Week 2: Natural Disaster Emergencies & Your Child

Natural Disaster Emergencies: Being Prepared

Here in Southern California when we talk about natural disasters the first one to be discussed is earthquakes. We are certainly no strangers to the occasional rocking and rolling an earthquake can cause, but is your early childhood facility prepared in the event that a major earthquake event happens while you have children in your care? Not only that but what if that major earthquake also set off a tsunami? We have all seen what devastation an earthquake and tsunami can bring together, and if you live in the coastal of California, tsunamis are just as real as an earthquake.

If an earthquake or tsunami event were to happen in your area, are you prepared to lose power? Water? Cell Service? Hard-line phone service?  Are you prepared to move to higher ground? Possibly shelter-in-place? All of these are very real possibilities. Throw in the fact, that you could have young children in your care and it becomes very important that you and your facility are prepared.

Of course there are numerous ways to prepare for the event that an earthquake or tsunami do strike. Listed below are 5 ways you can prepare your early childhood care facility for an earthquake or tsunami:

1:         Mitigation

                        Mitigation is essentially attempting to reduce or eliminate the risk of hazards to people and structures due to a natural disaster (Robertson, 2013). Mitigation is crucial in the preparedness process because earthquakes are unpredictable. You could have thirty young children on the playground when an earthquake hits, and through mitigation and early preparedness you can reduce the risks they may face. Early mitigation very well could be the difference between life and death.

Tsunamis are slightly more predictable as there are numerous sensors set up within the Pacific Ocean, and a warning can be sent out.  However, even if a warning is sent out, it does not mean you will have much time. Mitigation in a tsunami event really becomes about knowing where you need to be. Gaining higher ground is always the goal in a tsunami event, and by gaining higher ground you can reduce the risk of injury or death.

2:         Communicate

                        Natural disasters are scary and confusing, especially to a young child. Take the opportunity to teach the children in your care about earthquakes and tsunamis. What should we do? Should we run outside? Should we listen to the teacher? Scream? Cry? This is an excellent opportunity to involve them in the emergency preparedness plan. Find books that will help them understand how to respond. Practice drills that show them what will help make a scary situation a little less stressful. Even better include parents in on this as well, so that they can practice at home.

Also, in terms of communication let parents know what they can expect if an emergency were to occur. Parents need to be reassured that in the case of a major natural disaster that they can count on you to care for their child as they would.

3:         Evacuation Procedures

                        Do your teachers know where they should go? Every early childhood facility should have a written plan that includes a map showing an emergency evacuation (Robertson, 2013). When designing an evacuation route, it is always a good idea to ensure that there are two ways out from the building. In the event that you are evacuating for a tsunami, do you know where your higher ground is? Is it in the building? A mile up the road? Also, if you do evacuate, who is responsible for grabbing necessary supplies? These are all questions that need to be addressed before an emergency event occurs. These evacuation procedures should also be discussed with parents so that in the event that the school does have to evacuate, parents have an idea as to where their young child will be taken to and where they can locate them later.

4: Survival Supplies

            Is your early childhood care facility equipped to handle the needs of children if you are forced to “shelter-in-place” for a time? Perhaps the earthquake and/or tsunami have made it impossible for parents to come get their children, or perhaps debris needs to be removed in order to evacuate the facility. Survival supplies will be crucial. A few suggestions would be: a three to four day supply of toilet paper, trash bags for extra waste, flashlights and extra batteries and of course food and water (Robertson, 2013). At my school we ask that parents provide their child with an “emergency food bag.” Inside it we ask that they put water, and non-perishable, sealed food items. Each bag is labeled, and then put in a central location by each classroom. Of course, a more complete list of suggested survival supplies can be found on FEMA’s website: www.fema.gov.

5: Educate Yourself

            There are a number of resources available to early childhood educators and parents that can help you in your quest to be prepared in case of a natural disaster. If you are interested in knowing more about early childhood education environments then I suggest you Google:

                        Head Start Disaster Preparedness Manual (Robertson, 2013)

                        Pennsylvania All Hazard School Safety Planning Toolkit (Robertson)

The FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) is also another excellent and useful tool educator and parents can use in order to create an emergency preparedness plan.

Natural disaster emergencies happen. We do not always know when they will, or how bad they will be, but it is our responsibility as early childhood educators to ensure that our facilities, classrooms and teachers are prepared to handle anything emergency situation that may occur. I would ask that after reading this blog entry that if you have questions regarding your early childhood development program and their plan for emergency natural disasters, ask! Most teachers and preschool directors are happy to answer any questions you may have about how they intend to keep your child safe during a time of crisis.

Reference:

Robertson, C. (2013). Safety, nutrition, and health in early education (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.