EMERGENCY
PREPAREDNESS
SEPTEMBER, 2015
September is National Emergency Preparedness month, and our county- wide emergency committee, known as LEPC, would like to educate you (the public) as to what you should do to protect yourselves in the event of an emergency. Listed below are bullet points for important information along with some brief descriptions of what you can do.
Awareness: The Livingston County Emergency Preparedness Committee:
(LEPC)
LEPC: Who we are: One of my responsibilities as Presiding Commissioner is responsibility for Emergency Preparedness which I take very seriously. We have a committee for this task known as the LEPC which consists of me, our Fire Chief Darrell Wright who is our Emergency Management Officer for both the city and the county, as well as representatives from our hospital, health center, police department,
sheriff's office, RII schools, city council, mayor, county commission, Red Cross and other interested entities and parties. We meet quarterly to discuss emergency preparedness which includes conducting simulations of emergency scenarios.
What is an emergency?
An emergency could be one of a number of events or accidents, including weather, such as floods or tornadoes, a chemical spill, an explosion, a disease outbreak or biological threat, or heaven forbid even a nuclear bomb or accident.
What can you do to prepare? On September 11th the Constitution
Tribune will include in their Serve and Protect Insert important emergency preparedness information. We encourage you read the information carefully and to fill out the information on the insert including the section marked
"Family Plan". In addition, we will be placing more complete pamphlets at the Court House in the County
Clerk's office, in City Hall, the Health Center, the Library and at CMU.
Additionally, we will be airing information on the radio (KCHI and the Wave), speaking to groups about this subject as well as putting information on Facebook.
Key information: What can you do to prepare for an Emergency?
Make an Emergency Plan for your family: The insert we will be providing covers many more details but here are just a few things you can do.
- Smoke detectors: Have a sufficient number and make sure they work.
- Evacuation plan and meeting place. You should have an evacuation plan and a meeting place both inside and outside the home for family as well as a contact person in another town that every family member could contact in the event communications are not available here.
- Shutoff valves for gas, electricity and water. Know where they are and have the tools to shut them off.
- School Emergency Plan: Know your
school's plan for your children and how to reach them in an emergency.
- Practice and update your plan regularly.
Make an Emergency Kit: This should include the following:
- A complete first aid kit.
- Radio (battery operated), batteries, emergency tools, fire extinguisher.
- Water, canned or dried food and a hand operated can opener. You should try to have three days of food and water for each individual in the family. The rule for water is a gallon a day per person.
- Contact information for your family: This can include cell phone numbers; email addresses, next door neighbors etc.
- Emergency Kit for your cars: This can include first aid, cash, water, food, blankets, and a sleeping bag.
Listen for information: In an emergency it is important to get as much information as possible.
- Listen to the radio, television, look on the internet, read the newspaper and if these are not operable we have a local ham radio group that is prepared to help get out information in an emergency.
- Textcaster: Sign up for textcaster and link to textcaster for important weather, county and school information.
- Red Cross mobile apps: Smart phone users can text
"APPS" to 90999 and they will receive a text message with a link to the Red Cross Apps or you can go to
www.redcross.org/prepare/mobile-apps for all types of emergency apps.
- Report information and pictures to the Livingston County Emergency Management/Chillicothe Fire Department.
- Facebook page. This can help local authorities better understand and react better to an emergency.
Know where to go. In the case of an emergency, Livingston County has four shelters if a shelter is needed. These four locations are:
- Court House
- Fire Station
- First Baptist Church
- City Hall
We all hope an emergency never occurs, but when it does it is better to be prepared because your plan may save your life or the life of a loved one.
|
