

“I never thought about having a garbage bag and using that as a poncho or for sanitary reasons,” Shaw says. “I think that’s one of the last things you think about when you think about being prepared in an emergency – ‘Where am I going to go to the bathroom?’”

Supplies in preparedness kit were just a start. Volunteers encouraged Shaw and others to add food and water. The recommendation for a standard 72-hour kit is one gallon of water per person per day and food that is dehydrated and plentiful.

“It’s so simple,” Shaw said. “It’s just a matter of doing it.”

Memories of Hurricane Sandy and Recent Floods Bring Long Islanders Out to Prepare

Read about how folks on Long Island, N.Y., are preparing for disaster. To help your family take action, visit Good & Ready, where you’ll learn how to create a disaster plan, build a preparedness kit and more.

Hear what Colleen Popp learned about disaster preparedness after Hurricane Sandy severely damaged East Rockaway, N.Y., home. (Click photo.)

For her 50th birthday in 2012, Colleen Popp and her best friend headed to New Orleans to celebrate. She remembers being shocked by the lasting effects of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“Everything was either new construction, still in disrepair or just desolate,” she said. “I just remember us looking at each other and thinking, could you imagine?”

Six weeks later – while sitting in the living room of her East Rockaway, N.Y., home watching Hurricane Sandy blow into town, water rushed in – sending her, her husband and two grown kids scurrying to the second story of their home.

It only took a few hours for the storm to destroy the first floor.

The Popps thought they were prepared – they had moved their cars to higher ground, had flashlights, candles, food and water on hand, and moved most of their electronics up to their second floor.

Lidia Fajardo of Franklin Square, N.Y., and Elizabeth Gosioco of Bayside, N.Y., show off their disaster kits.

“I thought we were just going to get it on the floor, I didn’t think to empty out the cabinets or counters,” she said.

According to Jan Epstein, senior manager of the Allstate Foundation, the Popps are not alone. “Only 15 percent of Americans are prepared for a disaster, which means that 85 percent are not,” Epstein said.

The Allstate Foundation and Points of Light hope to change that. This summer, they launched a 14-city disaster preparedness tour to help people take action. Last Saturday, the tour came to Long Island at Eisenhower Park, taking place before a free KC and the Sunshine Band concert.

“We want to give people the tools they need to take care of themselves and their families,” Epstein said.

Hundreds of Long Islanders lined up to create more than 750 free disaster preparedness kits. The kits include flashlights that don’t need batteries, dust masks, ponchos, first-aid kits and whistles. Volunteers from Allstate and the Long Island Volunteer Center, part of Points of Light’s HandsOn Network, provided tips and advice as they gave out the items.

Allstate agent Christina Shaw, second from left, hands out supplies for disaster preparedness kits.

The event was just what friends Elizabeth Gosioco, Lidia Fajardo and Marilyn Jara – who are admittedly part of the unprepared 85 percent – needed.

With the recent storms hitting Long Island – Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and even the recent heavy rains that flooded many parts of the island just two weeks ago – they know that complacency is not an option.

“It happens so unexpectedly,” Gosioco said, shaking her head. She said she worries about what she would lose if her neighborhood flooded, her basement filled with 30 years of memories.

Now, the friends say they’ll take preparations more seriously. “This is a good start,” said Jara, pointing to their newly prepared disaster kits.

Diana O’Neill, executive director of the Long Island Volunteer Center, said she hopes that the event helps people realize that being prepared can offer some semblance of control at a time when many feel powerless.

“It’s up to us to be responsible for our preparedness, our response and the recovery,” she said.

Mary Halcott of Hicksville, N.Y., said that after Sandy, she faced extra challenges in caring for her elderly mother. “I came because I wanted to see if there was anything new to learn,” she said, adding she now knows how much water she should have on hand – one gallon per person for at least three days.

While the kits provide many items needed during a storm, Allstate agent Christina Shaw said it is only a start.

