Health & Fitness
Neighbors Work Together to Mitigate Disasters
Professional 1st responders are often overwhelmed after emergency/disaster. Palatine Emergency Management has a program where neighbors band together before a disater in order to be better prepared.
In light of the recent local flooding, residents of Palatine are encouraged to look into a voluntary program called "Neighbors Helping Neighbors" (NHN) offered by the Palatine Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) free of charge.
The NHN program acknowledges that disasters here in the Midwest; which could
be in the form of floods, ice storms, tornados, chemical spills, and or prolonged power outages, are incidents that would likely create multiple emergencies at the same time. Professional first responders; including police, firefighters, paramedics, and public works personnel would likely be overwhelmed during a disaster and would have to prioritize their responses. As in all emergencies/disasters, they would respond to those instances where they could do the greatest good for the greatest number of people. During the disaster and in the immediate hours and/or days that may pass before the first responders can get to your area, local residents and their neighbors will have to be self-reliant; taking care of themselves, their family and home, and then assisting their neighbors.
How does it work?
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All it takes is one motivated neighbor to personally invite their neighbors to their home for a 60 to 90 minute meeting to discuss neighborhood disaster preparedness. A representative from the Palatine Emergency Management Agency
will provide the program materials to facilitate learning the 9 step process to be taken immediately following a disaster, and if desired, will personally attend the meeting.
The first 6 steps focus on taking care of yourself, your family, and your
home. Specifically you will learn how to:
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. Take care of yourself, and loved ones
. Protect your head, eyes, hands, and feet.
. Shut off your utilities.
. Identify your household as being OK or needing HELP.
. Where to bring your fire extinguisher to share with the neighbors.
The remaining 3 steps focus on helping your neighbors, including:
. Going to an agreed upon neighborhood gathering site
. Forming teams and accomplishing assigned tasks such as canvassing
the neighborhood and rendering assistance as required, and
. Reporting back to the neighborhood gathering site.
During the meeting you'll develop a confidential profile of each household; persons with special needs, persons with special skills, special equipment etc, information that could be critical during and immediately following a disaster. At the conclusion of this meeting you will feel better prepared, and more confident that your neighborhood is prepared. Additionally, you will have met some new neighbors that you hadn't known before.
What's Next?
If you are ready to get started, or if you have any questions, contact
either of the following:
EMA Coordinatior Tom Smith@ ema@palatine.il.us or Nick Grasso
