Job or Family in a Catastrophe?

[Raintree21]

The bottom line, which I have heard from day one, is that one should not expect the "government", federal, state or local, to come to your rescue, especially if the catastrophe is long term and widespread. If the response to Katrina is any indicator (and it was fairly localized)

I tend to agree.

For example, assuming there was a widespread major disaster and your agency had no capability of re-supply, how long would it take to exhaust critical supplies in your immediately accesible warehouse? (Remember, that "mutually supporting" agencies would be in the same/similiar situation.) The same can be said for any stockpiles of food and medicine that you have in at your house for your family.

How many emergency ppersonnel would remain on the job and for how long, versus taking care of their own family? One of my clients encountered that, when a tornado came through a trailer park and housing area several years ago. The security officers on duty left the plant, they did at least lock the gate, but they just left their post to go take care of their families. It was my understanding that several of the VFD personnel did the same.

Remember, blood runs thick, especially when it comes to family.

[Arctickat]

My priority is to my family and to ensure they are capable of taking care of their needs during my extended absence, even if it's just a phone call or a quick diversion to ensure their needs are being met. When I know that my family is safe I am better able to concentrate on doing my job and ensuring the safety of others. I'll be next to useless if I have no idea how my family is doing while I'm away.

Edited June 3, 2012 by Arctickat

[Raintree21]

To throw a wrench into your plans, it is an event that takes down phone lines and the electrical grid so communication is impossible (including cell phones) unless face to face or I suppose ham radios for those few who have them. I remember Hurricane Hugo in '89 we didn't have electricity or phones for 3 weeks and those on the Gulf Coast can testify more recently to Katrina's devastation and it's effects on the grid.

[Arctickat]

No wrench thrown into my plans.

[Chris Smith]

If any agrncy expects to continue in a disaster try should plan to support/shelter/protect the family of its staff.

[Just Plain Ruff]

My first priority is my family, unfortunately my job takes me 1100 or so miles away from my family on a weekly basis so my family is well able to shelter in place until I can make it back.

So if a big event happens, I'm taking whatever means it takes to get home. Be it walking or the rental car (avis be damned) and going home. My client will understand. If not then they can always find a new consultant.

By the time I get home, my family should have activated their full emergency plan we have in place, and NO I won't reveal that here.

[island emt]

We had this discussion at a regional chiefs meeting a while back.

My answer to the question of: what would you do if a major attack happened in the major city which is located 20 miles across the ocean from us, was that they would see the taillights of my camper heading North to my property up in the deep woods of northern Maine.. My Family and our dogs are way more important than trying to be a hero and ending up on the casualty list.

When asked about helping others who were not my neighbors, I explained that in the case of a nuclear dirty bomb scenario or biologic weapon release , the fewer folks in the area the lower the casualties will be. My job is not to protect folks from a large city, that we visit a few times a year.

I can be loaded up and on the way out of town in a very short time. Comes from spending years in the Navy and having 48 hr mount out times to respond to disasters.

[Arctickat]

If any agrncy expects to continue in a disaster try should plan to support/shelter/protect the family of its staff.

A great idea, even to designate certain resources to the sole task of ensuring the welfare of staff families. Question is, who do you include? Spouse and kids are a given. Parents? Aunts? Uncles? Cousins? Illegitimate children?

Does anyone out there actually work for a company that would actually provide this service?

[Richard B the EMT]

I was already retired when the Mayor of NYC ordered the level A evacuation, and all levels, A, B and C, of the Rockaway Peninsula last August. I'd cleared with an aunt for relocation of myself, Momma B, Lady J (the girlfriend), and her brother, but live in a level C section, so the full evac came as a surprise.

When I was still working, I worked 2 hurricanes, and the 1993 "Nor'easter" that flooded what would become my EMS station. In the '93 storm, they relocated the station's vehicles and equipment, but were not allowed time to move their POVs a mere block away to higher ground, resulting in at least 7 water destroyed POVs. The old station was almost at water's edge on Jamaica Bay. Momma B, Lady J and her brother, mother and father basically sheltered in place, at home, for those storms.

Just as a mention, the Hurricane and coastal evac in NYC happened barely a week aftger we were rocked by the "DC Earthquake".

[DFIB]

Family comes first. In the words of of Nicholas Earp; "Remember this, all of you. Nothing counts so much as blood. The rest are just strangers."