“Every family needs to really sit and think about their own personal needs – including medicine, how much water they may need – and really make it their own,” she said.

Shaw knows firsthand how devastating a disaster can be. She was six months pregnant with her daughter when five feet of water barreled into her home in Long Beach during Sandy. Her Allstate office was also without power, so she set up shop behind a Starbucks to help her customers file claims.

“Even if you weren’t directly affected or hit, almost everyone knew someone who was,” Shaw said. “We need to be prepared – especially because right now we are in the height of hurricane season.”

As for Colleen Popp and her family, it took them a year to renovate their home. Their neighborhood is still struggling to recover. Walking the quiet streets, many houses are still under construction, some have been leveled and others are still vacant.

“We were lucky. We didn’t lose our cars, we didn’t lose our jobs,” Popp said. “These are just things. And we are all fine.”

One Candle Destroyed Everything – Teaching a Lesson About Preparing for Disaster

Read about how folks in Maryland are preparing for disaster. To help your family take action, visit Good & Ready, where you’ll learn how to create a disaster plan, build a preparedness kit and more.

Robbie Horwitz reflects on the lessons she learned after fire destroyed her Linthicum, Md., house. (Click photo.)

The door to Robbie Horwitz’s childhood home was boarded up. That was the first thing she noticed when she returned from a hiking trip to the split-level house that she shared with her mom in Linthicum, Md., near Baltimore.

The windows were broken, too, and there was the deep, pungent smell of smoke.

Then Horwitz remembered: She had left a candle burning on a table in the living room.

Horwitz tears up as she recalls that day. The home “was the only place I had ever lived,” she says. But after the fire, “every object was covered with a greasy, dirty film. … I had this baby quilt that I had since I was little. That disappeared and it was irreplaceable. I felt like [the fire] ended a section of my life.”

Horwitz says her family wasn’t prepared. The smoke alarm did not have working batteries. Papers were scattered, the important ones mixed with those they didn’t need.

An event participant makes her way down the disaster kit assembly line, as volunteers help her complete her kit.

To prevent more stories like Horwitz’s, the Allstate Foundation and Points of Light have teamed up for a 14-city tour to encourage emergency preparedness. “Eighty-five percent of families aren’t prepared for a disaster,” says Shelva Clemons, an Allstate spokesperson. “We want to be in the community to raise awareness.” 

On Aug. 15, volunteers from Allstate and Business Volunteers Maryland, an affiliate of Points of Light’s HandsOn Network, helped people assemble 500 disaster preparedness kits – filled with first aid kits, hand sanitizer, empty water bags, flashlights and more – at the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore’s summer social in the city’s Inner Harbor.

While the band New Romance performed a catalogue of 80s hits and children blew bubbles nearby, volunteers explained to guests why each item is needed as they filled their bags. 

Althea West

Locals, as well as visitors from Pittsburgh, Houston and other cities, said that they were most surprised to learn that water that isn’t commercially bottled has an expiration date. It should be replaced every six months. Some were also happy to see that each kit contained a checklist showing items for a complete disaster kit.

For Dawn Reed, the event hit close to home. Reed’s aunt lost everything in Hurricane Sandy after her house flooded. She had to evacuate her home on Staten Island, N.Y., heading to Brooklyn to live with her daughter for a year while her house was rebuilt. (Click here to hear what Reed learned from her aunt’s experience.)

Sandy hit Marylanders hard too, especially in coastal regions. Many areas are prone to flash floods throughout the year because of the frequent thunderstorms that are common in the state. These flash floods, which are considered dangerous because people aren’t expecting them, occur within six hours of a rain event.

To prepare for these times when it’s a challenge to get to stores, Maryland resident Althea West keeps a stash of water and canned goods. “It’s a small one,” she says, adding that the little things that you set aside make a difference. West has learned from experience: She’s been stranded inside during blizzards in the past.

About the emergency preparedness event, West says, “Everybody needs this.”