October 29th, 2013 marks the one year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy.
Even with most of our New Jersey towns all cleaned up, and most of us back to our usual routines, we still feel the tinge of worry as this date approached. Will we be subject to another natural disaster? Are hurricanes in our near future, or will we have to deal with tornadoes or early blizzards? While we may be asking all of these questions within our heads, the children who witness the aftermath of Sandy are asking out loud. We tend to forget how children are effected by these types of events. Some were uprooted from the only homes they every knew, and the only schools they’ve ever attended, in order to move to a safer town. For an unfortunate few, this was their life for months. The real question is: how to we prepare our kids for any disasters that may come up in the future? We make sure we have have an emergency preparedness campaign in place.
Get Ready. Get Safe. is an emergency preparedness campaign created by Save The Children, where they list some very simple things you can do to help your family and neighborhood in case of another natural disaster.
The best way we can help our children is to not only make sure our home is ready for a natural disaster, but be sure that their schools, daycares, and after-school programs are prepared as well. Do you know if your child’s school has an emergency preparedness program created? If you are not sure, ask. If they don’t, help create one! Get Ready. Get Safe. is a great website to reference when talking with your child’s school about their program. Below is a quick checklist of what’s needed when creating your own emergency preparedness program.
Great post!! Thank you for sharing such important information!