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Community Corner

We Need To 'Encourage a Culture of Preparedness'

Sunset Hills alderman says disaster planning is essential.

We have survived a lot of severe weather in our local area and in our region as a whole. It is good to feel somewhat “back to normal.” 

But as an elected public official in a small city that was directly hit by a , I continue to desire to strengthen disaster preparedness awareness.

It is not that I feel our first responders or our city department heads didn’t do a good job. They were great!

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It is more that I feel our citizens need encouragement to create in their individual neighborhoods “a culture of preparedness,” to borrow a phrase from retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore, who directed (rescue) military efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Honore has written a book that I highly recommend called Survival: How Being Prepared Can Keep You and Your Family Safe (ISBN # 978-1-4165-9901-2.) I bought it right here in Sunset Hills at Borders

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Honore stresses that people need to be prepared to wait three days or more for help from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency.)

Organizing on a neighbor-to-neighbor basis is necessary because roads and stores may be closed after storms. 

It is not a sign of pessimism or panic for people to get together and plan for rare events which require communal efforts to share resources on a small or large scale.  

It has as its priority being ready to care for one another if there is a major power outage, contamination of our local water supply, or a biohazard of any kind, let alone a tornado or earthquake.

Many of us who live in have had emergency experience, even if our homes were untouched last New Year’s Eve. 

I am a hospital chaplain who regularly ministers to people in crisis.

I have been trained and have participated in mass casualty emergency drills at work. I lived through a tornado in 1974 that caused significant damage to my parents’ home and could have injured my mother and me if we had not gotten to the basement in time. 

As part of my public service, I want to meet and discuss with other citizens how we can “talk up” disaster preparedness in more of our neighborhoods in a practical—not morbid—way. 

Some of our churches may already be setting excellent examples.

Meanwhile, I will write in PATCH about ideas that need to be shared.

My contact phone number is 314/842-2021, my e-mail address is sshillsclaudia@sbcglobal.net

Ideas welcomed!

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