The Preppers get communication.

When hams think of communication, they think of ham radio as the ONLY form of communication during disasters.



When Survivalists think of communications, they think of ham radio as the BEST form of communication during disasters.



While hams have the Amateur Radio Emergency Service and Skywarn, the Preppers think about themselves, their family, their friends, their neighbors.





Ham Radio, The Only Form of Communication After T-SHTF | Prepper-Resources.com - The Ultimate Prepper & Survivalist Blog.:



Are you serving the public with your ham radio station?  Do your neighbors know?

Things To Remember When Everything Is Going Wrong.

"Truth be told, happiness is not the absence of problems, but the ability to deal with them."



'via Blog this'



Do you see any insight here?



Emergency Managers excel in dealing with life's little problems.



How do you deal with yours?

What can you learn from "Into the Storm"? #Skywarn #AltusOK #OKready

Into the Storm is a popular movie now showing in the Altus Area.

From an emergency management standpoint, there are some educational moments in the movie.

1.  During a large disaster, traditional responders, i.e. Police, Fire, Emergency Medical, are overwhelmed.  If there's only one fire truck for 50 fires, for example, your closest help may be your neighbor.  This played out in real life during Hurricane Iselle when folks noted the sound of sirens was replaced, almost overnight, by the sound of chain saws.

If your neighbor or classmate has a mother who was a nurse and they paid attention, that's magnificent.  Otherwise, you AND your neighbor should take Community Emergency Response Team training so you can help one another.  A First Aid and CPR class from the American Red Cross.

2.  Communications will fail.  This was portrayed time and time and time again in the movie.  The movie, however, did not show how Amateur Radio could have helped.  When the cell phone towers crumple from the storm or become overloaded with use from people who really did have foresight to have multiple ways to get their batteries charged, amateur radio operators will be able to talk to one another.  

Check out a local club and study materials from the American Radio Relay League.

There was NO mention of SMS text messaging in the movie.  It seems that the text side of cellular service is less congested in disasters.  Those messages may go through when a phone call can't.

Do you know how to text?

3.  Would you really evacuate a school in school buses and then evacuate those students into a storm drain?  Schools are getting better and better at the severe weather game.  A better plan would have been to be weather aware and adjust events to days when the killer of all tornadoes is not on the table.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency offers templates and training for school districts nationwide.  It's free.  Your taxdollars are working here.

How is your school, daycare, church applying FEMA information?  What is their plan?

What did you learn from the movie?  What will you do different because of the thinking it caused?

Ladies love this felon's mugshot #SMEM

Ladies love this felon's mugshot
http://feedly.com/e/E_wCDS2w

Sometimes Social Media has the strangest results.

Rain Barrels

Altus --- "People in Jackson County are thirsty for rain barrels," said Lloyd Colston, Emergency Manager for the City, after the partnership with Coca-Cola to give away 100 rain barrels to Jackson County residents.

The 100 free barrels that were available were distributed in a very short time.

"Obviously, had there been 250 more barrels, the volunteers could have moved them," said Wayne Cain, Jackson County Emergency Management director.

People have been asking where to buy barrels, said Colston.  As well as recommending local stores such as Atwoods and Fox Lumber, two online vendors are:

*  The Rain Barrel Depot (404) 829-2647 therainbarreldepot.com

*  UpCycle Products (815) 735-9583  http://www.upcycle-products.com/

"There may be future availability for another Coca-Cola barrel project," said Colston, "but I encourage people who NEED a rain barrel to obtain one from the vendor of their choice."

Thanks to Elizabeth Gray, Altus City Administrator, who developed the idea of obtaining rain barrels, as well as the Coca-Cola Company for providing the RainRecycle Kits with their free barrels.

For more information about emergency management, please call Cain at (580) 482-0229 or Colston at (580) 481-2260 or visit http://altusem.blogspot.com on the Internet.

Coca-Cola and local emergency management volunteers distributed 100 rain barrels to residents of Jackson County Tuesday. (Emergency Management photo)