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Tier IIA Safehouse

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  • #31
    That's what happened with Katrina- many elderly and disabled left at assisted living centers with no one to evacuate of care for them. People forget the caregivers are workers and workers don't always show up when the weather is bad. Particularly if they are fleeing with their own families.

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    • #32
      Originally posted by DonBelt View Post
      That's what happened with Katrina- many elderly and disabled left at assisted living centers with no one to evacuate of care for them. People forget the caregivers are workers and workers don't always show up when the weather is bad. Particularly if they are fleeing with their own families.
      Well, A and B.......and C.

      A: That's a background concern in the security field that a lot of managers don't think about until someone points it out to them.

      B: When my mother was alive and being taken care of at home by caretakers, I went through lots of measures and research in case utility services were interrupted to her home. Five gallon coolers to her place (Mom when she was well would say in case of emergency, they had plenty of water in the two hot water tanks her place had), water safe tablets, water safe taste good tablets, emergency phones, and so forth. When Texas was going through rolling blackouts, I was seriously considering having an emergency generator put in at her house. Didn't because the duration of perceived emergency didn't match having an automated generator in place with necessary exhaust vents since her caretakers were suppose to be taking care of her and not out trying to get a generator started.

      But a leaning of the consideration was that if things became so bad that the caretakers focus was to their families, then to have the families move in, stay at Mom's place for a while. Or grab Mom, grab the emergency phones, the first aid kits, and whatever else, and bug out in her station wagon. Call it however one might, but make Mom a very attractive part of the deal whatever the decision.

      Now all this thinking, planning, doing wasn't perfect. I was going through life trying to find answers as I could.

      C. Fortunately, I never had to put all this to the test further than the caretaker grabbing the emergency phone when Mom had to take an ambulance to the hospital.

      But looking at this piece of history and then considering classical history of the serfs retreating inside the Lord castle's walls in the event of peril, maybe that's what a Type IIa should be like. A safe place so when things get very rough, friends and family come to you, knowing there's a roof to sleep under, water to drink, lentils to eat.

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      • #33
        Originally posted by DonBelt View Post
        That's what happened with Katrina- many elderly and disabled left at assisted living centers with no one to evacuate of care for them. People forget the caregivers are workers and workers don't always show up when the weather is bad. Particularly if they are fleeing with their own families.
        One of the other things that people don't realize is that in many States you cannot force someone to evacuate. In other States you can only do it when a Governor authorizes it. For political reasons few Governors are going to force mandatory evacuations 3-5 days out in the projected path of a Hurricane. Thats one of those political balls of fire that is never popular, Personal rights, property rights, liability of the property when you make someone leave, the list goes on and on.

        I know that in Florida people in assisted living/nursing homes are different than people in the hospital. Patients can be forced to evacuate "We are taking Billy Bob in ICU and evacuating him to a hospital in Atlanta".

        Assisted living/nursing homes have residents. Just like someone in their own home/apt. Residents have rights. The manager of the assisted living facility can call the county EOC and ask for transportation for the residents to go to a local shelter. County workers are dispatched with vehicles, Those that want to go get on the bus and off they go. If someone refuses then the county worker has no choice but to leave them. Or, call a LEO who may be able to arrest them for violation of a mandatory evac order. Normally a 3d Deg misdemeanor. But LEOs are usually a little bit busy and the people that refuse are told that they are on their own.


        We run into this lots of times with old people that have spent their lives here.

        And quite frankly thats when teams like Zravers come in. The county has a limited number of people and a lot to do. They have other people to evacuate and other things to get prepared. Zraver, as an outside agency, goes to the EOC and they give him the "Check on and give these people one more chance".

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        • #34
          We also check shelters for access. For example schools... generally wheel chair accessible, but not if only the hallways are being used for sheltering. Refrigeration for insulin, handi-capped stalls, privacy, counseling etc. Outside of rescue work, I do disaster relief and am pretty much on call for disaster events that affect the disabled for a larger national charity. So for hurricanes we go in, try and get the disabled to ada compliant shelters (a lot of special needs shelters wont accept patients unless they have their own care giver with them), provide care where we can, coordinate needs up the chain and then transition straight into relief work.

          In the shelter once winds hit 50mph, its lock down time. No ambulances will run. But hurricanes also have massive pressure changes and this can induce labor... My disaster bag includes birthing kits. It also means you need to identify the soft spots like a diabetic who evacuated without their insulin quick and take corrective action before the shtf. On the plus side, even just a few emergency workers other than cops being present and available has a great calming affect inside the shelter itself. If people know that there is someone there to look after them they tend to stay calmer. Even if you're not a local.

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          • #35
            We keep a list of people dependent on oxygen concentrators and other powered medical devices so that we can check on them in an emergency. We will encourage them to go to the shelter area we set up, but if they won't we bring them O2. We get ice storms besides blizzards and hurricanes and the ice storms tend to be the worst. We were without power one year for almost 2 weeks. Not Katrina level stuff, but you see what gives out quickly.

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            • #36
              Ice storms and blizzards show you just how many people are not prepared to even get home, let alone ride out a major weather event.

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              • #37
                Originally posted by zraver View Post
                Ice storms and blizzards show you just how many people are not prepared to even get home, let alone ride out a major weather event.
                Every winter I am amazed at how many people fail to throw even basic items in their vehicles. It really isn't that hard to toss some old hats/coats/gloves, boots, water, and snacks into your car. The odds pretty decent that at some point you will get stuck and have to spend the night in your car or hike out. Being stuck in a snow drift or off of the road already sucks, why would you want to add dehydration and hypothermia to that situation?!

                The worst offender I see is the lack of water. For some reason people assume that you don't need water in cold weather. Guess what? When you are exerting yourself hiking though waist deep snow, digging your truck out, or pushing cars up hills you get dehydrated pretty damn fast!
                Last edited by SteveDaPirate; 01 Aug 14,, 18:26.

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                • #38
                  back when I was stationed at Ft Sill Ok, I kept a couple of sleeping bags, a portable propane stove, canteen cup and 2 MREs in the trunk of my car. Especially when we would make trips to OKC. Most of the locals didn't, I think my advantage was that I wasn't born or raised there. I'm a Florida guy, so I respected cold weather more than the people that had been around it all the time. They get complacent. Just like people from Fl get complacent about hurricanes.

                  Maybe the thing that stuck was that The first time I went out on a shoot as an instructor the weather went to hell real quick. It was in Oct. In the AM when we rolled out, it was warm enough for nothing but cammies. No thermals or field jacket. By 3PM the base was shut down because we had over a foot of snow on the ground. This worm weather boy saw just how quick it can get ugly. And planned appropriately

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