SomeNetBlog

PREPARING FOR A TORNADO

Posted: March 16, 2008 10:29 am by n4ofa
Filed under: amateur radio, rant, weather

Aaron,

After last night I got to seriously thinking about you guys living in a area that has lots of severe storms and what COULD happen to your little stick house when the big bad wolf starts blowing. Simply going to a inner room and climbing under a mattress does not sound like preparation for a disaster.

FEMA has lots of self study courses that are free, I would encourage you BOTH look at them and take a couple. I need to take four of them for NIMS Certification if I plan on being deployed and being used by Emergency Management.

Here is one of the courses listed that you both should look at and then take the course including the final exam. Your eyes will be opened I am sure and you will find it changes some of your ways of thinking about what you would do. Please look at this valuable information and use it wisely.

I still think one of your best tools for emergency planning is using your Ham radio, you need a good radio that you know how to use, with necessary repeater frequencies stored with the radio, a way to always have power for the radio and finally a good antenna system. I think you heard last night the value of having many hams providing timely information during a event or disaster.

I encourage you to get a rig for the main car you would use to get out of Dodge’ and a antenna. Getting on the air every so often to keep out the cob webs and making sure the radio works is important, perhaps checking in the SKYWARN net would be mutually beneficial. Finally, you never know when you will really need some form of communication, imagine if cell phones and land phones are down, power is off, how would you feel? That would be a sad time to realize you should have got that radio………………….. I will be happy to help you with this project, I have a base antenna you can have and that is a start, charge the battery on your handheld radio and keep it where you can find it along with the mobile mag antenna. You can get another battery for backup, that would be a good idea…..Shelby would be a good place to find what you need. I liked the comment from the preparedness course listed below, ” • Being prepared can reduce fear, anxiety, and losses that accompany disasters.”

I just reviewed what I wrote to you and have decided to put this on my blog, perhaps someone will be moved to take a course or two and be better prepared and trained when disaster strikes.

Love Mike

http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is22.asp

IS-22 Are You Ready? An In-depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness

Course Overview

The “Are You Ready? An In-Depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness” has been designed to help the citizens of this nation learn how to protect themselves and their families against all types of hazards. It can be used as a reference source or as a step-by-step manual. The focus of the content is on how to develop, practice, and maintain emergency plans that reflect what must be done before, during, and after a disaster to protect people and their property. Also included is information on how to assemble a disaster supplies kit that contains the food, water, and other supplies in sufficient quantity for individuals and their families to survive.

There are real benefits to being prepared.

• Being prepared can reduce fear, anxiety, and losses that accompany disasters.

Communities, families, and individuals should know what to do in the event

of a fire and where to seek shelter during a tornado. They should be ready to

evacuate their homes and take refuge in public shelters and know how to care

for their basic medical needs.

• People also can reduce the impact of disasters (flood proofing, elevating a

home or moving a home out of harm’s way, and securing items that could

shake loose in an earthquake) and sometimes avoid the danger completely.

By reading and following the instructions in this guide you and your family can say, Yes, we are ready!

CEUs: 1.0