How To Be Prepared For A Natural Disaster – Technology Tips 8 Things Every School Should Know About Disaster Preparedness Stephen Noonoo Nov 7, 2017
In the past few months, hurricanes have battered Houston, battered parts of Florida and left a path of destruction across the Caribbean. In October, wildfires tore through California’s wine country, destroying more than 14,000,000 homes and causing billions of dollars in damage.
How To Be Prepared For A Natural Disaster
It’s been a bad year for many people in the country – and the schools that serve them have not been spared.
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“We had been out of school for two weeks,” said Barbara Nemko, superintendent of the Napa Valley Unified School District. “The first week because of the fire; twice because the weather was so bad. ”
At a recent Fusion meeting, Nemko joined other disaster-affected community leaders to share their stories of loss and recovery, as well as best advice for helping others prepare for the unexpected.
In the case of Hurricane Harvey, there was enough warning to give the city’s schools a little time to prepare before it hit. Houston ISD already had a hurricane preparedness list, and followed it to the letter, said Lenny Schad, the district’s chief information officer.
On that list are tasks that must be completed 72, 48 and 24 hours before the storm. Among them: communicating with vendors to put them online when any furniture is damaged and needs to be replaced, as well as plugging and moving furniture from the floor to the table. Staff also reviewed insurance information and FEMA procedures.
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Schad says the time to review policy is before disaster strikes. Insurance companies need information—in the form of photos and reports—when claims are filed. But the type and condition can vary. “For insurance, you have to make sure that you’re tracking the data and putting it in a way where the insurance company can use the data that’s coming in. Having someone track it and put it in the right format makes the process easier,” he said.
Watch: Nemko, Schad and Rabinovich share how schools can step forward even in difficult times.
More than a decade ago, when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the Coalition for School Communications (CoSN) realized that many school districts were unprepared to deal with the crisis, says CEO Keith Krueger. technology in their areas. “Even today, technology is not a help,” he says. It uses salary and education. You have to prioritize what’s important. ”
For this reason, CoSN has developed a list of 10 steps to manage disasters, and to update it regularly as regions learn new lessons after their emergencies.
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“Water damage is the number one problem that FEMA says results from natural disasters,” says Krueger. After a flood, cables and wires may be unsafe to use, he added, adding that a new one-page planning document was recently added to address the issue.
District officials say the only time to plan is ahead; during the rainy season there is not much to do but walk outside. “Believe it or not it was probably the quietest time from a crew standpoint because we really couldn’t go anywhere, and we were just chasing the wind,” Schad says. “Once the wind clears, and you have a chance to get out, that’s when the chaos breaks out.”
Shortly after Harvey, Florida began preparing for Hurricane Irma. Leonid Rabinovich, executive director of the Miami-Dade Public Schools Department of Educational Technology, says that while Miami was spared from the outright disaster, the district is still prepared for the worst. Among the items on the pre-storm checklist was a call to Lenny Schad to compare policy and insights from the Houston experience. In the end, it turned out to be priceless.
“No matter how prepared you are for the event, people who have been through a disaster like that will always have something to offer that you wouldn’t have thought of,” says Rabinovich. “Our CIO has a good relationship with Lenny Schad. Thanks to Lenny, he said we avoided many unexpected problems. ”
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In some cases, there is no time to prepare. He says: “The fire that burned in Nemko province on Sunday night and Monday morning” was an accident. ” His district had faced extraordinary situations in the past – especially earthquakes – and they understood the importance of taking quick decisions.
“It was kind of simple,” says Nemko. “We knew the schools had to be closed.” In a county with six different leaders, the potential for miscommunication was high. However, teams from each district in Napa Valley County regularly met and made decisions, such as school closings, as a group.
In the uncertain days before and after Hurricane Irma, Miami-Dade kept the lines of communication as open as possible. In addition to providing information to local media, the district used its phone tree to send parents automated messages, while superintendent Alberto Carvalho updated his Twitter account regularly. Inside the region, workers traded phone numbers but also used other means of communication, opting for the popular WhatsApp app.
Since many families have ended up moving out of the district, the district has also encouraged students and teachers to connect face-to-face when they cannot be physically present. “One of the lessons we learned from that was to do more than just do something about how we can use the power of technology to get kids back to school,” says Rabinovich. “It took people two weeks to get back to Miami, so we wanted to keep learning.”
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“Even if you want to be a source of information, you can also use Twitter and Facebook as a way to get help,” says Schad. During the post-storm crisis, Houston ISD used social media to reach out to its community. But instead of seeking material support, they asked for volunteers, especially those with technology skills, to help regional teams assess the damage after the storm. Just 16 hours after the call to action, more than 300 volunteers had provided help. The extra staff made a big difference as schools were able to complete inspections and reopen sooner.
“Don’t be afraid to use [social media] to help them, because you have everyone in your community who wants to attack,” Schad says. “It’s a two-way street.”
When students finally returned to school in Napa Valley, the district was waiting for them with mental health counselors to help them deal with the effects of trauma and loss.
“For the most part, it came back very interesting,” says Nemko. “The schools are intact and the kids are happy to be back,” he said. However, the district plans to provide training for parents and students on how to deal with stress. Nemko says that even though the students didn’t lose their homes, they were still affected. “The entire town of Calistoga was evacuated. To wake up suddenly from deep sleep at two in the morning with fire knocking on the door and end up in the shelter – this was painful. ”
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Despite poor visibility and poor air quality, the Napa Central Office of Education was not at risk during the fire season. That allowed skeleton staff to come in for important jobs, including the county payroll. “The last thing we want is teachers who might be out of housing and not getting their paychecks on time,” says Nemko.
In Houston, a center was created to monitor the storm and make critical decisions. Plans were made to prepare food and essentials and, before the storm started, the workers were asked to go home. “Before the storm hit, those people were going to be there, we let them go home and take care of their families, because we knew they weren’t going to be there,” Schad says.
Stephen Noonoo (@stephenoonoo) is a K-12 writer where he often works with contributing writers. Reach out to stephen @ .Despite the increase in natural disasters over the past several years, it’s hard to believe, “It’s never happened.” But don’t know what to do when a potential disaster—a hurricane, tornado, flood, or fire—befalls you? Are you prepared for emergencies that often come without warning, such as an earthquake?
“To keep you and your family safe, we encourage you to do three things: Get supplies, be prepared, and be informed,” says American Red Cross national spokeswoman Jocelyn Hillard.
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The Red Cross responds to disasters every eight minutes. Most of them are house fires, and you only have two minutes to get out safely, Hillard explains. If a fire is near, you can move quickly.
Sophia Chang says, “I have a friend in Boulder, Colorado, who witnessed the fire in December 2021. She was very upset that many elderly neighbors on the block did not move because they were waiting for the firefighters to come to their door.” , MD, MPH.
“The fire was moving too fast for that – even more
